to the earth five hundred houses, they left about thirty poor shops, in the midst of the ruins, whose owners it is their daily practice to defraud. False in all their publick engagements, as well as in their private treaties, they issued an ukase, inviting Greek merchants to settle in the town; but no sooner had these deluded people fixed there with their families, than the soldiers pulled down the houses about their ears; using, at the same time, other int dating measures, to compel them to higher duties, than any even of the Russians themselves have paid, to whom no exemptions had been accorded. Thus insulted and plundered, the oppressed Greeks demanded permission to leave the peninsula; which was positively

refused."

"To describe what Baktcheserai was, it would be necessary to convey ideas at least adequate to the present appearance of its ruins: and this is very difficult. The savage and wanton barbarity of the Russians found in the magnificence of this capital wherewith to exercise, in its full scope, their favourite passion for destruction. The city was divided into several departments, of which the Greek colony alone occupied offe entire and extensive valley. This they entirely demolished, not leaving one stone upon another. The palace of the Khan, in the centre of the town, was that in which he usually resided; but he had a favourite and more pleasing retirement in a magnificent edifice, most delightfully situated beneath a mountain, upon the sloping side of a beautiful vale. This they so completely erased, that without a guide to the spot, no one can discover even where it stood. Of the rest of the city not above one third now remains. Were I to detail half the cruelties, the extortions, the rapine and barbarity, practised by the Russians upon the devoted inhabitants of the Crimea, and their deluded Khan, the relation would exceed belief. I have the authority of one of their commanders, whom I dare not name, for asserting, that when the Mullas, or Tartar priests, ascended the minarets at mid-day, to proclaim the noon, according to their usual custom, the Russian soldiers amused themselves by firing muskets at them; and in one of these instances, a priest was killed. The repugnancy with which every English reader will peruse an account of such enormities, may lead him to doubt the veracity of the representation; although given as it was received from an eyewitness of the act." P. 433-4, and 466-7.

We forbear to pursue the exact

thread of this passage, and recount, in Dr. Clarke's words, the history of the Khan's treatment, as we have not room for it, and the subject is not so unknown as he seems to think. Potemkin was the author of the measure; but he acted with the entire concurrence of his imperial mistress. By the treaty with Turkey, Shahin Gherar, of the family of Khans, who had been detained at Petersburgh as a hostage, was placed on the throne of the Crimea. Intriguers were placed about his perSon, who urged him to every act that could alienate the affections of his subjects. By their instigation, he introduced foreign usages, drained his treasury, and imposed the most odious taxes. All this the Russian envoys dilated upon to the nobles; and thus succeeded in creating a revolt, which forced the Khan to fly. He was then induced to ask assistance from Russia. An army was marched to restore him; and every one was put to death, whose influence could become formidable, under pretence of having assisted in the rebellion. Vast numbers were compelled to leave the country; and the unhappy prince was forced to order his nobles to be stoned to

death, in presence of the Russian army, for having rebelled at the instigation of the Russian embassy. Ruined in the estimation of his country, the Khan was speedily required, by his powerful ally, to resign his crown, to leave the peninsula, and to sign a declaration, that his whole family were rightfully deposed. He refused; and was told, that he should be allowed an establishment at Petersburgh, with a court, pension, and titles, and the entire control of his own person and household. Our readers will, doubtless, recollect, here, the treaties of Bassein, Oude, and Madras, by which, after nearly the same course of events, the Peishwah, and the nabobs of Oude and the Carnatick, were so generously, and with such

