We said," In our empire of China, none of the great officers of state are empowered to transact state affairs upon their own authority; in respect to such affairs, no distinction is made between the greater and the lesser. They must, on all occasions, be regularly submitted to his Majesty; his gracious pleasure must be solicited, and his conclusive decision respectfully awaited. When the latter is received, his Majesty's ministers may then reverently proceed to the execution of the same; but none can, on such occa sions, so far presume as to do any thing of their own accord. Among the great officers we have mentioned, the six officers who attend on his Majesty's person, and the six ministers of state, are the most exalted in dignity; none in the service of the government can be held to be superior." counterfeit the current coin, are put to "Our Emperor," we said, "inquires, At Saratof, the Embassy was met by a deputation from the Khan of the Tourgouths, bearing presents from one of the Tourgouth Princes. The Embassy thence set out for the head-quarters of the Tourgouths, upon the banks of the Lake Manuto, where they were received by the Khan A-yu-ke with suitable honours : The tai-kis and priests (says the amYee-fan Go-fan Na-si-che then said,— "In our empire of Russia, when consul-bassador) were sent out by 4-yu-ke to meet us upon the road, and so conduct us tations are held upon great affairs of state, to the place prepared for our accommodaour Cha-han-Khan personally attends and tion. Accordingly, upon our approach, assists at the council. In China, when we found all the tai-kis, the priests, and you have consultations upon state affairs, the several chiefs of such of the Man-goudoes your emperor attend in the same te tribes as are subject to A-yu-ke, drawn up in lines upon the road, together with their followers, to pay their respects to manner?" We replied,-" In China, when any important affairs of government are to be taken into consideration, the princes, and the other great officers of the state coun cil, meet to consult, and also to decide thereon provisionally; they then report their proceedings to the Emperor, and await his conclusive determination.' But in our country the Emperor has no such custom as that of assisting personally in deliberations of this nature." Of the Russian code at that period, we are told, that,— According to the laws of the Russian empire, all persons who have been found guilty of treason, rebellion, or any similar offences, are, executed by dividing their bodies and limbs into four quarters. Those who are guilty of deserting in time of battle are beheaded. Those also are beheaded who rob or wound travellers upon the highways, or who at any time commit murder. Persons who kill or wound each other in an affray, are made to suffer an injury equal to that which they had inflicted. Those who kill in any case with a sharp weapon are put to death. Those who cut and wound others are punished by chopping off the hand. Those who are guilty of a theft of government stores, are punished more or less severely, in proportion to the value and amount of the property stolen: some have their ears or noses cut off, some are branded, some banished. Those who us. Their flocks and herds were also collected and displayed, and tables, covered with provisions, laid out before us. All the people had come out to a very considerable distance to meet us; great numbers of them even knelt down at our horses' heads, and in that posture offered their various eatables to our acceptance; and in all things they testified to us the utmost respect and attention. In the afternoon, Ayu ke Khan sent Ko-va, one of the priests who was immediately attached to his person, and others to wait upon us, and to say,-"Our Khan proposes to-morrow, it being a fortunate day, to have an interview with your excellencies, and to receive in form the edict of the most excellent Emperor." 'Accordingly, on the 2nd day of the moon, we proceeded to wait on the Khan, taking with us the Imperial Edict, and followed by the tai-kis and priests of the Tourgouths in procession, and by our guard of Russian soldiers and officers. On arriving at A-yu-ke Khan's great tent of ceremony, we dismounted from our horses, and advancing with the Imperial Edict, delivered it in person. A-yu-ke received it kneeling; and then, turning towards the north, reverently wished the great Emperor of the East every felicity. This ceremony being concluded, we then proceeded to explain to him his Imperial Majesty's pleasure. A-yu-ke Khan having expressed himself very grateful to his Majesty, invited us to sit down on his right hand; the music then began to play, and an entertainment was served up before us. A-yu-ke Khan having afterwards in- · quired of us respectfully concerning the venerable age of his Majesty, we informed him that our Emperor was born in the year Kia-Vu, and was at this time in the 61st year of his age. A-yu-ke Khan then inquired, what was the number of the imperial princes, his Majesty's sons. We said, "those of his Majesty's sons who usually accompany him on his hunting excursions, some of whom are decorated with the titles