novitio, et rudi satis esse censent. Sed | and regiments in the European fashion, tamen ne quid victus necessitati desit, and would, if he were well seconded, cum ea decuria, in cujus contubernium bring about some important reforms in adscitus est, gratis cibum capit, eâ con- the Turkish empire. But what has ditione, ut in culinâ reliquoque minis- become of all the reforms of the famous terio ei decuriæ serviat; usum armorum Gazi Hassan ? The blaze of partial adeptus tyro, necdum tamen suis con- talents is soon extinguished. Never tubernalibus honore neque stipendio was there so great a prospect of impar, unam in solâ virtute, se illis æquan- provement as that afforded by the exdi, spem habet: utpote si militiæ quæ ertions of this celebrated man, who, in prima se obtulerit, tale specimen sui spite of the ridicule thrown upon him dederit, ut dignus judicetur, qui tyro- by Baron de Tott, was such a man as cinio exemptus, honoris gradu et sti- the Turks cannot expect to see again pendii magnitudine, reliquis Gianizaris once in a century. He had the whole par habeatur. Quâ quidem spe plerique power of the Turkish empire at his tyrones impulsi, multa præclare audent, disposal for fifteen years; and, after et fortitudine cum veteranis certant." repeated efforts to improve the army, – Busbequius, De Re Mil. cont. Turc. abandoned the scheme as totally imInstit. Consilium.* The same author practicable. The celebrated Bonneval, observes, that there was no rank or in his time, and De Tott since, made dignity in the Turkish army to which the same attempt with the same suca common Janissary might not arrive cess. They are not to be taught; and by his courage or his capacity. This last is a most powerful motive to exertion, and is perhaps one leading cause of the superiority of the French arms. Ancient governments promote, from numberless causes, which ought to have no concern with promotion: revolutionary governments, and military despotisms, can make generals of persons who are fit for generals: to enable them to be unjust in all other instances, they are forced to be just in this. What, in fact, are the sultans and pachas of Paris, but Janissaries raised from the ranks ? At present, the Janissaries are procured from the lowest of the people, and the spirit of the corps is evaporated. The low state of their armies is in some degree imputable to this: but the principle reason why the Turks are no longer as powerful as they were is, that they are no longer enthusiasts, and that war is now become more a business of science than of personal courage.

The person of the greatest abilities in the Turkish empire is the Capitan Pacha. He has disciplined some ships

This is a very spirited appeal to his countrymen on the tremendous power of the Turks; and, with the substitution of France for Turkey, is so applicable to the present times, that it might be spoken in parliament with great effect.

six months after his death, everything the present Capitan Pacha has done will be immediately pulled to pieces. The present Grand Vizier is a man of no ability. There are some very entertaining instances of his gross ignorance cited in the 133d page of the Travels. Upon the news being communicated to him that the earth was round, he observed that this could not be the case; for the people and the objects on the other side would in that case fall off; and that the earth could not move round the sun; for if so, a ship bound from Jaffa to Constantinople, instead of proceeding to the capital would be carried to London, or elsewhere. We cannot end this article without confessing with great pleasure the entertainment we have received from the work which occasions it. It is an excellent lounging-book, full of pleasant details, never wearying by prolixity, or offending by presumption, and is apparently the production of a respectable, worthy man. So far we can conscientiously recommend it to the public; for anything else,

Non cuivis homini contingit adire, &c. &c. &c.

EDGEWORTH ON BULLS.

(E. REVIEW, 1803.)

balm beyond the precincts of Gilead. If nothing can be said to exist preeminently and emphatically in one country, which exists at all in another, then Frenchmen are not gay, nor

Essay on Irish Bulls. By Richard Lovell
Edgeworth, and Maria Edgeworth. Lon-Spaniards grave, nor are gentlemen of

don, 1802.