a nice regard to the law of nations, as well as their own convenience, permitted, in return for their sovereign authority, to enjoy the undisturbed regulation of their seraglios. But the topick is invidious, and we hasten from it. The Khan persisted in refusing those tempting offers; and was dragged, by force, to a miserable hamlet, on the river Oka, seven hundred miles from Petersburgh, where he was kept a close prisoner, and not even permitted to visit that capital. Sunk in despondency and wretchedness, he begged to be given up to the Turks, that he might be freed from misery, by death, The Russians, at last, took compassion on their victim, and exposed him on the Turkish frontier, where he was seized, sent in irons to Rhodes, and beheaded. Mr. Eton, in the crusade, which he preached against the Crescent, under the name of a "Survey of the Turkish cmhire," says "the Khan retired to Kaluga" [p. 323.]; as if, says Dr. Clarke, the liberty of retiring was ever known in Russia; and, in order to express the closing scene of the prince's career, which we have just been faintly sketching, the same correct and impartial writer tells us, that the Khan" quitted Russia, and retired to Constantinople." [p. 308.] He terms the right of the Russians to the Crimea "sacred;" and, in a fervour of enthusiasm, exclaims, the mouth is unholy which dares to arraign it." This zealous author, however, admits [p.. 327.] the ex.pulsion of 75,000 Christians, by the Russians, almost all of whom perished in the deserts of Nagay! We shall now show in what manner, a conquest thus made, has since been treated...

"If it be now asked, what the Russians have done with regard to the Crimea, after the depravity, the cruelty, and the murders by which it was obtained, and on that account, became so favourite an acquisition in their eyes, the answer is given in few words. They have laid waste

the country; cut down the trees; pulled down the houses; overthrown the sacred edifices of the natives, with all their publick buildings; destroyed the publick aqueducts; robbed the inhabitants; insulted the Tartars in their acts of publick worship; torn up from the tombs, the bodies of their ancestors, casting their relicks upon dunghills, and feeding swine out of their coffins; annihilated all the monuments of antiquity; breaking up alike the sepulchres of saints andans, and scattering their ashes in the air.“ Auferre, rapere, trucidare, falsis nominibus, imperium: atque ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem apellant!"—

in the speech of a poor Tartar, who, one "There was something very emphatick day, lamenting in his garden, the havock made among his fruit trees, by a severe frost, said: We never used to experience such hard weather; but since the Russians came, they seem to have brought their winter along with them." P. 471,

472.

Nor is this mere declamation and general description. The following extract gives the evidence collected by the author himself. Indeed, it contains the testimony of his senses.

"Fifty families are, at present, the whole population of the once magnificent town of Caffa; and, in some instances, a single house is found to contain more than one family. The melancholy devastation committed by the Russians, while it draws tears down, the cheeks of the Tartars, and extorts many a sigh from the Anatolian Turks, who resort to Caffa, for commercial purposes, cannot fail to excite the indignation of every enlightened people. At Caffa, during the time we remained, the soldiers were allowed to overthrow the beautiful mosques, or to convert them into magazines, to pull down the minarets, tear up the publick fountains, and to destroy all the publick aquaducts, for the sake of a small quantity of lead, which they were thereby enabled to obtain. Such is the true nature of Russian protection; such the sort of alliance which Russians endeavour to form with every nation weak enough to submit to their power, or to become their dupe. While these works of destruction were going on, the officers were amusing themselves in beholding the mischief. Tall and stately minarets, whose lofty spires added such grace and dignity to the town, were daily levelled with the

ground; which, besides their connexion with religious establishments, for whose maintenance, the integrity of the Russian empire had been pledged, were of no other value to the destroyers, than to supply a few soldiers with bullets, or their officers with a dram. I was in a Turkish coffeehouse at Caffa, when the principal minaret, one of the ancient and characteristick monuments of the country, to which the Russians had been some days employed in fixing blocks and ropes, came down with such violence, that its fall shook every house in the place. The Turks, seated on divans, were all smoking; and, when that is the case, an earthquake will scarcely rouse them: nevertheless, at this flagrant act of impiety and dishonour, they rose, breathing out deep and bitter curses against the enemies of their prophet. Even the Greeks, who were present, testified their anger, by similar imprecations. One of them, turning to me, and shrugging his shoulders, said, with a countenance of contempt and indignation, Exúba! SCYTHIANS! which I found, afterwards, to be a common term of reproach; for, though the Greeks profess the same religion as the Russians, they detest the latter as cordially as do the Turks, or Tartars. The most lamentable part of the injury thus sustained has been in the destruction of the conduits and publick fountains, which conveyed, together with the purest water from distant mountains, a source of health and comfort to the people. They first carry off the leaden pipes, in order to make bullets; then they take down all the marble slabs and large stones for building materials, which they employ in the construction of barracks; lastly, they blow up the channels which convey water, because they say the water porters cannot earn a livelihood where there are publick fountains. Some of those fountains were of great antiquity, and beautifully decorated with marble reservoirs, as well as by bas-reliefs and inscriptions. In all

Mahometan countries, it is considered as an act of piety, to preserve and to adorn the publick aqueducts. Works of that nature once appeared in almost every street of Caffa; some were publick washing-places; others poured out streams of water as clear as crystal, for allaying the thirst of the inhabitants, and for ablutions prior to going to the mosques. They were nearly all demolished when we arrived.