of Ching, Vang, Kiun Vang, Pei-le, Pei-tse, are sixteen in number; how many more sons his Majesty may have, who, on account of their youth, have not yet gone beyond the precincts of the palace, we know not, as under such circumstances we can have no opportunity of seeing them. A-yu-ke Khan then inquired the num ber of the imperial princesses, his Majes ty's daughters. "We said, "We have heard that above ten of his Majesty's daughters are already settled in marriage; but, respecting the number of those who may be still within the precincts of the palace, we know nothing." A-yu-ke Khan continued his inquiries by saying, "I have understood that his Imperial Majesty, in order to avoid the summer heats, visits, every year, his country residence, and there partakes of the diversion of hunting. What is the name of the place? how far is it from the capital? when does his Majesty proceed to it? and when does he return from it?" We replied, "the place which our Emperor visits, in order to avoid the summer heats, is called Je-ho or Ko-la-ho-tun. It is seven or eight days' journey from the imperial city. Every year, about the latter end of the 4th, or the beginning of the 5th moon, his Majesty sets out upon this journey. In the mid-autumn, or im mediately at the last day of deer-hunting, which occurs in the course of the 9th moon, his Majesty always returns to his capital." octavo of six hundred pages, on the balance of power, printed uniformly with the best edition of Hume and Smollett, to which he intends it as a supplement! when our friend interrupted us, by adding, well, I suppose you reviewers imagine, that you can Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.' all warlike and obedient to a strict discipline, so that when they march into action they always fight desperately, and never harbour a thought of retreating. A-yu-ke Khan further inquired reBut it is otherwise with the soldiers of the specting the mountains, rivers, trees, and Tourgouths; they are lawless and disorother vegetable productions of that coun- derly. When they are brought into actry. We added; "Je-ho is situated be-tion they readily draw their bows and fire yond the boundary line of the Great their guns, if the enemy is at a distance; Wall. There are there both high moun- but if the enemy is near them, they think tains and great rivers. The water is pe- of nothing but running away. There is culiarly sweet and excellent. The woods, no vigour or steadiness in their operaas well as all other vegetation, are ex- tions. If, by chance, they are at any that we would wish to do this,-when We were just permitted to hitch in tremely luxuriant. Various kinds of time victorious, the only object they aim beasts and birds are also found there in at is plunder. Ten years ago, our Khan our friend hastily bade us good morngreat abundance." engaged the services of ten thousand of ing, and left us to make the best of A-yu-ke Khan continued his inquiries, the Tourgouth troops, and attached them our subject. We are not, however, saying, "how do the people plough and to his army; but, although he opposed insensible that an index does seem a sow the earth in your Emperor's coun-three thousand of them to a party of no very strange subject for a review; but, try? do the times of sowing depend on more than three hundred Swedes, they when our readers are told it is an inthe rainy seasons; or are the fields over- were unable to gain the victory.' flowed artificially." dex to a work which was the first of its With this extract we close the Nar-kind in England,We replied, "in the empire of China, rative of the Embassy, which might enjoyed a high reputation for a pe -a work which has we plant or sow all the five species of have been rendered much more inter-riod of ninety years, and that the Ingrain, and also the various kinds of vege-esting, if the Chinese names had not dex is prefaced by an historical narratables. In some places the fields are overflowed by art, in others they are wabeen so much retained as to render tive of the origin and progress of this tered by the rains only, and sown accord- the narrative often unintelligible. The work, they may then, perhaps, admit ingly." Appendix of translations has nothing that we have had some reasons for makto do with the subject of the Narrative, ing it the subject of a critical notice. and is by no means calculated to give a good idea of Chinese literature, although, we presume, that was the view with which it was inserted. After an exchange of civilities, and the business of the mission was accomplished, the Embassy set out on its return, under very favourable circumstances, as to the season, weather, &c. if the following description is at all says, It has been well observed, that 'the periodical publications of every country are the archives in which the learned and philosophers hasten to deposit their discoveries and the result of their researches.' Such being the case, we General Index to the Gentleman's shall take a very brief view of the oriMagazine, from the Year 1787 to gin of literary journals, before we pro1818, both inclusive. With a ceed to notice Mr. Nichols's Preface. Prefatory