the Milesian race remarkable for their WE hardly know what to say about disinterested contempt of wealth in this rambling scrambling book; but their connubial relations. It is prothat we are quite sure the author, when bable there is some foundation for a he began any sentence in it, had not the character so generally diffused; though smallest suspicion of what it was about it is also probable that such foundation to contain. We say the author, be- is extremely enlarged by fame. If cause, in spite of the mixture of sexes there were no foundation for the in the title page, we are strongly in- common opinion, we must suppose clined to suspect that the male contri-national characters formed by chance; butions exceed the female in a very and that the Irish might, by accident, great degree. The Essay on Bulls have been laughed at as bashful and is written much with the same mind, sheepish; which is impossible. The and in the same manner, as a school-author puzzles himself a good deal boy takes a walk he moves on for about the nature of bulls, without ten yards on the straight road, with coming to any decision about the surprising perseverance; then sets out matter. Though the question is not a after a butterfly, looks for a bird's nest, very easy one, we shall venture to say, or jumps backwards and forwards over that a bull is an apparent congruity, a ditch. In the same manner, this and real incongruity of ideas, suddenly nimble and digressive gentleman is discovered. And if this account of away after every object which crosses bulls be just, they are (as might have bis mind. If you leave him at the been supposed) the very reverse of wit; end of a comma, in a steady pursuit for as wit discovers real relations, that of his subject, you are sure to find are not apparent, bulls admit apparent him, before the next full stop, a hundred relations that are not real. The pleasure yards to the right or left, frisking, arising from wit proceeds from our capering, and grinning in a high pa- surprise at suddenly discovering two roxysm of merriment and agility. Mr. things to be similar, in which we susEdgeworth seems to possess the senti-pected no similarity. The pleasure ments of an accomplished gentleman, arising from bulls proceeds from our the information of a scholar, and the discovering two things to be dissimilar, vivacity of a first-rate harlequin. He is fuddled with animal spirits, giddy with constitutional joy; in such a state be must have written on, or burst. discharge of ink was an evacuation absolutely necessary, to avoid fatal and plethoric congestion.

in which a resemblance might have been suspected. The same doctrine will apply to wit, and to bulls in A action. Practical wit discovers connection or relation between actions, in which duller understandings discover none; and practical bulls originate from an apparent relation between two actions, which more correct understandings immediately perceive to have no relation at all.

The object of the book is to prove, that the practice of making bulls is not more imputable to the Irish than to any other people; and the manner in which he sets about it, is to quote examples of bulls produced in other countries. But this is surely a singular way of reasoning the question: for there are goitres out of the Valais, extortioners who do not worship Moses, oat cakes south of the Tweed, and

Louis XIV., being extremely harassed by the repeated solicitations of a veteran officer for promotion, said one day, loud enough to be heard, "That gentleman is the most troublesome officer I have in my service." "That is precisely the charge (said

the old man) which your Majesty's on the contrary, to be some relation enemies bring against me."

between the revenge of the Irish rebels against a banker, and the means which they took to gratify it, by burning all his notes wherever they found them; whereas, they could not have rendered him a more essential service. In both these cases of bulls, the one verbal, the other practical, there is an apparent congruity and real incongruity of ideas. In both the cases of wit, there is an apparent incongruity and a real relation.

"An English gentleman (says Mr. Edgeworth, in a story cited from Joe Miller) was writing a letter in a coffee-house; and perceiving that an Irishman stationed behind him was taking that liberty which Parmenio used with his friend Alexander, instead of putting his seal upon the lips of the curious impertinent, the English gentleman thought proper to reprove the Hibernian, if not with delicacy, at least with poetical justice. He concluded writing his letter in these words: 'I would say more, but a damned tall Irishman is reading over my It is clear that a bull cannot depend shoulder every word I write.' upon mere incongruity alone; for if a "You lie, you scoundrel,' said the self-man were to say that he would ride to convicted Hibernian."-(p. 29.)

The pleasure derived from the first of these stories proceeds from the discovery of the relation that subsists between the object he had in view, and the assent of the officer to an observation so unfriendly to that end. In the first rapid glance which the mind throws upon his words, he appears, by his acquiescence, to be pleading against himself. There seems to be no relation between what he says and what he wishes to effect by speaking.

In the second story, the pleasure is directly the reverse. The lie given was apparently the readiest means of proving his innocence, and really the most effectual way of establishing his guilt. There seems for a moment to be a strong relation between the means and the object; while, in fact, no irrelation can be so complete.

The

London upon a cocked hat, or that he
would cut his throat with a pound of
pickled salmon, this, though completely
incongruous, would not be to make
bulls, but to talk nonsense.
stronger the apparent connection, and
the more complete the real discon-
nection of the ideas, the greater the
surprise and the better the bull. The
less apparent, and the more complete
the relations established by wit, the
higher gratification does it afford. A
great deal of the pleasure experienced
from bulls proceeds from the sense of
superiority in ourselves. Bulls which
we invented, or knew to be invented,
might please, but in a less degree, for
want of this additional zest.

