is so contrived that the victim falls immediately upon his head. There were several persons about the late emperor who, from practice, had acquired á habit of throwing persons up, so as at pleasure either to break the head; dislocate the neck, fracture an arm, leg, or both, or to let them fall without receiving any material injury. When I was at Morocco a man received the latter punishment in the morning, and in the afternoon the emperor made him a handsome present, as a recompence for what he had suffered.

The accused is seldom permitted to make his. defence, but is sent out of the world very frequently without knowing for what he suffers.

These punishments are always inflicted in presence of the emperor. The former monarchs of this country were their own executioners, and the late emperor acted in the same capacity when prince; but upon his accession to the throne he resigned that respectable office to his negro soldiers.

One of the emperor's sons had undertaken to put a memorial from me into his father's hands. Upon my calling upon him to ask if he had complied with my request, he informed me, that when he last saw his father an opportunity had not offered, as he was then very busy in putting some persons to death.

LAMPRIERE.

Tour to Morocco, p. 257-9.

WHEN Persia was governed by the descendants of Sefi, a race of princes, whose wanton cruelty

often

often stained their divan, their table, and their bed, with the blood of their favourites, there is a saying recorded of a young nobleman [Rustan], that he never departed from the sultan's presence without satisfying himself whether his head was still on his shoulders. The experience of every day might almost justify the scepticism of Rustan.

GIBBON.

Roman Empire, vol. i. p.8z.

OUR emperor is a tyrant fear'd and hated;
I scarce remember in his reign one day
Pass guiltless o'er his execrable head.

f

He thinks the sun is lost, that sees not blood:
When none is shed we count it holiday.
We, who are most in favour, cannot call
This hour our own.

DRYDEN.

Don Sebastian, Act. ii.

I KNEW Printz, the great marshal of the court of Prussia, who was alive in 1724, and, in the reign of the late king, had been ambassador to the Czar Peter. The commission with which he was charged, proving very acceptable, the prince was. desirous of giving him conspicuous marks of his satisfaction; and for this purpose a sumptuous banquet was prepared, to which Printz was invited. They drank brandy, as is customary with the Russians, and they drank to a brutal excess. The czar, who wished to give a particular grace to the entertainment, sent for twenty of the Strelitz guards, who were confined in the prisons of Petersburg; and to every large bumper which they, drank,

drank, this hideous monster struck off the head of one of these wretches. As a particular mark of respect, this unnatural prince was desirous of procuring the ambassador the pleasure, as he called it, of trying his skill upon these miserable crea- i tures. The czar was disposed to be angry at his refusal, and could not help betraying signs of his displeasure. This is not an invented tale, it is so true, that it is to be found in the narratives of M. de Printz, which are preserved in the archives. I have also mentioned it to a number of persons who were at Petersburg at the time, and they all attested its truth. It is not then a story known only to two or three individuals, it is a notorious fact.

KING OF PRUSSIA.

Correspondence with Voltaire, let. 49.

THE most formidable enemy of the public welfare is not riot or sedition, but despotism; it changes the character of a nation, and always for the worse it produces nothing but vices. Whatever might be the power of an Indian sultan, he could never form magnanimous subjects; he would never find among his slaves the virtues of free men. Chymistry can extract no more gold.. from a mixed body than is included in it; and the most arbitrary power can draw nothing from a slave but the baseness he contains.

What is arbitrary power? The seed of cala-py mities, that, sown in the bosom of a state, springs up to bear the fruit of misery and devastation.

AN English nobleman landed in Italy, ran over the country about Rome, and embarked hastily for England. Why," he was asked, "do you quit this charming country?"-" Because," said he, "I can no longer bear to see the wretched ́i "looks of the Roman peasants; their misery > torments me; they have not even a human as">pect."

66

Ib. Sect. iv. ch.

note: (41.)

AN Arab, bowed down by the weight of taxes, was unable to maintain himself and family. He laid his complaint before the caliph. The caliph was enraged; the Arab condemned to die. As he went to execution he met an officer escorting provisions. "For whom are those provisions?" said the poor condemned wretch. "For the caliph's

"dogs," replied the officer.

"How much better,”

cried the Arab, "is the condition of a tyrant's dogs, "than that of his subjects !”

A slave in the presence of his tyrant has no opinion and no character. Thomas Kouli Khan supped with a favourite. A new kind of pulse was served up. "There is nothing more pleasant "and wholesome than this pulse," said the monarch. "Nothing more pleasant and wholesome," said the courtier. After supper Kouli Khan found himself much indisposed, he could not sleep. When he arose, he said, "nothing can be more "detestable and unwholesome than that pulse. "Nothing more detestable and unwholesome," said the courtier. "But you did not think so last "night,"

"night," said the prince,

what has made you

"change your opinion?"-" My respect and my "dread," replied the courtier. "I can curse the "food with impunity: I am the slave of your highness and not of the pulse."

The despot is a gorgon: he petrifies a man even to his thoughts, and like the gorgon is a terror to the world.

Ib. Sect. ix. cb.x.

MONTESQUIEU compares the despotism of the East to a tree which the savage cuts down that he may gather its fruit. A simple fact stated in the journal, entitled Political State of England, will perhaps give a still more horrible picture of despotism.

The English, says the journalist, were besieged, in Fort William, by the troops of the suba, or viceroy of Bengal, and made prisoners. They were, to the number of 146, shut up in the black hole of Calcutta, which was only eighteen feet square. These unhappy beings, in one of the hottest climates in the world, and in the hottest season of that climate, received no air but by a window that was partly blocked up by the largeness of the bars. They were scarce entered when they found themselves bathed in perspiration, and tortured by thirst. Panting for breath, they sent forth lamentable cries, and begged, but in vain, to be placed in a larger prison. They endeavoured to put the air in motion with their hats, but the resource was ineffectual. Their senses left them, and the greater

part