Introduction, descriptive of the Rise and Progress of the Ma- of the seventeenth century, may be recAmong the most laudable attempts gazine, with Anecdotes of the Pro-koned the plan then first adopted of jector and his early Associates. By acquainting the public, through the John Nichols, F. S. A. 8vo. Vols. medium of a journal, with what passes III., IV., & V: London, 1821. in the republic of letters. This honour WE dare say many of our readers, on belongs to M. de Salles, Ecclesiastic seeing the title to the present review, Counsellor of the Parliament of Paris. will be as much surprised as a friend His journal was received with universal to whom we intimated our intention of applause, and was soon followed by others, on the same plan, in Italy and Germany. In 1682, Mr. Mencke began the Acta Eruditorum Lipsiensia, which was carried on several years with increasing celebrity. I have lately been at San-pi-ti-li-making an Index the subject of a critipu-eur (St. Petersburg), and have had an cal notice. What!' he exclaimed with interview there with the Cha-han Khan. a sneer, review an index! why I never The district of St. Petersburg belonged heard of such a thing! you night as formerly to the kingdom of Sweden; but well review the Army List, the Court my sovereign, the Cha-han Khan, having Guide, the Price Current, Lackinginvaded and conquered it, has built and When Bayle and Le Clerc fixed fortified a city there, which, after the ton's new Catalogue, a Tavern Bill of their residence in the Low Countries, Khan's name, is now called St. Peters- Fare, the Ready Reckoner, or the the first at Rotterdam, and the other burg. This city is laid out on a plan ex- London Directory. Review an index, at Amsterdam, they were much surceeding in extent the city of Moscow, and that, too, when works of so much prised to find that in Holland,-which and the Khan has now made it his esta- value and interest are teening from might then be called the mart of learnblished residence. This year the Khan the press,-not to mention my own tri-ing and the rendezvous of learned men, has fought another campaign with the fle, which, like a petition for Parlia-in consequence of the freedom of the kingdom of Sweden, and has taken from mentary Reform, was, on being pre-press, the number of booksellers and the Swedes twenty-one ships, one general sented, ordered "to lie on the table," immense libraries, public and private, officer, and eight hundred soldiers. Just now, the French and the other nations where it has remained for more than have joined the Swedes, and are assisting two months unnoticed!' We were them in the defence of their towns and about to reply, (though not to retort cities. The soldiers of these nations are about his triffe,' as he called a bulky that, in such a country and with such advantages, no person had as yet thought of publishing a literary journal. M. Le Clerc immediately commenced one, which he continued down to 1727. initial and final letters of the names | dote, always added Wilcox was one In 1710, M. de Pontchartrain, Lord The first projector of the Monthly Magazines; Th' invention all admir'd; and each how he We come now to the preface of the veteran editor, Mr. Nichols, who gives an interesting account of the work he has long and so ably conducted. The Gentleman's Magazine was commenced in January, 1731, by Edward Cave, of whom Dr. Johnson, in his biography of hin, has said few lives would have more readers, if all those who received improvements or entertainment from him should retain so much kindness for their benefactor as to inquire after his conduct and character.' The primary object of the Magazine at its commencement was to give a monthly view of all the pieces of wit and humour and intelligence daily offered to the public in the newspapers. The next object with Mr. Cave, was to publish the parliamentary proceedings, a rather dangerous practice, as the orders of the house were at that time against it. He had the plan some time in contemplation before he adventured to act upon Mr. Cave now commenced offering prizes, sometines of 501. at other times of a gold medal, for the best poems on subjects that were fixed. The success that attended this work produced a number of competitors; but, of nearly twenty imitators, the London Magazine, which was supported by a powerful association of booksellers, was the only rival of any standing. It obtained a considerable sale for some years, and was continued until 1785, when it ceased to be published. · In 1798, Dr. Johnson transmitted his poem of London' to Mr. Cave, as the production of an author then under very disadvantageous circumstances of fortune,' and calling on him to encourage learning and relieve distress by his usual generosity.' Mr. Cave was the first publisher that it; at length he boldly dared, and be- engaged the pen of Johnson, and a lastgan in January, 1732, by giving the ing and intimate friendship subsisted king's speech only. In June, he gave between them. It is not a little remarktwo protests of the Lords, and in the able, however, that the Doctor, on first Commons the Speaker's thanks to Lord coming to town, applied, among