:

is justly asserted, and that Mr. W. could himself quote instances in proof of it but in this fact he will perhaps find one cause of the increase of that other sect, the influence of which he deprecates ; and on his own principles he cannot hail the exchange of rationality (though it be not orthodoxy, in his view,) for 'ignorance,' ' enthusiasm,” and 'fanaticism.'

Art. 37. The Consequences of unjust War: delivered at Newbury, Feb. 28, 18:0. With Authorities, in confirmation of the Facts asserted. By J. Bicheno, M. A. 8vo. zs Johnson and Co. Alas! Mr. Bicheno, you have within the compressed limits of a sermon delivered a multitude of important melancholy truths! We say alas! because, true as they are, and melancholy as they are, it is much to be feared that not one of them will be regarded by our statesmen. The preacher, though no politician, is awake to the sad errors committed by our government at the commencement of the présent disastrous and ill-promising war. He assigns good reasons for asserting that from the beginning we mistook the path of duty and of safety; that we needlessly partook of the alarm felt by German despots at the commencement of the French Revolution ;that all our principles as freemen and protestants have been sacrificed; -and that the very existence of the country has been put to hazard in a cause as hopeless as it was unworthy. Mr. B calls on the public to reflect that, by the efforts which we have made in the present contest, we have aggrandized the enemy, and been the means of oppressing all those whom we professed to help. He says, indeed, more than we can transcribe: but the whole is in a very manly strain of eloquence, and is full of matter which merits the consideration of Britons.

CORRESPONDENCE.

We are obliged to Dr. Clarke for his information concerning M.Coray: but, in the uncertainty whether he really be the same person with the M. Koraes, or Coray, mentioned in the course of the first article of our last Appendix, we cannot properly abstract Dr. C.'s particulars for the information of our readers.

It would give us pleasure to second the laudable views of our Correspondent, who has sent us a copy of the "Report of the Kensing ton Committee:" but it would be absolutely improper for us to introduce into our pages the unpublished statement of parochial dis @ussions.

We have not obtained a copy of the work for which T. B. C. is sollicitous; and if it be "out of print," it must pass without our fiat.

In the last Review, P. 236. l. 6. for sejunjit,' r. sejungit,P. 259. note, 1. 5. for tolerable, r. tolerably.-P. 266. 1. 10. from bott. déle the semicolon after potash.' — P. 323. 1.11. dele the comma after bumanitatis.' P. 325. 1. 27. remove the commna from

'first' to ' act.'

-

The APPENDIX to this volume of the Review will be published on the 1st of February, with the Number for January ; and we again eall the attention of our readers to this notice, which their frequent ketters to us shew to be so necessary.

THE

APPENDIX

TO THE

SIXTY-THIRD VOLUME

OF THE

MONTHLY REVIEW

ENLARGED.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ART. I. Voyage dans PEmpire Othoman, &c. ; ie. Travels in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and Persia, undertaken by Order of the Government, during the first six Years of the Republic; by G. A. OLIVIER, M. D. Member of the National Institute, &c. &c. &c. Vols. Vth. and VIth.. 8vo. With a 4to Atlas. Paris. 1807. Imported by De Boffe. Price 11. 15s. sewed.

THE

HE merits of M. OLIVIER as a traveller, and as the historian of his wanderings, have been already made known to the British public, both by translations of his former volumes, and by our reports of them in the original, in M.R. Vols.xli. (p.113.) and xlvi. (p. 520.) N. S. The present volumes, which chiefly relate to Persia and Asia Minor, complete the author's narrative, and detail the occurrences of his peregrinations from Bagdad to Ispahan, his return to Bagdad by a different route, his journey through part of Mesopotamia, and his progress to Cyprus, Constantinople, Athens, Corfù, and Ancona. In the course of this varied range, we had charitably presumed that the well-stored mind of the tourist could easily haye supplied a thousand octavo pages of appropriate description and observation. At all events, we were not prepared to encounter, in a book of travels, nine entire chapters on the civil history of Persia, from the reign of Sha-Hussein, down to the present times, and aukwardly thrown into the very heart of the APP, REV. VOL. LXII, journal,

Gg

journal. While we grant, with the publisher of the work, that the later period of the Persian story is but imperfectly known, we admit with him, also, that the author's record of that period offers little else than a series of bloody and wasteful catastrophes. We are at a loss to perceive how the public or individuals can be much benefited by such painful and disgusting recitals; and we purposely spare them the troutle of any farther comment on these extraneous registers of rapine, usurpation, and murder.

M. OLIVIER and his suite departed from Bagdad on the 18th of May, 1796, proceeding under an intense heat, and over a very fruitful alluvial soil, to the banks of the Tigris. As they advanced towards Sarpil, the surface assumed a more hilly aspect. In a rugged defile, they remarked an antient marble monument, on which, however, they could trace no vestige of inscription. We cannot doubt (he says) that this spot is the Median pass, designated Zagri pila by the Greeks and Romans; and that Sarpil, which ought certainly to be written Zarg-pil, is the remnant of a city of considerable size, which was built near the defile, and which bore its name. village now presents nothing remarkable but its caravansary, and some wretched mud-houses, occupied by the Curds.'

