enemy, but milder after battle and more sociable in peace. Whether he has to deal with Georgians and Russians, who profess the Catholic religion; or with Turks, Arabs, and Afghans who are Mahometans like himself, but of a different sect; he is equally disposed to do them a service after war, if he finds an opportunity, while the Turk never forgets that you have been his enemy,

On the whole, the Persians appear to us to be a degenerated people, whose vices have increased during the troubles of their country, whose virtues perhaps are only the semblance of what they really were, while their laws were vigourously enforced, while probity was honoured, while merit was rewarded; while every one, secured in his property, could encrease it by honourable labour.

The Turks, on the contrary, are a new

restore their commerce, would resume their industry, would repair the losses which their agriculture has sustained. With a vigourous, active, and intelligent government, the Turks would again perhaps make Europe tremble.

We less frequently see in Persia than in Turkey revolts, rebellions, seditious commo-people, who have all the grossness, all the tions, great collections of men to overthrow rudeness, all the ignorance, of a nation the head of the state, or his ministers, to stop which civilization has not polished. With the caravans, and to lay a city or province an able and beneficent government, the under contribution. Neither are assassinati-Persians would rebuild their cities, would ons and rapes so frequent. Yet the moral principle and perhaps even the character, of the Persian is less estimable. He possesses indeed more information, more politeness, more mildness; he does not so often disturb the tranquillity of the state, nor openly threaten the forume and life of other citizens; he respects more the weakness of the sex. But he has not that dignity, that magnanimity, that self-esteem, nor that confidence in friendship, that devotion to his benefactor, which sometimes prompt the Turk to a great action.

The Persian is more addicted to cheating and dissimulation, more artful, more crafty more insinuating, more practiced in Iving and perjury, than the Turk. Habitually a Blatterer, he is mean and cringing to his equals as well as to his superiors, whether he solicit a favour, or merely discuss an interesting subject.

Whatever engagements he may have entered into, verbal or written, he breaks them as often as he can with impunity. He robs without a scruple, if he thinks he can do it undiscovered; he even robs openly and impudently, if he hopes to escape legal convic

tion.

False witnesses are still more common and more shameless in Persia than in Turkey: judges are still more corruptible: men in power are equally prevaricating. Ministers are perhaps more attentive to the duties of their office, because they are commonly richer, better informed, and more firmly es tablished; for it does not so often happen in Persia as in Turkey, that men rise rapidly from the lowest ranks in society to the highest offices of the state. Nevertheless, intrigues, cabals, accusations, secret conspira

cies, are carried on with an activity, an ardour, a perseverance, of which the Turks are not capable. The royal harem is the center of these intrigues, and the eunuchs are the most active agents, as well as the most interested.

The women here, as in Turkey, act a distinguished part in all important affairs, although they figure in them only by the aid of their husbands or of their eunucha,

Presents are still more common in Persia than in Turkey. A Persian never presents himself before the king; never solicits a favour from a great man; never even meets with his equal or any important affair, without being preceded or accompanied by a present proportioned to his own rank, or to the importance of the favour which he solicits.

It is true, that custom obliges him who receives a present, to give another in return; but, in this exchange, the most powerful is likely to gain ten fold, unless, from pride or ostentation, he wishes to surpass the other in generosity; which happens very rarely, unless in the case of strangers and ambassa

dors.

Judges act differently; they receive presents from both parties, without giving any in return; they think they do enough, if they make the one gain his law suit, and do not condemn the other with too much rigour.

There is much more luxury in Persia than in Turkey, because civilization is farther advanced. This luxury, in both states, consists less in furniture and the table, than in dress and ornament, in the number of their women slaves, and in their equipage.

The houses of the Persians are in general larger than those of the Turks: they are divided with more taste, in a more elegant houses of a simple and regular architecture and commodious manner. They have many If the situation does not admit of a garden, there is at least a court where some trees are planted. The rich have almost always fountains, or jets d'eau, in their saloons, for the purpose of coolness.

The furniture is very simple; it consists of a double carpet or covering over the floor of all the rooms which they inhabit, and in a sopha of moderate elevation placed all round. In the evening, mattresses of linen, or cotton. not very thick, are placed upon the carpet or sopha, upon which they sleep.

