Arabs, and particularly of the conduct of the Greek Chriftian's, who did not affift them on their return by Conftantinople. Thefe unfor tunate men entertained a higher refentment against their brethren for not relieving them, than against their enemies for plundering them. The first who thought of arming the Weft against the East, under the pretext of affifting the pilgrims, and refcuing the Holy Land, was Pope Gregory VII. that audacious monk, at once a fanatic and a knave, at once whimfical and dangerous, that enemy profeffed to kings, who established the chair of St Peter on the ruins of fubverted crowns. It appears from his letters, that he proposed to publifh a Crufade against the Turks; but this Crufade was neceffarily directed against the Chriftian empire of Conftantinople. It was impoffible to establish the Latin church in Afia but on the ruins of the Greek, its inveterate rival; and the Greek church could not be abolished but by taking Conftantinople. Urban the Second had the fame defign; that Urban who promoted the perfecution begun by Gregory VII. against the great and unfortunate Henry IV. He it was who armed the fon against the father, and fanctified the crime; he, who a natural fubject of Philip 1. King of France, had the audacioufnefs to excommunicate his Sovereign even in France itself, where he preached the Crusade. The defign of taking Conftantinople was fo thoroughly adopted, that Bishop Monteil, the Pope's legate, and a foldier, determined abfolutely to begin the expedition with the fiege of that capital, and to exterminate the Greek Chriftians before he engaged with the Turks. The Count Bohemondo, who was in the fecret, was of the fame opinion. Hugh, brother to the King of France, who had neither troops nor money, but who fupported this project in a high tone, had the indifcretion to pay a vifit to the Emperor Alexis Comnenius, who put him under arreft, but had afterwards the generofity to fet him at liberty. In a word, Godfrey, who was by no means the chief of the Crufeés, as is generally understood, attacked the fuburbs of the Imperial city col Senno e con la Mano, and this was his first exploit. But fortunately making peace with the Emperor, he obtained permiffion to go to Jerufalem, the way to which was opened for him by the Count de Thouloufe and the Prince of Tarentum, who had taken Antioch by furprize. In fhort, the reduction of the Greek empire was fo wholly the object of this Crufade, that the Crufeés carried it in 1204, and continued mafters of it 50 years. Whether all this was just or otherwife, I refer to Grotius de Jure Belli & Pacis. • The Popes then found themselves raised to that pitch of grandeur from which the Caliphs fell. Thefe Caliphs begun with carrying the fword and the cenfer The Popes, who began with the cenfer, foon availed themselves of the fwords of Princes. Had they perfonally attended in the field, they might poffibly, favoured by the fanaticifm of the times, have brought under their fubjection the empires of the Eaft and the Weft, and have treated their fovereigns as they treated Henry IV. Frederic Barbaroffa, and Frederic II. But they lay fill in Rome, and fought only with their bulls. It is well known how the Greeks banished the Latins, and recovered their unfortunate empire. It is well known how the Muffulmen exterminated almost all the Crufeés in Afia Minor, and in Syria. Of the multitudes of these barbarous emigrants, there remained only a few orders of religious, who had made a vow to the God of peace to fhed human blood. It was in these circumstances that St. Lewis had the ill luck to make the fame yow upon the attack of a fever, during which he thought he heard a voice from Heaven commanding him to undertake a Crufade. He had better have hearkened to a real voice from Heaven, that is the voice of reafon, which would have ordered him to stay at home, to continue to encourage the agriculture and commerce of his country, protect the laws, and prove himself the father of his people. This glory he enjoyed; and if he wanted the honours of a conqueror, he might more properly have fought them in the recovery of Guyenne, than by going himself to be taken in Egypt, whilft he was impoverishing and difpeopling his kingdom. He followed, it is faid, the prejudices of his time: but it is the property of great minds to rife above prejudices. He ought to have reformed the age. He had already fet the example in refifting the enterprises of the court of Rome. Wherefore could he not refift the madness of the Crufades? He who confidered the welfare of his people as his firft duty!-What had France to do with Jerufalem? What intereft, what cause, what treaty called him into Egypt? Had there been any French flaves in that country, the fenfible old monarch who folicited peace would have reftored them for a thoufand and a thousand times less money than his fatal expedition cost him. He was not preffed by any nation to carry war into Egypt, which must have ruined him, even though it had been fuccefsful. On the contrary, all the nations in Europe, even Rome itself, were weary of the ridiculous and troublesome business of the Crusades. We are reproached in the present age with not condemning his Crufade any otherwife than as he was a faint: we will venture to fay, however, that as a faint, he ought not to have undertaken it. Undoubtedly he engaged in it as a faint and as a hero; but if he had employed his great virtues in a different way, he would both have been a better faint, and a more respectable hero. It is because we have an affectionate reverence for his memory, that we mourn over him when he had rendered himself the most unfortunate of men; that we lament his wife lying-in in an Egyp tian prison, and in continual apprehenfions of death; that we bewail his fon, who perished in this fatal expedition; that we grieve for his brother the Count D'Artois, whofe head the conquerors carried upon a lance; for the flower of his cavalry cut to pieces before his eyes, and for fifteen thousand French, who perished in this disastrous enterprise ! Let us cherish his memory; but let us not with-hold our esteem from his conqueror Almoadan, who cured him of the plague, and remitted two hundred thousand befans of gold of his ranfom. We know it to be true, and we may as well own it, that the people of the Eaft were then the people, of knowledge and civility, and that we were the barbarians. The The following extract of a letter from Mr. Voltaire to the King of Pruffia, at once furnishes us with a record of the age and wonderful fpirit of this inexhaustible Writer. "SIRE, Ferney, ift February 1773"I thank you