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nominated by the Babylonians El-Uc (God the Sun, the divine Sun), which the Greeks changed to (Avxos) Lukos; whence the Latin lux. Had these gentlemen pursued the etymology into the Arabic and Persian languages, we think they would have found this common element exemplified more decisively still. In the Arabic the sky is denominated Feluk, i. e. Ph'-el-uk (the breath or effluence of the radiant God, or God the Sun); and in the plural, for the skies, it changes to (1) Efluk, precisely similar to the Latin effluxus, efflux, or fluency-in the language of Lucretius, liquidissimus ather. Hence, among the the Persians, chukan (U means an arch, a bow; and in

the following verse of Hafiz is applied to the eye-brow of his mistress, as though it were beautiful as the arch of heaven:

اي کم تر هم کشي از عنبر سارا چوکان

O thou whose forehead is adorned with an arched brow of pure amber!

Hence probably the adjective sebuk-light, easy, cheerful, in opposition to gloomy, heavy, despondent. Thus, in another gazel of the same admirable poet, the compound sebukbaran ), which is literally the bearers of light burdens, or, in the language of the Scriptures, men whose yoke is easy and whose burden light, is applied to the exalted and illustrious, to men of affluence and ease:

كجا وانتر حال صا سبکباران

How can they judge of our situation who are bearers of light burdens?

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But to return to our subject:-The Egyptian historian tells us that these victorious shepherds were an obscure or ignoble race (TO VEVOS acquo); and Mr. Allwood, applying this to the Titans, into which the Cushites are metamorphosed in a posterior section, observes, p. 364, How Manetho could thus term them it is difficult to conceive.' But the difficulty does not occur to us; nor do we feel any embarrassment in referring this narration to the progeny of Chus on this account. Manetho was an Egyptian by birth, and of the sacerdotal order. The national vanity of every ancient state induced it to regard every people that surrounded it with contempt; and we have already observed that the Greeks were accustomed to denominate the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Indians, barbarians, at the very time when their most celebrated legislators and philosophers were traveling among them for information,

To the testimony of Manetho our author might easily have added that of Zonaras, who, tracing the same line of march, informs us that all these facts (or doctrines) were imported from Chaldea into Egypt, and were thence derived to the Greeks*. But there is a passage of Diodorus Siculus, preserved only indeed as a fragment by Photius, in which this double migration of the Cushite shepherds and the Israëlites under Moses appears to be so clearly intimated, that it may almost become decisive upon the point; and we are astonished not to find it quoted by our author, in addition to the testimonials he has advanced. In consequence of this,' says the historian, as some writers inform us, the most valorous and exalted of those strangers who were in Egypt, and were compelled to leave the country, migrated towards the coast of Greece, as also to a variety of other regions, under the command of leaders chosen for the occasion. Some of these colonies were conducted by Danaus and Cadmus, who were the most illustrious of all the race. Besides these, however, there was afterwards a large but more ignoble people, who migrated into the province now known by the name of Judea †.'

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Upon the whole however, notwithstanding, as our readers will perceive, Mr. Allwood might easily have added to the testimonies he has adduced, he has here at least ‘established a probability,' and confirmed, in no inconsiderable degree, the hypothesis of Mr. Bryant, whose footsteps he invariably pursues.

(To be concluded in our next.)

ART. IX.-History of Great Britain, from the Revolution to the Commencement of the Year 1799. By W. Belsham. Vol. V. 4to. 11. 15. Boards. Robinsons. 1801.

THE events of the period recorded in this volume, from 1793 to 1799, are in the highest degree interesting; but to place them. in their just light, to give them the dignity of history, the historian should have been farther removed from the period he celebrates, and, by an accumulation of testimonies, from the memoirs, letters, and subsequent acts of the principal agents, been enabled to see into the secret springs of every action, and to trace to its cause, and its consequence, the political measures of

Εκ Χαλδαίων γαρ λέγεται φοίτησαι ταυτα προς Αιγυπτον, κακείθεν προς Έλληνας. V. i. p. 22.

* 4 Ευθύς ων ὁ ξενηλατημένων των αλλοεθνών οι επιφανεστατοι, και δραστικώτατο συστρατ φει τις εξερρίφησαν, ὡς τινες φασιν, εις την Ελλαδα, και τινας έτερος τύπος, έχοντες αξιο λόγος ἡγεμόνας ὧν ἡγεντο Δαναός, και Καδμος, των άλλων επιφανέστατοι. Οδι πολὺς λεως εξέπεσεν εις την νυν καλυμένην Ιεδαίαν.

every year. Under other circumstances, a history may be written, calculated to amuse and instruct those who have been eyewitnesses of the principal facts; it may bring back, in an entertaining manner, to their mind, the speeches which they had heard in either house of parliament, or had read in detail in the papers of the day; it may serve as a book of reference, and contain useful hints for the future historian. A great part of the volume before us is taken up with extracts from parliamentary debates; nothing scarcely is advanced but what might be derived from the passing documents before the public; political measures are animadverted upon with great spirit; and the writer loses no opportunity of showing his aversion to the late administration.