Their dress is less ample, less complica- among the slaves some are destined for serted than that of the Turks. A remark that vice; these are the elder and least handsome; we have been led to make by the different all the others aspire to the honour of being dresses which we have been obliged to wear admitted to the bed of the master, and of in the course of our travels, is, that clothing becoming mothers, in order that they themhas a great influence on our physical and selves may have slaves to serve them, and may moral powers. It is, perhaps to his habit be in some measure assimilated to the wives. being more simple, more free, less bulky, The expence which then takes place in the and less weighty than that of the Turk, that haram is excessive. If the master is generous the Persian is indebted for all his advantages or weak, his wives set no bounds to their over him; for that greater ease of manner, wishes. The richest habits, the most pregreater rapidity of movement, greater liveli- cious and most costly jewels, the most exquiness of wit and readiness of judgment, which site and rare perfumes, the most delicate strike a stranger the first step he takes into and highly dressed dishes, must be supplied to Persia. The Turkish habit gradually con- them in an abundance, a profusion, of demns man to inaction by rendering the mo- which, in Europe, there is no example. A tion of the body too painful to him; the woman, in the east, seems always a stranger Persian habit, on the contrary, still more to the family of her husband and master, to than ours, allows him to act according to the live only for herself, and to think only of her conceptions of his mind, or the instinctive individual happiness: she seeks to indemnify feelings of self-preservation. We ourselves herself by the beauty, the rarity, the value of have experienced this; wrapt up in the all that she can procure, for the restraint to Turkish dress, we could with difficulty de- which law and custom have condemned her: termine to make use of our arms and legs; occupied only in securing the favour of the already we were become, like them, slothful man to whom she belongs, in obtaining a and indolent. preference over her rivals, or exciting the In general the Turks do not allow them-envy of the women who visit her, she passes selves to wear ornaments of gold; precious stones are seldom seen upon their dress. The Persians, on the contrary, are covered with them; they have a great number of rings on their fingers; they have a chain of gold or silver round the neck, which hangs upon the breast, and is hid under the habit; to this chain are attached rings, caskets, a purse, a watch, and divers other trinkets. The bonnet is sometimes also adorned with jewels; they are seen upon the breast and round the girdle. The king and some grandees wear, above the waist, bracelets of precious

stones,

It is true, that the most devout among the men, only set their finest stones, their most precious diamonds, in silver, because the law of Mahomet prohibits gold; but these diamonds thus mounted are not less precious nor less costly.

Women have still more trinkets, jewels, and precious ornaments, than the men; their whole body is in a manner covered with them; they place upon the head, and round the neck, aigrettes, bandeaus, necklaces made of the most beautiful stones, or of the largest and finest pearls. Their girdles are enriched with diamonds and rubies; their fingers are loaded with rings they have bracelets on their arms and feet, and sometimes pieces of gold on all the borders of their habits.

The expence into which a Persian, still more than a Turk, allows himself to be drawn, for his haram, is seldom proportioned to his fortune. Whether he has a single wife, or several wives, the number of slaves is always very great. It is well known, that VOL. V. [Lit. Pan, March 1809.]

part of the day in the bath and at her toilet, and the other in displaying all her riches, before friends who come to see her, and before singing and dancing girls, whom she is in the custom of sending for to amuse her ennui.

Luxury in horses and their trappings is carried still farther in Persia than in Turkey. A great man never goes out to hunt, to walk, or to pay a visit, without having some servants on foot, and some domestics on horseback, each leading one or two horses splendidly harnessed. Even a private man, when riding, must needs be accompanied by one or two domestics as well mounted as himself.

They lavish in their trappings gold, silver, embroidery, fine pearls, precious stones. The bridle and the straps which fix the saddle, are covered with chains of gold. The ornamental covering, which descends to the ground, is entirely composed of gold embroidery, and is frequently enriched with pearls and jewels.

The Persians have a great veneration for the beard; they wear it generally not so long as the Turks, but none of them now want it.

A young man does not, as in Turkey, wait till he is married, or arrived at public employments, before he lets it grow.

There is certainly no country in the world, where so much attention is paid to the beard, as in Persia: on getting up in the morning, on lying down in the evening, after meals, and often during the day, the Persian carefully washes his beard, dries it with a towel, combs it for a long time, carefully adjusts, and strokes it often with his hand, to keep i 2 S

in order. With this view, he carries in his pocket a mirror and a comb, that he may remedy, without delay, any disorder which might be occasioned by the wind, or by any unexpected friction.

