through a punctilio of honour, from a defect of the law in this particular.'

Mr. Pollen wishes that a law were in force to prevent an adulterer and adulterefs ever marrying together after conviction, because, as he very justly obferves, it might be a means of preventing many adulteries, for adulteries are often committed with a view of after-marriage. He goes, perhaps, too far in faying that fuch a law might prevent frequent murders, as an adultrefs, unless legally convicted, would not by fuch a law be prevented from marrying whomfoever fhe pleafed, could the murder her husband fecretly; but the might be tempted to commit that horrid crime, through fear of being convicted and of being reftrained from marrying by fuch a law.

He thinks that the detriment to population which might ac erue from the prevention of fuch marriages is of no infportance, because no good to a nation can be expected from the illue of two fuch profligates; but of this we confefs we entertain fome doubt, as it is not certain that the defcendants of fuch perfons would inherit their faults.

sdf our author's arguments are not conclufive, we have nevertheless met with entertainment in the perufal of his book, as he has collected many of the ancient laws and customs relating to the punishment of adulterers. For the entertainment of thofe of our readers who have not examined thefe fubjects, we fhall make fome extracts from this part of his work.

Death was one mode of punishing adulterers. A law of the Romans authorized a husband to kill his wife if he caught her in the act of adultery. And Lyfias declares that [in a Jaw of Areopagus] it is exprefly faid, not to condemn fcr murder that man who, if he catch an adulterer with his wife, fhall take upon him this revenge. And a law of the Wifigoths enacted, that if a husband killed the adulterer with the adulterefs, he fhould not be accounted guilty of homicide.

By another law of the Wifigoths, even if a father killed his daughter, whom he had taken in adultery in his own house, he was not to incur any penalty or reproach.

Nay Solon allowed any man to kill an adulterer when he took him.

Mofes commanded, if a woman that was only betrothed was lying with another, both of them fhould be stoned to death.

Among the Athenians and the Bohemians, beheading was executed on adulterers. And it is fait, that a certain king of Tenedos published a law, that if any one took an adulterer, he should cut off his head with an axe, and that, his own fon

being taken, and he who took him afking the king what he must do, he answered, Put the law in execution.

The emperor Opilius had always the bodies of the two perfons guilty of adultery faftened together and burnt alive.

In old Saxony, if a married woman breaking the marriage contract committed adultery, they fometimes forced her to end her life, being hanged with a halter fastened by her own hand, and over her body, fet on fire and burnt, they hung her feducer.

• Conftantine ordered that a wife guilty of adultery should be thrown into a nunnery, giving her husband a power of taking her out again within two years, if he thought proper if the abovementioned time elapfed or the husband died before he took her out, he ordered her to be fhorn, and to take the habit of a nun, and to abide in the fame nunnery during her whole life.

⚫ Solon made the following law in respect to wives. He would not fuffer a wife with whom an adulterer had been caught, to be drest out; but if she were dreft out, he bade any one that met her, to tear off her cloaths.

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Again by a law of Athens it was thus decreed. When the husband has taken the adulterer, let it not be lawful for him to cohabit with his wife, but if he do, let him be accounted infamous.'

When the Cumeans took a woman in adultery, they brought her to the forum, and made her stand in the fight of every body on a ftone. Then fetting her upon an afs, they led her round the city; after that, she was made again to stand on the fame ftone, and all her life-time was reckoned infamous, and nicknamed the afs-rider. And they looking from thence on the stone as impure, anathematized it.

The adulterer too when taken had his fhare of public difgrace. Among the Pifidians, he was led about the town fit, ing upon an afs. Among the Lepreans, he was carried bound through the crossways for three days together. Among the Gortynians, he was publickly brought through the city to the magiftrates crowned with wool.

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The Egyptians ordained that if a man had prevailed on a married woman to commit adultery with him, he should receive a thousand lashes.

• Tacitus fpeaking of Germany informs us, that there were very few adulterers in fo numerous a people, the punishment for which was at hand, and allowed to husbands. The husband having ftript her [his wife] naked, and cut off her hair before her relations, turn'd her out of doors, and whipt her through every street.

In ancient Saxony, if a married woman, breaking the marriage contract, was guilty of adultery, fometimes a female troop being affembled the women led her round about, whipped through the streets, beating her with rods, and goading her with small wounds, fent her from town to town bloody and torn, and still there met her fresh tormentors, drawn by their zeal for chastity, till they left her either dead or fcarce alive.

At Athens when they caught adulterers in the fact, they tied them neck and heels, made bald their pofteriors with hot afhes, and then thruft up their bodies radishes of the largest fize.

A

The Egyptians commanded the nose of an adulterefs to be flit, being of opinion that the who fet herself off to gratify an unpardonable incontinence, fhould have taken from her whatever most recommended her beauty.

• Canute made this decree: if a wife, the husband being yet alive, be convicted of having an illicit commerce with any other man whatever; let both her nose and her ears be cut off.

Zaleucus, prince of Locris, made a law, that the adulterer's eyes should be put out, of whofe confummate justice there is the following remarkable account. When according to his own law, his fon was to be deprived of both his eyes, being found guilty of adultery, and the whole city, out of regard to the father would have had the young man releafed from the penalty, he for fome time oppofed it. At last, being overcome by the intreaties of the people, having firft pulled out one of his own eyes, and then one of his fon's, he left to both the use of fight. Thus he gave the law its due measure of punishment, dividing himself equally between the compaffionate father and righteous law.giver.'

