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IT gives us pleasure that we can, in the present Magazine, turn the of our readers to the portrait of a man upon whose actions the eyes of all Europe, and a great part of Asia, are, at this awful crisis, also turned with admiration and anxious solicitude; a man who, under the guidance of Providence and the sanction of his Monarch, has merited eternal fame, and universal gratitude, for having stopped, in some degree, the torrent of barbarous warfare, which in its devastating course threatened to overwhelm and annihilate the kingdoms of the North, as it had the kingdoms of the South.

There is, says the poet, a tide in human affairs,

"Which, taken at the flood, rolls on to fortune."

On such a full sea the Corsican Usurper had long been afloat: long had his nefarious ambition burst through all restraints, and long had he attempted to become the King of Kings, the sole arbiter of the world.

It would be to little purpose to endeavour, by his actions, to trace which of those persons of ancient times, whom historians have agreed to term HEROES, he intended to imitate; he seems, while in his success he has exceeded most, in his mind to possess the bad qualities of

all.

Few events have excited more concern, indeed more consternation, than those which were included in the accounts received of the transactions in Prussia. When Bulletin after Bulletin recorded (though certainly with some exaggeration,) how her armies wither

that sensibility inherent to British bo soms induced us to participate in the sufferings of our allies; while that honest indignation which French barbarity excited, roused the generous feelings of the nation, which seemed absorbed in one passion; namely, abhorrence at a species of warfare new in the annals of civilized Europe, that spared neither age nor sex, infants nor captives; which beat down churches and defiled altars; which pervaded even the closets of ladies, and extracted political secrets from the toilets of Princesses.

Great, therefore, was the public exultation, when the Imperial Alexander opposed his arms as a shield to the Prussian Monarch, and the power of Russia as a barrier to the progress of the Gallic Usurper; and still greater, when his armies, under the conduct of General Bennigsen, were crowned with success. We have already given the portrait of the illustrious Emperor who is considered as the deliverer of Europe; and we congratulate ourselves that we are now, by the favour of an ingenious friend, enabled to lay before the public a brief notice of the history of the veteran Chief who has so faithfully and successfully carried into effect generous purpose of his Royal Mas

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ter.

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LEVIN AUGUSTUS THEOPHILLUS DE BANTELN, Baron of Bennigsen, General in Chief of the Russian Armies, is descended from an ancient Hanoverian family, formerly of celebrity in the Church; his ancestors having beca

successively Deans and Canons of Halberstadt for some generations. Levin Frederick, his father, preferred the military to the ecclesiastical path, and, passing through the several gradations, died Colonel of the Duke of Brunswick's Guards. His mother, who previous to her marriage had borne the title of Baroness of Rauchaupt, is still living, and has attained the age of eighty-three years.

The subject of this Memoir was born in the year 1745. When ten years old, he became Page of Honour to the Elector of Hanover; and in 1759 was presented with a commission as Ensign in the Foot Guards. What rank he subsequently attained in this regiment we know not; but find he quitted the army in 1768, on his marriage with the daughter of the Baron of Steinberg, Hanoverian Ambassador at the Court of Vienna. On the death of this Lady, in 1773, he entered into the service of Russia, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. The Empress Catherine the Ild gave him the command of a corps of Cossacs, which he resigned for the regiment of Narva: but not until after the successful expedition against the rebel Pugatschew. He afterwards served in different regiments previous to his being appointed Colonel of that of Kiowie, at the head of which he distinguished himself in the war with Poland. At the battle of Mir, General Bennigsen had the command of the left wing of the Russian army, and behaved so much to the satisfaction of the Lm. press, that she sent him the insignia of the Order of St. Wolodimir, accompa nied by a very flattering letter his conduct and bravery were likewise very conspicuous in the Persian war. He was present at the storming of Wilna in the revolutionary war in Poland, anno 1794; soon after which he married a very beautiful and accomplished

Polish Lady, named d'Andzeykiening. About this time the Empress, to evince her continued approbation of his conduct, promoted him to the rank of General of Cavalry; and in 1799, he obtained the appointment of Civil and Military Governor of Lithuania.

With respect to his family, we cannot say to a certainty how many chil dren he has. One son is an Officer in his own regiment; another we understand to be in England. A daughter by his first wife, since married to Baron Leuthe, became the protegée of Caroline Matilda, the unfortunate Queen of Denmark, during her residence at Zell. At her death, in 1775, she strongly recommended this young lady to the protection of the Countess Walmoden, who most amply fulfilied the intentions of her royal mistress. An only brother of the Baron's, who was lately in London, and lodged at Jaquier's Hotel, is a General in the Hanoverian service.