The Persians were formerly accustomed to drink great quantities of coffee, and the coffee-houses which they frequented were uncommonly splendid and voluptuous. But they are now neither so numerous nor so much frequented, nor so beautiful as formerly. During their civil disorders, they have abstained from frequenting houses where they could no longer converse with freedom, nor even appear without exposing themselves to informations which might be fatal to them: they have gradually laid aside the use of a liquor which becomes daily more popular among the Turks,

Opium is still more generally used in Persia than in Turkey; but it is taken with more moderation; there are fewer of those men who from their excessive use of it, are distinguished by a peculiar name (Theriakis.) The Persians have also shewn a greater inclination to transgress the Mahometan prohibition against wine; bat the use of that article has been strictly forbidden by their late sovereigns.

RUSTIC LOYALTY ON BOTH SIDES THE
CHANNEL.

a

When the Duke of Clarence, then Prince William, was in the North Seas, as midshipman on board the Hebe, he often met Captain Rogers, of the Speedy sloop, then stationed at Yarmouth, to check the smugglers; and used frequently to visit him at his cottage. He one day persuaded Captain Rogers to make a little excursion with him into the country to see a race. They had neither horses to carry them, nor servants to attend them; but hired, as the prince proposed, two hackney horses at Yarmouth, and went alone. Before they got to the raceground, the prince's horse fell. The prince was thrown off, and received a very violent shock. Captain Rogers saw no signs of life in him; and believed he was dead. Greatly distressed, he took the prince up in his arms, and carried him by main strength to the nearest cottage, where he laid him on such a bed as he could procure. He was blooded as soon as any assistance could be had; but it was sometime before he came perfectly to himself. As he lay upon the bed, pale and In Persia, there is no title more honourable languid, his flaxen hair discomposed and than that of learned, nor are there any places tumbled about his face, a report spread in the to which the man, who devotes himself to neighbourhood that he was a young lady gostudy, may not aspire. Accordingly, before ing off with her lover to Scotland; which the civil disorders, there was not a man in entertained the prince much, when he retolerable circumstances, who was not well covered. The old woman who inhabited the informed, who did not furnish his son with cottage, on finding her mistake, and knowmasters of all kinds, and who did not himself ing the guest she had received, shewed the snatch from his employments some moments bed on which the prince lay to all the country, of every day to devote to study. The Ma- who came to see it at a penny a head and dresses, or colleges, are so numerous every-while the novelty lasted, she turned it into where, and the expence of a scholar is so moderate, that the man who is not rich may at least send his sons to school, and direct them to learn, without expence, all that is taught there. Every college, at the time of its foundation, received from the king, or from some private individual, funds sufficient for maintaining its professors, for lodging its students, and for annually repairing its buildings.

In these madressés they are taught, as in Turkey, to read and write, but whereas the Turks confine themselves afterwards to commenting on the Koran, the Persians teach grammar, the Arabic and Turkish languages, rhetoric, philosophy, and poetry.

Astrology is the science par excellence : there is not a great lord who does not keep astrologers by him; nor a private man, who does not consult them in all great enterprises. It is at present the most lucrative and respected of professions. The last Sophis had a great number of astrologers. Chardin reck bns at nearly 200,000 the revenues which this body enjoyed in his time.

a comfortable living. From the invincible inclination of our countrymen for the seeing of sights, we doubt not the old woman's ample reward for her hospitality. It ought to be added, that the prince expressed great gratitude to Captain Rogers, for the care and attention he had shewn him on this occasion.

A similar adventure we have heard related by the late Duke of Harcourt, governor of the Duc de Normandie, (son of the unfortunate Louis XVI.) who was murdered in the Temple at Paris. When that King visited Cherbourg (we believe in 1785 or 6) to see the cones at that place, he, in his journey thither, stopped at the Duke of Harcourt's, and slept one night. No soquer had His Majesty left the house of our noble friend, than the country people flocked to it, and demanded a sight of the bed; and in the excess of their loyalty for their Sovereign, numbers of them kissed the bed clothes that had served him for a covering. In this manner was the Duke's house assailed for some months after the departure of the king...

EXTREME INCLEMENCY OF THE WEA-
THER-THAW-INUNDATIONS_WIND.

February, 1809.

flowed its banks, inundating all the fields between, that place and Deptford: furniture of various descriptions was washed away, and carried through the creek into the Thames: parts of Lewisham. and Deptford bridges were carried away; but it is a remarkable circumstance, that, while the Kavensborn rose to such a height, the Wandle River, which has its source within a hundred yards of the Ravensborn, did not overflow its banks, nor do the least damage: the Addiscombe brook, pool's, and which runs into the Wandle below Merton, rose ten feet, and laid Tooting under water: from that junction it swelled the Wandle.

which has its source at the late Earl of Liver

The inhabitants of Edmonton and Tottenham suffered severely, chiefly from the overflow of the New River: the North Road was, more than once, under water, for upwards of a mile.