others, Gage, May 31, 1732, with his lord- to Mr. Wilcox, then a bookseller, of ship's reply. But in July, the Parlia- some eminence in the Strand. Mr. ment being then prorogued, he ven- Wilcox, after surveying his robust tured to introduce the proceedings frame with a significant look, said and debates of the last session of Par-young man, you had better buy a liament,' which were given with the porter's knot. The great moralist was Inscription beneath a portrait of Mr. Cave. not offended at the advice given him, but when he used to relate the anec -ED. Mr. Nichols inserts several of the Doctor's letters to Mr. Cave, by which it appears that his circumstances were far from flourishing. In one of them, dated April, 1788, in which he mentions having written a Greek epigram to Mrs. Carter, who he says ought to be celebrated in as many languages as Louis le Grand,' he adds I would leave my epigram, but have not day light to transcribe it.' In another letter, dated October in the same year, he concludes 'I am, Sir, your's, impransus, S. JOHNSON.' Though this letter concludes with a fair confession that he had not a dinner, yet his benevolent heart was not insensible to the necessities of & humble labourer in literature, Mr. Macbean, whom he strongly recom mends to Mr. Cave, as having good materials for a military dictionary, which he would write at twelve shillings a sheet. The earliest known communication of Dr. Johnson to the Magazine was a copy of Latin verses to the editor, in March, 1735, and several other articles with the preface to that year's volume were from his pen. The ability and nice adaptation with which he could draw up a prefatory address was one of his peculiar excellencies, and the preface of this year was a striking proof of his talents in that line. The parliamentary debates continued to form a regular part of the Magazine, until there was a rigid order of the house on the 13th of April, 1738, to probibit it. Some expedient was now become necessary, and the caution of Cave suggested to him a popular fiction. In June, 1738, he prefaced the debates by what he chose to call An Appendix to Captain Samuel Gulliver's Account of the famous Empire of Lilliput;' and the proceedings in Parliament were given as Debates in the Senate of Lilliput,' sometimes with feigned denominations of the several speakers, sometimes with designations formed of the letters of their real names, in the manner of an anagram. Dr. Johnson now became the coadjutor of Guthrie in writing the debates, and, in 1740, had the sole management of them, which he continued for some time. Mr. Nichols, speaking on this subject, sayi Six days only before his death, this present writer, from whom he had preincomparable friend requested to see the viously borrowed some of the early volumes of the Magazine, with a professed intention to point out the pieces which he benefit his magazine. If he heard of month.' Among the early friends and correspondents of the Magazine, during Cave's life, was the ingenious but unfortunate Samuel Boyse, author of a poem, entitled, The Deity,' of whom the following melancholy particulars related to Mr. Nichols, by Dr. Johnson, not long before his death: were without it, his coat would be taken Inscription for St. Lawrence's Cave, Mihi meus nec malè grata, had written in that collection. The books lay on the table, with many leaves doubled down, particularly those which contained his share in the Parliamentary Debates. And such was the goodness of Johnson's heart, that he solemnly declared," that the only part of his writings which then gave him any compunction, was his account of the debates in the Gentleman's Magazine; but that at the time he wrote them, he did not think he was imposing on the world.-The mode," he said, "was to fix upon a speaker's name; then to make an argument for him; and to conjure up an answer." He wrote those debates with more velocity By addicting himself to low vices, than any other of his productions; often among which were gluttony and extravathree columns of the magazine within the gance, Boyse rendered himself so conOn the death of Cave, the Magazine hour. He once wrote ten pages in a sin temptible and wretched, that he frequent came under the immediate guidance gle day, and that not a long one, begin-ly was without the least subsistence for of Mr. David Henry, who had married ning, perhaps, at noon, and ending early days together. After squandering away, in the evening.' in a dirty manner, any money which he a sister of Mr. Cave, and a nephew of had acquired, he has been known to pawn the original projector. In 1778, Mr. In addition to the parliamentary de- all his apparel. Dr. Johnson once col- Nichols purchased a considerable share bates, Johnson wrote a variety of ar- lected a sum of money to redeem his of the proprietorship, and in January, ticles for the Magazine, on almost all clothes, which, in two days after, were 1783, the Magazine was enlarged and subjects, and the prefaces for many pawned again. "This," said the doctor, advanced in price, and some of the early years were by him; and yet, with all his "was when my acquaintances were few, talents and his