In person, General Bennigsen is tall and well made; the fire of his eye, and his expressive countenance, mark the energies of a mind intent on “ Immortal Fame." As a disciplinarian, he is extremely strict and severe; otherwise, he is affable and condescending. He affects splendor in his manner of living, and is very generous to those who, by talent, or attention to their military duties, he considers deserving of his favours. By a constant attentrou to these points, he has acquired, in a superior degree, not only the love, but the esteem of his army.

Besides the Order already mentioned, and that of St. Andrew, with which he was invested after the battle of Eylau, he is decorated with those of Alexander Newski, St. Anne, St. George of the second class, and with the Prussian Order of the Black and Red Eagle.

To the Editor of the European Magazine.

SIR,

HE author of the Memoir of Miss Pope, which I read with great pleasure in your last Number, is right in expressing himself doubtfully with regard to that Lady's having been the only Actress honoured with a royal command in this reign."

The following play-bill will prove that Mrs. King had received the same graeous distinction from Their Majesties:

By Command of Their Majesties. At the THEATRE ROYAL, in DRURY LANE,

This present Wednesday, Oct. 18, 1775, AS YOU LIKE IT. Touchstone, by Mr. King. Orlando, by Mr. Reddish. Jaques, by Mr. Jefferson. Duke Senior, by Mr. Hurst.. Duke Frederick, by Mr. Bransby. Oliver, by Mr. Davies. Amiens, (with songs,) by Mr. Vernon. Silvius, by Mr. Whitfield. Adam, by Mr. Moody. Calia, (with the song,) by Miss Jarratt. Phoebe, by Mrs. Davies. Audrey, by Mrs. Bradshaw. Rosalind, (by Command,) by Mrs. King, (Being her second appearance upon this stage.) The Farce this evening was The Irish Widow.

I highest honour on the present age, T is a circumstance that confers the

that literary researches have been more intimately blended with commercial pursuits, and even with military exertions, than in any former period, with out excepting the times of the ancient GRECIANS and ROMANS. The human mind in the latter part of the last century, impelled by the genins of a few individuals, seems to have acquired a new stimulus, which has urged it to researches that are not only extremely curious in themselves, but extremely beneficial to mankind; as under that impulse antiquarians have, from sources either wholly upervaded, or very slightly traced, been able to extract a great store of materials, which, while they elucidate the ancient historians, poets, and geographers, also reflect very considerable light on the Mosaic cosmogony of the world, and the systems of the ancient Mythologists.

The sacred fire of the MAGI, which descending to their successors, the GUARS, had smouldered through ages,

seems to have burst forth with pristine brilliancy among the English in Hindustan; the flame of literature, fauued by men of the greatest talents, appears once more to have illuminated the East, and by a regular progress spread to the West: so that, as in commerce, the benefits to both countries promise to be reciprocal.

Among those friends to mankind, Mr. Hastings stands the foremost. To the encouragement which literature received during his wise and vigorous Oriental administration, we owe many of the advantages above enumerated": we are therefore glad that our kind Correspondent has, in the subsequent notices, afforded us an opportunity to join our mite of esteem to the national stock of gratitude for his long services, and the general admiration of his ta lents and his virtues.

SCIENTIFIC NOTICE.

Major Csborne, of Meichet Park, in the county of Wilts, who erected there some years ago an elegant Hindû temple in honour of the virtues and distin guished merits of that great character, Mr. Hastings, has lately presented to the Honourable the East India Company, for a place in their Oriental Library and Museum, the following Hindu Antiquities, which were collected during his residence in the Upper Provinces of Hindustan.

A throne supported on four low columas, the whole richly carved in fine It appears to have been used for religious purposes by the

alabaster.

Hindus.

which occasionally was made to play on An altar furnished with a fountain, the apex of the prolific emblem of nature, personified in the person of Siva, the third person of the Hindu Triad. Besides the principal figure, there is sitting on the altar an image of Brahma, of Ganesa, of the sacred bull of Siva, and of a female goddess supposed to be of another female, perhaps intended for Bhawani the consort of Siva, with that the consort of Brahma. This altar is also of pure alabaster, and highly ornamented.

A figure of Budha with seven heads carved in a copper coloured alabaster.

FEMALE SPORTING.

An hunting party made by the

Emperor Francis I, in 1755, there were 23 persons, three of whom were ladies; the Princess Charlotte de Lorraine was one of them. The chase

Of which a faithful representation and description were miren in our number idr Deember, 1804, Vol. 424, p. 448.