In our fourth volume, p. 1161, we had occasion to allude to the uncommon heats which, during certain days in July, had prevailed to degrees rarely known in this country. The damage done by that occurrence was considerable, and many lives were lost in consequence: but the course of the month of January has been distinguished by sufferings from the opposite cause, to a much greater amount. The continued snow was the occasion of many persons losing their way, and wandering, fatally for themselves, as the severity of the frost deprived them of motion, In Scotland, the winter has been more severe and thereby of life. A complete list of such ac- than it has been for the last forty years. The cidents would amount to some hundreds. The thermometer; in a northerly direction, was at 11, suddenness of the thaw, by which the accumula-10, 9, 8, and even at 6. Many persons have tions of snow that fell at several times were all melted at the same time, has produced more extensive floods and inundations, than have been known for many years back. They are not, evened, and did considerable damage. The beautiful now, wholly absorbed, but in many places the new bridge, built over the Yarrow, two miles from waters are still deep. The following may preSelkirk, was swept entirely away. serve the memory of this extraordinary occurrence: a full account, and estimate of the damages done, would amount to a prodigious

sum.

Thursday, Jan. 19th, the rain froze as it fell; and so stiffened the umbrellas in all parts of the Metropolis, that they could not be closed. The effects of this rain were particularly severe on the feathered tribe. It froze their pinions together, and rendered them incapable of flying: they were seen lying on the ground, in great numbers, in different parts of the country. Nineteen rooks were taken up alive by one person, at Castle Eaton Meadow, Wilts: and at Leyburne, near Mailing, Kent, a boy took up 27 rooks, 93 larks, 1 pheasant, and a bustard.

Sunday, Jan. 22, a thaw commenced, which increased rapidly on the succeeding days, and, from the accumulation of snow throughout the country, produced inundations very extensive and fatal in their consequences, in many parts of the kingdom.

In and near London, much damage has been sustained. At Battle Bridge, Gray's Inn Lane Road, the water on Wednesday 25 rushed into the houses, and the inhabitants were forced to fly to their upper stories for protection: the road could only be passed with great difficulty, by carts. In Dorset-street, Portman-square, the commonsewer was blown up, and left a dreadful chasm ; and the houses in the neighbourhood were all under water. Near Kennington and Vauxhall, a torrent of water carried away furniture, trunks of trees, cattle, &c. and destroyed a great number of bridges.-The Clapham road was impassable: several houses were completely insulated by the waters, and the inhabitants unable to obtain provisions. Ravensborg River, at Lewisham, over

perished, with great numbers of sheep.

Selkirk, N. B.-On Saturday, the river Ettrick was much swelled by the great rain and thaw, it rose. 14 inches higher than ever was remember

Cumberland. The oldest person living does not remember the rivers Eden, Caldew, and Petteril to have attained a greater height, or occasioned more extensive and serious mischief. During the greater part of the week, the rain continued to fall. The rivers overflowed their banks, and inundated a vast expanse of country, presenting to the eye the appearance of one immense lake, or rather sea, beautifully spotted with little islets. The damage experienced is immense. Sluices, bridges, trees, fences, immense quantities of soil, &c. were carried away by the impetuosity of the torrent. The bay at Netherby has been entirely destroyed: the weir forming this bay, is said to have cost upwards of £15,000. Armathwaite bay has also been demolished. Serious injury has been sustained at the bleaching premises in Denton Holm, belonging to Mr. Robson Clark. About 200 yards of the embankment, which served to prevent the incroachment of the Caldew upon the Helm, were carried away by the impetuosity of the

cuirent.

Northumberland and Durham-By the melting of the snow in the west country, the river Tyne was, on Saturday and Sunday, swoln to an alarming height. In the afternoon of the former day, the ice broke up at Newcastle, which, with the rapidity of the current, swept away every thing that obstructed its progress. Many boats and keels were carried away, and other damage sustained.

Shields harbour, on Thursday morning, exhibited one of the most distressing scenes ever witnessed by the oldest mariner. The pressure of ice was so great as to force almost every vessel from its moorings. Several of the vessels were wrecked, and most of them considerably damaged,

Sunderland harbour presented nearly a similar