for your porcelain. The King my matter has no finer. But I thank you much more for what you have taken from me than for what you have given me. In your laft letter you have cut off nine whole years from my age. Never did our Controller General of the Finances make a more extraordinary alteration. Your Majefty has the goodness to compliment me on my attaining the age of feventy. You fee how Kings are always deceived. I am feventy-nine, if you please, and upon the ftroke of eighty. Thus fhall I never fee, what I have so paffionately wished for, the deftruc tion of thofe rogues, the Turks, who fhut up the women, and do not cultivate the fine arts." Letter from the present Empress of Ruffia, to Mr. de Voltaire. "SIR, "The brightness of the northern ftar is a mere Aurora Borealis. It is nothing more than giving of one's fuperfluity fomething to one's neighbour; but to be the advocate of humankind, the defender of oppreffed innocence, that is, indeed, the way to immortalife you. The two caufes of Calas and Sirven, have given you the veneration due to fuch miracles. You have combated the united enemies of mankind, fuperftition, fanaticism, ignorance, chicane, bad judges, and the power repofed in them altogether. To furmount fuch obftacles, required both talents and virtue. You have fhewn the world that you poffeffed both. You have carried your point. You defire, Sir, fome fmall relief for the Sirven family. Can I poffibly refuse it? Or fhould you praise me for the action, would there be the leaft room for it? I own to you that I should be much better pleased if my bill of exchange could pafs unknown. Nevertheless, if you think that my name, unharmonious as it is, may be of any ufe to thofe victims of the spirit of perfecution, I leave it to your difcretion, and you may announce me, provided it be no way prejudicial to the parties. "The misfortune of the Bishop of Roftoff has been publicly talked of; and you, Sir, may communicate the memorial at your pleasure, as a piece of intelligence you came by honeftly. "I have read with a good deal of attention the book that accompanied your letter. It is difficult to reduce the principles it contains to practice. Unfortunately, the majority will long be against it. It is poffible, nevertheless, to fhake the foundation of those opinions which tend to the deftruction of mankind. What follows, is, word for word, what I have inferted, amongst other matters, in my inftructions to the committee for rectifying and republishing our fyftem of laws. "In a great empire, which extends its dominions over as many different people as there are different religions in the world, the fault moft pernicious to the repofe and tranquillity of the fubject would be the intolerance of different fects. Nothing but a wife toleration, equally confiftent with right religion and found policy, can bring home the wandering fheep to the fold of the faithful. Perfecution irritates 1 irritates the minds of men; toleration foftens them, and renders them less reluctant to ftifle those difputes which are injurious either to the repofe of government, or to the union of the citizens." "After this follows a fummary view of the fpirit of the laws concerning forcery, &c. which would be too long to recite in a letter. In this every thing is laid down that could be fuggefted, to preferve the people, on one hand, from the evils which fuch accufations might bring upon them, without disturbing, on the other hand, the quiet of their credulity, or giving offence to the confciences of eafy believers. I thought the only practicable way to introduce the law of reafon, was to make it perfectly confiftent in its operations with the public tranquillity, of which every individual finds the neceffity and the use. "The little Count Schouvaloff, or his return to his country, told me the interest you take in every thing that concerns me. I conclude with every sentiment of gratitude, &c.". This letter is at once a proof of evident vanity and of great parts in the royal writer. Our limits allow no farther extracts. L, ART. V. Mes Voyages, Poeme en Cing Chants.-My Travels, a Poem, in Five Cantos. By M. Carra, Author of a great Number of Articles in the Supplements of the Encyclopedia of Paris, of Odazir a Philofophical Romance, of the Poem, entitled the True Philofopher, and many other Compofitions and Tranflations in Profe and Verfe. 8vo. 15. 6d. London. Heydinger. 1774. AR RRAH! Monf. Carra! you be a mighty great writer indeed, and a marvellous poet! no lefs, en verité, than the great, great grandson of your own Malherbe, of Thunder-andLightning Memory! Mark how the battle burns! Je monte une colline, et mes yeux eloignés Parcourent les deux camps fur leurs plans allignés. Et l'herbe, en un clin d'oeil, fe teint de fang bumain. L'air s'enflame, et rougit; le champ fume. On fe trouble, La bayonnette donne, et la rage redouble. Sur des morceaux de corps, les efcadrons poudreux, Tranflated Tranflated by a defcendant from Sir Richard Blackmore. [ADVERTISEMENT.] The fame Author announces for next spring, a new work of his pen, intitled, The Spirit of Morals and Philofophy. He has begun a grand poem, which is called, The Four Quarters of the World: but this poem will not be printed, unlefs by fubfcription.' Look here, ye poor Englifh grubs! look upon the mag nificent Monf. Carra! And blush to be outdone in never blushing! ART. VI. L.. Elémens d'hiftoire Générale, Seconde Partie. The Second Part of the Elements of General History. By Abbè Millot. 12mo. 5 Vols. Paris. 1773. OF F the firft part of this valuable work, which comprehended ancient hiftory, we gave an account in the Appendix to our 48th volume. The fecond part, comprehending modern history, is now before us, and does no lefs honour than the first, to the judgment and abilities of its Author. It is not intended for the use of children, tho' even to them a judicious Mafter may render several parts of it extremely useful, but for those who have made fome progrefs in their ftudies, and for perfons engaged in the active fcenes of life, who are defirous of acquiring fome general hiftoric knowledge, but have little time to bestow upon study. To the perufal of fuch perfons we recommend it with pleafure: we know of no hiftorical work, indeed, which, in fo narrow a compass, contains fo much useful knowledge, or that is better calculated to infpire a love of virtue and liberty, and to form ufeful members of a community. The Author's principles are enlarged, liberal, and manly; he places the most interesting objects before his Readers often in a new, and almost always in a very striking point of view; and his style, |