There are fome other punishments mentioned in this work, but those we have quoted are fufficient to fhew the deteftation in which adultery has conftantly been held. We do not wish to see the severity of fome of them copied here; although we should with great fatisfaction fee fome law enacted which might prevent the frequent commiffion of a crime which is productive of fo many pernicious confequences.

Mr. Pollen has given us a hiftory of marriage, in which he has interfperfed feveral quotations from the ancients, as well from the poets as the profe writers. Some of these are not much to the purpose, but the greater part show that the inftitution has generally been accounted honourable.

XIII. The

XII. The Antidote; or an Enquiry into the Merits of a Book, intis tled, A Journey into Siberia, made in MDCCLXI. By the Abbé Chappe D'Auteroche. 8vo. 35. 6d. Leacroft.

THE original, of which this is a free tranflation, was written as it is fuppofed by a Ruffian nobleman, in French. The author appears to be a perfect mafter of that language, having either acquired that accomplishment in his travels, or having a native of France to correct his French. For there are at present among the Ruffian nobility, men both of great abilities, and likewife fuch as are well converfant with the various European languages, especially the French; owing chiefly to the late emprefs Elizabeth's predilection for that nation. The author feems to be a very sprightly writer, with a peculiar vein of humour and a good tafte for the polemical ftyle, which, conducted by a truly patriotic fpirit, carries our writer often beyond the limits of calm controverfy, and betrays fometimes an animofity and acrimony which is ill becoming a man of a liberal education, and who on account of his employ at court, is expected to be poffeffed of more polite and refined manners. Our fair tranflator has endeavoured to foften thofe too harth expreffions, and to take off the edge of the too keen, and we may really fay often too low and harsh recriminations, without, however, depriving it of the humorous fprightlinefs, and of that spirit which is confpicuous through the whole of this performance.

But we shall fay no more on this head; but permit the au thor and tranflator to speak for themselves.

The 25th day of March the Abbé arrives at Wia ka-he is fo obliging as to accept of a dinner Madame de Perminow offers him he leaves her at eight in the evening-fhe provides him with lanterns and flambeaux-he continues his road, and immediately upon this, p. 45, he fays, " as often as I got upon any eminence, I stopped to take a view of the circumjacent country." He has forgot that Madame Perminow's lanterns and flambeaux teftify his travelling by night; fo that he either did not stop upon the eminence, or, if he did, he was little the better for it. He fays, "the country is only cul tivated round about the villages." The fnow must have been ftill on the ground, because the Abbé was travelling in fledges; how then could he fee whether the ground was cultivated or not? A certain proof of its being fo, is, that it furnishes with corn the government of Archangel, part of the provinces between Cafan and Tobolsk; and about Wiatka there are immenfe diftilleries of brandy. After a few more overturns, he

reaches

reaches Troitzkoie on the 26th, where he has his fledges repaired. Here a fresh inftance offers, of the Abbé's great goodness of heart-he falls afleep in his fledge during the night-he wakes fome time afterwards, and finds himself alone, As he was fenfible his companions had no reason to be pleafed with his ufage of them, fear feizes his great foul: he fufpected no less than that his fuite had deferted him in the midft of the fnows: his confcience told him he deferved it: but he foon found that his attendants, in fpite of his ill-ufage of them, both in thought, word, and deed, were not fo ill-natured as himself; and that, on the contrary, they had been fo attentive as not to disturb his fleep, when they went to warm themselves. At this moment, Abbé, I would not chuse to have you draw a comparifon between them and yourself; you would be too great a lofer; a good conscience is feldom attended with a foul fo full of dark fufpicion.

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The Abbé, with no great fweetness either of temper or countenance, roufes his fervant, whom, as well as the other attendants, he found lying by the fide of young girls, (a good anecdote for the academy); the fervant, accuftomed to his ill humour, probably exculpates himfelf by alledging the temptation; and the Abbé ends this important narrative, by faying, "I was obliged to put up with this affair." Did you obferve, reader, how the Abbé's ill-humour was foftened at the mention of the pretty girls? He affects to be gallant in many parts of his book here he makes a virtue of neceffity, Having made up the quarrel with his people, (he repeats my people as often as poffible, to give him confequence, though he.., had but one fervant among them; the reft were his fellowtravellers) and having found his piftols, he fets out, armed cap a pié, as becomes a man of his exemplary courage.'

The acceffion of Peter III. is an event, which deferves to be reprefented in its true light, as it makes part of our modern hiftory, and is, however, very little known in this part of the world. The Abbé mifreprefents it at the outfet, and our author thus fets him to rights.

The Abbé fays, "At the instant of her death Peter commands, and is acknowledged emperor." A mighty wonder. indeed! twenty years ago the oath of allegiance taken to the emprefs. Elizabeth, acknowledged her nephew, the grand duke, her fucceffor. It is very aftonishing, to be fure, that at, the inftant of her death he should command, and be acknowledged emperor. Is it not the fame in France, Monf. d'Auteroche? The moment the breath is out of your king's body, the dauphin "commands, and is acknowledged.", The next fentence is worthy of notice: The empress his VOL. XXXIII. May, 1772.

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wife