The volume opens with the debates in parliament, on the message from the king relative to the correspondence between M. Chauvelin and the minister for foreign affairs; and it is singular that this debate took place on the very day that France declared war against Great-Britain. A second debate follows on the message from the king, announcing the French declaration of war. The affairs on the continent, after some other less important debates, occupy our attention; the entrance of Dumouriez into Holland, his exploits and defection, the manifesto of the prince of Cobourg, military transactions under and total defeat of the duke of York, the operations on the Rhine, establishment of the revolutionary tribunal in France, trial and execution of the queen, the reign of terror, our captures in the East and West Indies, and the insults offered by the court of London to the neutral powers, form the principal features of the history given us of the year 1793. The year 1794, detailed in the twentieth book, opens with debates in parliament; of which the investigation of the conduct of the Scotch judges, the slave-trade, suspension of the Habeas-Corpus act, and the series of resolutions moved by the duke of Bedford and Mr. Fox, form the principal features. The brilliant successes of the French under Pichegru, the disastrous flight of the British army, the conquest of Holland by the French, their campaigns in Germany, Spain, and Italy, our conquests in the West Indies, and of Corsica, with the naval victory of lord Howe, afford ample matter for the hi storian to display his talents in recording military transactions. The fall of Robespierre, the trials in England and Scotland for high treason, lord Macartney's embassy to China, and the final partition of Poland, are among the principal remaining facts detailed of this eventful year. The twenty-first book opens with a display of the wonderful acquisitions of France in the beginning of 1795, proceeds to the debates in parliament, then relates the military transactions, gives an ample statement of the internal affairs of France, the proceedings of the Girondists and the new constitution, with the dissolution of the Convention. The trea

ties between Great-Britain, America, and Russia, the parliament holden in Corsica, the revival of the pop-gun plot, and the popular meetings at Chalk Farm, conclude the history of the year.

The twenty-second book commences with parliamentary affairs for the latter end of 1795, and beginning of 1796, proceeds to the military operations in Germany, and Bonaparte's wonderful campaign in Italy, our evacuation of Corsica, the internal affairs of France, and the ill success of lord Malmesbury's negotiation. The twenty-third book opens with the speech from the throne, in October 1796, and carries us through the debates of that session, in which the illegal advance of money to the emperor, by Mr. Pitt, affords room for spirited animadversion. The deranged affairs of the bank, and its stoppage of payment, the mutiny in the fleet, motions for dismissal of ministers, military affairs in Italy, lord Duncan's victory, interior state of France, lord Malmesbury's third attempt to negotiate, and the treaty at Campo Formio and congress at Rastadt, form the principal features of this book. The twenty-fourth and last book gives us the closing debates of the year 1797, and of the session in which they were continued in 1798; in which the triple assessments, the voluntary contributions, and motion for the removal of ministers, by the duke of Bedford, keep up the appearance of discussion after the secession of the opposition: and the childish duel, between Pitt and Tierney, might have afforded larger scope for censure to one who, on other occasions, seems willing to deal it out on the first of these characters with a very liberal hand. The Irish rebellion, subversion of the papal government, disastrous expedition to Ostend, Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt, subversion of the Neapolitan government, and the wise conduct of the king of Prussia, are the chief proceedings related of this year, which terminates with a most melancholy presage of future evils, and just reprobation of those who seemed little willing to remove from the oppressed inhabitants of Europe the horrors of war.

We have already observed that the late minister is the object (and we cannot deny the justice in general) of this writer's censure; but the dignity of history requires that such censure should be expressed in decorous terms, and betray no suspicion of the writer's being too much actuated by the spirit of party. Here we cannot but remark a failure in our author's style: the terms in which he stigmatises parts of the minister's conduct are low and unbecoming; and if we could reconcile ourselves to the title of that perfidious minister' (and his solid system of finance is deservedly an object of ridicule), yet it might be covered by better terms than those of this vapouring vaunting mountebank minister.' We might allow that in Mr. Tooke's trial the unparalleled meanness and baseness of Mr. Pitt's disposition displayed itself in a most conspicuous manner;' yet it is aping too much the vulgar mode, of praising living monarchs

as the best of kings, when the poor premier is represented as the worst of men, in the commission of the worst of deeds.' If it be too true that his visionary plans and projects have been every-where defeated, and his predictions have been uniformly falsified;' if he have proved himself to have been 'evidently destitute of the talents necessary for carrying on any war but the war of words;' not even his ridiculous duel with Mr. Tierney can justify the epithets of a bullying, boasting, Bobadil statesman.' His guilt may be very great; yet it was scarcely the business of the historian to be very solicitous after the imaginary horrors of his conscience.

Could so callous a heart, and so cold an imagination, be awakened to a just sense of its deep and inexpiable guilt, hosts of bloody spectres would haunt his solitude, his ears would be appalled with visionary shrieks, the very air would utter loud laments, and he would be doomed to feel all the tortures of remorse, all the unutterable agonies of despair!' P. 209.

Similar sentiments and expressions occur in many parts of the work; but at times the just indignation of the writer is well expressed, and the events of one or two years of the late administration seem to vindicate the following remark.

Under the administration of Mr. Pitt, bigotry and malignity advanced with an accelerated progress, and every species of improvement, moral, intellectual, or political, seemed gradually to become the object first of cold indifference to this insidious statesman, then of dislike, and at length of fear, of hatred, and of horror.'

P. 121.

The memorable campaign of 1794, which ended with the flight of the English from Holland, is said to have been conceived, on the part of the British ministry, in the spirit of madness, and conducted in that of the most complete imbecillity.' In another place we are told, that,

Mest unfortunately for the interests of the British empire, her affairs had now been for ten years in the hands of a minister of great eloquence, art, and address indeed, but who was alike destitute of that enlarged comprehension of mind, and of those generous feelings of the heart, which form, when combined, that greatest of human characters-the genuine patriot statesman. The voice of Mr. Pitt, when aspiring to political pre-eminence, had been beyond all others loudest in the clamor of reform; and, when he had attained to power, his hand was beyond all others heaviest in the oppression and persecution of those who had listened to his doctrines and had acted upon his principles.' P. 189.

Indeed no opportunity is lost of chastising the temerity of the fallen minister; and his attempt to reform the poor's laws justifies the severity of the censure.

Mr. Pitt, agreeably to his engagement, brought in a bill for the

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