"The sculptured marbles of its ancient Grecian inhabitants had not shared a better fate. All that even Mahometans had

spared of bas-reliefs, of inscriptions, or architectural pillars, were broken by the Russians, and sold as materials to construct their miserable barracks. We found the identical marbles, described by Oderico, broken and exposed for sale in the ruins of the old Genoese fortress. These were of peculiar interest, because they related to the history of the town. It was in vain that we solicited to become purchasers; the request was immediately denied by the general officer. Strangers,' he said, are not permitted to take any thing out of the country.' In a short time, nothing will remain in Caffa but the traces of desolation which its Russian conquerors may leave behind them." p. 445. 448.

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The testimony of professor Pallas may be added; though it is evidently restrained by the delicacy of his si tuation.

"The mild and amiable Pallas, notwithstanding the awe under which he was kept by the Russian government, could not pass in silence the destruction of these beautiful buildings. It is interesting to remark the caution with which he suppresses his indignation, while he communicates the fact. When I caused,' says he, the prospect of this town [Caffa] to be drawn from the side next the bay, there were two minarets, sixteen fathoms high, and furnished with serpentine staircases, leading to the top; though both structures have since been demolished.' Trav. vol. II. p. 267.Had the professor ventured two syllables further, if he had merely added the word alas! his gray hairs would not have saved him from what the archbishop of Moscow [p. 153, of this volume] so emphatically styled The free air of Siberia. Indeed, few would have ventured even to mention the circumstance." p. 447.

"It may be asked: Why so little has been hitherto made publick concerning the real character of this very profligate people? to which the answer is, that there is no country where such pains have been employed to prevent it. There is nothing in which the late Catherine employed so much artifice, as in keeping secret the true history of her own people, and the wretched state of her empire. This is evident in all her correspondence with Voltaire; in all her instructions to her ministers; in the

glaring falsehoods published by her hired writers, but particularly in the work she, with her agents, put together, in answer to the writings of the abbé de la Chappe. A party of her scavans were engaged to accompany her in a voyage down the Volga. As they sailed along, she caused that work to be read, every one present -being called upon to contribute something, either of smart criticism, or contradictory remark; and the notes so collected, being afterwards put together by the celebrated Mushin Puskin, constituted the work which bears the title of The Antidote. 1 received this information from one of the persons who was present with her upon that occasion, and who, also, added his share to the undertaking. Nothing can be more deceitful than the glare which played about the court of Petersburgh in the time of Catherine. Pompous plans of improvement seemed to be the subject of daily conversation, and were industriously propagated in foreign countries, not one of which were carried into effect. They existed only upon paper, like the troops which Russia often affects to muster upon her frontiers; or, like the numerous governments and garrisons, whose names serve to occupy the void spaces upon the maps of her desolate territories." p. 434, 435.

Such is the picture presented to us, of the Russian empire, under the most enlightened and renowned of its sovereigns; and such are the deeds of the people, from whose interference in the concerns of civilized nations, so mighty a check has been more than once looked for, to the progress of French injustice and oppression. It is melancholy to reflect on the prevalence of this grand deJusion; still more painful to think, over what superiour minds it has, at different times, born sway. Mr. Fox, eminently gifted as he was, and distinguished, above other statesmen, by sound and enlightened views of continental policy, fell into the grievous errour of placing his confidence in cabinets of Muscovites, and forming expectations of opposing, by means of that barbarous state, a resistance to the power of France. We do not say that his conduct was, on any material occasion, swayed by this bias, so as to injure the sound