industry, and he was and most of them as poor as myself. The volumes were reprinted. In 1799, the extraordinary in both, he had to strug- money was collected by shillings." In price was raised to eighteen-pence, and in 1899, to two shillings, at which gle hard for a very humble mainte. that state he was frequently confined to his bed, sitting up with his arms through price it has since remained. Mr. Ninance, and he was now and then ap-holes in a blanket, writing verses, in or- chols, in his preface, has principally plying to Cave for a guinea, with all der to procure the means of existence. confined himself to the history of the the submissiveness of poverty. It seems hardly credible, but it is certain- Magazine, previous to the time that he In 1747, complaint having been ly true, that he was more than once in became its editor, speaking with due made in the House of Lords, against that deplorable situation, and to the endodesty of its subsequent career. Mr. Cave, for printing an account of of his life never derived any advantage from the experience of his past sufferings. the trial of Lord Lovat, in the Ma- Mr. Boyse translated well from the gazine, he was taken into custody, French, but by the time one sheet of the reprimanded by their lordships, and work was done, he pawned the original. imprisoned some time. Dr. Johnson's If the employer redeemed it, a second time now became too much occupied sheet would be completed, and the book with his Dictionary, the Rambler, &c. again be pawned; and this perpetually. to contribute much to the Magazine. He had very little learning; but wrote Mr. Cave was the publisher of the verse with great facility, as fast as most would write prose. He was constantly Rambler, the sale of which was very employed by Mr. Cave, who paid him by the hundred lines, which, after awhile, his employer wanted to make what is called the long hundred. A late collector of poems, (Mr. Giles,) says, he was informed by Mr. Sandby, the hookseller, that this unhappy man was found dead in his bed, with a pen in his hand, and in the described. act of writing, in the same manner as above This circumstance Dr. Johnson assured me was not true; it being supposed, that in a fit of intoxication, he was run over by a coach; at least, he was brought home in such a condition, as to make this probable, but too far gone to give any account of the accident.' inconsiderable, and seldom more than five hundred; it is remarkable, and a curious trait of the age, that the only paper which had a prosperous sale, and may be said to have been popular, was one which Dr. Johnson did not write. This was number 97, which was said to have been written by Richardson. In 1751, a material change took place in the compilation of the miscellaneous part of the Magazine. Selections from other periodical publications were gradually laid aside, and the miscellany was rendered in a great degree an original work. Cave continued to improve his Magazine until his death, in 1754. It had been his favourite and his most successful speculation. He had it much at heart, and it has been said of him, that he never looked out of his window but with a view to The usual signature to Boyse's communications in the Magazine, was either Y. or Alcæus. Mr. Nichols has preserved a letter from him to Mr. Cave, dated from a spunging-house, in Grocers' Alley, in the Poultry, requesting half-a-guinea to pay for his lodging, and get him some victuals, as He has, however, given a list of its contributors in its latter period, which includes almost every name in the least distinguished in the annals of science and literature: and, notwithstanding the numerous and very able competitors with which the Gentleman's Magazine has had to struggle, it still maintains its rank and its reputation. We have hitherto only noticed the preface; and we shall now say a few words of the Index, which appears to us to be copious, and distinct, and systematically arranged. There are four indexes; the first is to the essays, &c.; the second to the poetry; the third to the names of persons; and the fourth is an index to the engravings. Annals of the Coinage of Britain and its Dependencies. By the Rev. R. Ruding. (Continued from p. 234.) DURING the turbulent reign of Henry III. various abuses had accumulated, of which none was more injurious than the adulteration of the coins, for its mischievous effects extended even to the lowest of his subjects. The regulated produce of his mints was clipped and diminished to less than half its le early as the latter end of the seventh century, by Ina, King of the West Saxons, in the introduction to his laws. Edward the Black Prince had the principality of Aquitain and Gascony The power of coining was also granted by King Edward to his fourth son, John, King of Castile and Leon, Duke of Lancaster, but of his money nothing satisfactory is known. gal weight, so that foreign merchants abroad without the King's special li-of William I. They were used as would not bring over their commodi-cense, and prohibited the exportation ties, and every thing that was sold be- of good money, on pain of death and came very dear. On the accession of