This

The inhabitants of the Persian confines still extract a sweet oil from the fruit of the turpentine tree; a practice to which Xenophon alludes in his narrative of the retreat of the ten thousand. Excellent turpentine also is procured by incision of the trunk, and forms a considerable article of commerce, as the tree abounds on all the heights. From these heights, our travellers descended into the beautiful plain of Kermanchach, which was then highly perfumed with the blossoms of the narrow-leaved Oleaster; an object of favourite culture among the inhabitants, who relish both its fragrance and its fruit, though the latter is far from palatable to strangers.

Kermanchach, which is situated at seventy leagues north-east of Bagdad, though the residence of a Khan of the first rank, and the capital of a very extensive province, contains only eight or nine thousand inhabitants. It is tolerably well fortified, but less ornamented than most of the Persian towns. The streets are very narrow, tortuous, and dirty; and the houses, which are all constructed of earth, never exceed a single story, but for the most part consist only of the ground-floor. The adjacent territory, however, is well watered, very fertile, and produces, in the greatest variety and profusion, fruits, pot-herbs, and grain. The vine, too, here thrives remarkably well, provided that it be buried in winter, and thus screened from the frost; for the cold is very severe during the months of December, January,

January, and February, and the ground in that season is generally covered with snow to the depth of several feet. In this neighbourhood stands the monument of Tak-Bostan, which is very minutely described, but which will be best comprehended by comparing the text with the plate. A much more striking object of curiosity is Bi Soutoun, or, the hill without support: which, throughout a height of upwards of 600 toises, and a -length of nearly eighteen miles, is composed of an almost perpendicular and very hard calcareous rock.

At Sheber-Now, the next halting station, M. OLIVIER likewise encountered some interesting fragments of antient remains, which he describes at considerable length, but with particular references to the sketches contained in the Atlas. In a plain -near Mount Elvind, he first observed the Rosa berberifolia, rẹmarkable for its single leaves, dwarfish size, yellow petals, and fragrant odour. It has since been raised at Paris, from the seeds; and should it, in consequence of culture, acquire double petals, it will form one of the most elegant additions to the flower-gardens of Europe.

Amadan, now only a larger sort of market-town, though still adorned by some handsome besesteins and mosques, exhibits fortifications in decay, and one-half of the houses in ruin; in short, it is the miserable shade of the once flourishing Ecbatana.

The summits of Mount Elvind afforded to the researches of our naturalist several species of non-descript plants, which are noted in a very cursory manner, but not a shrub or tree worthy - of name. The extreme weakness experienced by the travellers in these lofty regions appears to have proceeded as much from their previous fatigues, exposure to heat, and insalubrious water, as from the rarity of the atmosphere. The precise elevation, indeed, to which they reached, is not specified; and, though they were within the line of snow, they felt the temperature far from unpleasant.

The account of the journey from Amadan to Teheran, and of the stay of the caravan at the latter place, offers some singular displays of ignorance, superstition, and selfishness, but such as we may expect to characterize those of our race who are destined to live under a system of religious and political degradation. In case of indisposition, however, the Persians are more solicitous of medical aid than the Turks; and yet the healing art forms among them no object of public education, and derives no illustration from the study of anatomy. In towns, every physician undertakes the instruction of a certain number of pupils in his own house; and he chiefly insists on distinguishing the properties of particular drugs, the composi

G.g.2

tion

.

tion of opiates, electuaries, and syrups, and on giving to the articles of their Materia Medica the various forms of preparation of which they are susceptible. In the country, physic is usually practised by itinerant quacks, or Dervises; who, for a small pecuniary compensation, will retail scraps of the Koran, which are at least as innocent remedies as Metallic Tractors, or any other charm that can operate on the imagination. M. OLIVIER relates, with considerable interest, the history of a Dervise who thus realized a comfortable sum in the course of a single day, and then secretly applied to the members of the European caravan to be cured of an inguinal hernia. Notwithstanding this very low state of medicine in Persia, we cannot refrain from remarking that the affusion of cold water, in cases of fever, appears to have been long practised in that country; and that powerful diuretics were familiarly prescribed to dropsical patients. We must not overlook the enormous dimensions of a venerable Plane-tree, which occurs at the shaded and sequestered village of Tegrich, in the vicinity of Teheran: It has, at the bottom of the trunk, a conical or pyramidal expansion, which seemed to serve for its base, and give it solidity. On a level with the soil, it measures seventy feet in circumference, which implies a diameter of 23 feet, and some inches. The trunk and principal branches appeared to be very sound. The timber of this protuberance is harder, more veined, and much more beautiful than that of the trunk. Some of it, which we observed had been used in the furniture of the royal palace at Ispahan, seemed to us greatly superior to the finest walnut-treewood.'

At Tegrich, the wearied travellers appear to have enjoyed an agreeable retreat :

This spot, which nature alone has embellished, was not frequented by the people of the country; and we might here saunter from morning till evening, without fear of being interrupted. Children and loungers were contented to repose under the plane-tree of the mosque, whither no lover, perhaps, ever repaired to heave a sigh. The occupations of the villagers appeared to us very monotonous, and their pleasure far from lively or varied. Here rustic dances, walks, and friendly repasts, are unknown. These people dance only on occasions of marriage or circumcision; and the latter ceremony is usually observed once in a year but the men and women do not dance together; a distinct room, or apartment, being allotted to each sex.- This village proved as safe a residence as we could have desired. We strolled alone and unarmed to a great distance, walked in the cultivated fields, and visited the neighbouring villages. Although our lodging was ill secured, and, indeed, generally remained open, even when we were abroad, yet we never were exposed to the least danger, never received the slightest insult, and never expe

rienced