ness of his counsels. Too much weight was, perhaps, allowed to our Russian alliance, in managing the last negotiations at Paris; but the fatal impolicy of the preceding year, the third coalition, in which our union with the Tartar power was intimate and effective, hampered the proceedings of the late ministry, who succeeded in this, as in so many other respects, to the consequences of errours not imputable to themselves. The leaning of Mr. Fox's mind on this subject, which we at present have in view, was rather in his speeches while in opposition, and in the anxiety which he showed to regard Russia, rather than Austria, as the rallying point of the English interest against France. It is with the utmost humility that we presume to hint at such subjects, and to offer an opinion so utterly repugnant to the tenets of that illustrious statesman. But it would be a want of honesty not to speak out against errours, which we conscientiously believe to have been of the most dangerous nature, and which derive, from the countenance of his high authority, a power and influence that do not naturally belong to them. We ventured to express the same sentiments both during the life of that great man, and during the government of his party; and we now repeat them, upon more full consideration and more ample proofs, with less scruple, and less fear of our motives being misrepresented.

The importance of the discussion in which we have been engaged, has occupied us so long, that we are compelled to confine what remains of our remarks on Dr. Clarke's book within very narrow limits. We shall follow him rapidly through the remainder of his journey, and merely refer our readers to the points on which he deserves to be more minutely consulted. With respect to the size and population of Moscow, he gives, from Mr. Heber's MS. journal, a very accurate statement.

The population is, as usual, greatly exaggerated. The intendant of police reckoned it at only 250,000 fixed inhabitants, and 30,000 retainers and servants of the nobles, who only reside in it during winter. The circuit of the town, including many vacant spaces, is about twenty six miles; being twelve times as large as St. Petersburgh. The account which our author gives of the old archbishop, Plato, to whom he paid a visit, is extremely interesting, though, if published during Paul's reign, it would, infallibly have sent that prelate to Siberia; and, therefore, it had better not have been printed, even at the present time; as we have no notice of his being dead, and the emperour Alexander, or the archduke Constantine, may one day prove somewhat capricious, for any thing our author can possibly tell. We must add, however, in justice to Dr. Clarke, that he has very great merit in having, generally, avoided the vice of most travellers-that of publishing what may injure individuals.

From Moscow (where the tyranny of Paul made their residence almost as uncomfortable as in the capital, so false is the idea, that despotism relaxes at a distance from its centre!) our travellers proceeded to the Crimea, and took a circuitous route through the e country of the Don Cossacks, and made also an excursion into Kuban Tartary and Circassia. This, including the accounts of the Crimea, which we have already noticed, forms by far the most interesting part of the work before us. The route is novel, and we know of no modern traveller who describes it. The author's progress was more full of adventures, and attended with greater dangers, than in the other parts of his journey; though, certainly, he shows much goodness, as well as honesty, in contradicting the accounts so prevalent in Russia, of the risks to which strangers are exposed from the natives of those

VOL. IV.

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remote provinces. The botanical collections, which are judiciously thrown into the notes, must prove interesting to the cultivators of that science; and the antiquary will find much curious matter in various pages of this branch of the work. But we chiefly prize the accounts which it contains of the nations whom our travellers visited, and the new light in which it places the character and manners of some them. Very copious and interesting sketches are given of the Don Cossacks, the Kuban Tartars, the Circassians, and the Crim Tartars. Of these sketches, we purpose saying a few words.

The account given of the Don Cossacks, places that people in a perfectly new point of view. Instead of a horde of savages, nay, of the very worst of savages, as they are represented all over Europe, entirely from the habits of those whom the Russians have in their armies, and from the studious calumnies of the Russians, our author found them an innocent and daily improving race of men; infinitely less barbarous than the best of the Russians, and living among themselves in peace, comfort, and even wealth. Were we to add, that he describes them as a civilized and a highly polished people, it might be suspected that we were. misled either by our own enthusiasm, or by that which we had imbibed from our author; yet, so it is; and we own, we conceive the author to have been somewhat misled, by finding the reality so very different from the anticipation, and suspect him of having been a little too rapturous in his picture of the Cossacks, from finding them so much superiour both to the Russians, and to the Russian accounts of them. However, he gives facts, and speaks from his own observation; and, therefore, has a right to be heard somewhat more at length. We shall give one passage, from many, which might be selected, to the same purpose.