the forfeiture of goods. The melting Edward I. he hastened to repair these of money to make vessels, &c. by goldevils, and began by inflicting severe smiths, was also restrained. In the punishment on all those who deteriorat-year 1331, it was determined that half-conferred on him, with the privilege of ed the coin. He was particularly se- pennies and farthings should be coined, coining monies. Under the authority vere on the Jews, whom he seized in with one-sixth of alloy, or 3s. 4d. in of this grant, he struck various coins of every city and burgh in England on 20s. Notwithstanding these regula-gold and silver. On these coins he inthe same day, the octave of St. Martin, tions, the scarcity of money continued. variably styles himself, Primogenitus 1278,-their goods were forfeited to A gold coinage was made in the year Regis Angliæ, et Princeps Aquitathe King, and many of them executed. 1343, the only one for a period of nine- nie. A new coinage took place in 1279; ty years. It was of three sorts; that is, exchanges of money were appointed in one coin with two leopards*, each piece various places, and the currency of to be current for six shillings, and to be clipped money strictly forbidden. Se- of equal weight with two petit florins of veral other regulations were also made Florence of full weight. Another respecting the coinage, which were in piece of one leopard, and another piece In the reign of Richard II. the some cases very oppressive. The style of one Helm, being respectively the warden, master, and other officers of the of Edward, upon the obverse of his half and quarter of the larger coin, and Mint, were examined before the Lords coins, is Rex Angliæ, Dominus Hiber- of proportional value, The type pre-of Parliament, as to the state of the niæ, which latter title he first introduc- sented upon the largest of his coins, coinage, when they severally delivered ed upon the money of England, though an impression allusive to the royal arms their opinions at length. The result it had appeared upon the great seal of of England; whilst the half bore a man- was a proclamation to prevent the exour monarchs from the accession of tle on which his shield was displayed, port and encourage the import of moKing John. The reverse of his mo-quartering the arms of France and ney. The current value of the Scottish ney is ornamented, if that term be money was reduced one half, but the applicable, with the unmeaning 'poor commons,' as they styled themcross and pellets. His Irish moselves, petitioned that it might be ney is distinguished from the Engbanished the realm altogether. The lish by the triangle, which encloses melting of money was prohibited; but, the head. His Anglo-Gallic coins in 1396, a singular grant was issued to have on the obverse, his name, spelled Margaret, Countess of Norfolk, and EDWARDVS, or EDOARDVS, with the D. B. Goldsmith, of London, licensaddition of REX only. They were all ing them to melt down groats, half struck, as appears from the inscription groats, and sterlings, to the amount of on the reverse, in his Earldom of Ponone hundred pounds, and to make thieu. The custom of stamping the thereof a silver vessel, for the use of the moneyer's name upon the coins, began said Margaret, notwithstanding the to grow into disuse in this reign. statute. England; and the smallest piece was On the English coins of Edward III. Edward II. ordered that the money should be current at the proper value which it bore in the reign of his predecessor. He also made some severe regulations respecting clipped and base money, which, however, still continued to multiply. The style which this monarch used upon his coins differs from that of Edward I. merely in the manner in which the name is written, which is either EDWA or EDWAR In every other respect his English money is exactly similar to that of his father, as is also his style upon the great seal. The same remark applies to his Anglo-Gal-ney. lic money. One of the first measures of Edward III. was to enforce the ordinances of his father and grandfather, relative to the corruption of the lawful coins, and the introduction of base money by foreigners. He issued a proclamation, that no moneyer, or officer of the Mint or Exchange in London, should go The words DEI GRATIA appear now They were inscribed upon his The representation of Richard II. upon his coins does not differ from the busts of his three immediate predecessors. His name is written RICARD, or RICARDYS, with the title of REX ANGLIE ET FRANCIE, and DOMINYS HIBERNIE et AQUITANIE. The last title appears only on his gold coins. On the reverse of his silver money, is given the place of mintage. During this reign, the Irish are said to have had little money, and to have merchandized chiefly in cattle. When Mac Murrough, an Irish chief, met the Earl of Gloucester, Richard's commander-in-chief, he was mounted on a horse which cost him, as it was said, four hundred cows. Henry IV. repealed many of the statutes of his predecessor, relative to the coinage. The coins which he struck before his thirteenth year, were of the same weight as those of the preceding reign, bat the subsequent coins were of |