As there must be apparent connection, and real incongruity, it is seldom that a man of sense and education finds any form of words by which What connection is there between he is conscious that he might have pelting stones at monkeys and gather- been deceived into a bull. To coning cocoa-nuts from lofty trees? Ap-ceive how the person has been deparently none. But monkeys sit upon cocoa-nut trees; monkeys are imitative animals; and if you pelt a monkey with a stone, he pelts you with a cocoaThis scheme of gathernut in return. ing cocoa-nuts is very witty, and would be more so, if it did not appear useful: for the idea of utility is always inimical to the idea of wit. There appears,

It must be observed, that all the great passions, and many other feelings, extinguish the relish for wit. Thus lympha pudica Deum vidit et erebuit, would be witty, were it not bordering on the sublime. The resemblance between the sandal tree imparting (while it falls) its aromatic fla

vour to the edge of the axe, and the bene volent man rewarding evil with good, would be witty, did it not excite virtuous emotions. There are many mechanical contrivances but the attention is absorbed by their util which excite sensations very similar to wit: ity. Some of Merlin's machines, which have no utility at all, are quite similar to wit. A small model of a steam engine, or mere squirt, is wit to a child. A man speculates on the causes of the first, or on its consequences, and so loses the feelings of wit: with the latter he is too familiar to be surprised. In short, the essence of every species of wit is surprise; which, vi termini, must be sudden; and the sensations which wit has a tendency to excite, are impaired or destroyed, as often as they are mingled with much thought or passion.

-formosa superne Desinit in piscem.

ceived, he must suppose a degree of first, however, ends in a very foolish information very different from, and a way; species of character very heterogeneous to, his own; a process which diminishes surprise, and consequently pleasure. In We are extremely glad that our the above-mentioned story of the Irish-avocations did not call us from Bath man overlooking the man writing, no to London, on the day that the Bath person of ordinary sagacity can sup-coach conversation took place. We pose himself betrayed into such a mis- except from this wish the story with take: but he can easily represent to which the conversation terminates; for himself a kind of character that might as soon as Mr. Edgeworth enters upon have been so betrayed. There are a story he excels. some bulls so extremely fallacious, that any man may imagine himself to have been betrayed into them; but these are rare: and, in general, it is a poor con-in his grave and reasoning moods. He temptible species of amusement; a delight in which evinces a very bad taste in wit.

We must confess we have been much

more pleased with Mr. Edgeworth in his laughing, and in his pathetic, than

lively feeling of compassion which pervades it for the distresses of the wild, kind-hearted, blundering poor of Ireland.

ACCOUNT OF SIERRA LEONE. (E. REVIEW, 1804.)

meant, perhaps, that we should; and it certainly is not very necessary that a writer should be profound on the Whether the Irish make more bulls subject of bulls. Whatever be the than their neighbours is, as we have deficiencies of the book, they are, in before remarked, not a point of much our estimation, amply atoned for by importance; but it is of considerable its merits; by none more, than that importance that the character of a nation should not be degraded and Mr. Edgeworth has great merit in his very benevolent intention of doing justice to the excellent qualities of the Irish. It is not possible to read his book, without feeling a strong and a new disposition in their favour. Whether the imitation of the Irish manner be accurate in his little stories we cannot determine; but we feel the same confidence in the accuracy of the imitation, that is often felt in the resemblance of a portrait of which we have never seen the original. It is no very high compliment to Mr. Edgeworth's creative powers, to say, he could not have formed anything, which was not real, so like reality; but such a remark only robs Peter to pay Paul; and gives everything to his powers of observation which it takes from those of his imagination. In truth, nothing can be better than his imitation of the Irish manner: it is first-rate painting.

An Account of Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone. To which is added, An Account of the present State of Medicine among them. By Thomas Winterbottom, Physician to the Colony of Sierra Leone. Hatchard, Piccadilly. Vol. I.

Ir appears from the Preface of this book, that the original design of Dr. Winterbottom was to write only on the medical knowledge of the Africans in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone; but as he had lived among them some time in quality of physician to the colony, and had made many observations on the genius and manners of the various African nations which surround Edgeworth and Co. have another it, it was thought fit (i. e. profitable) faculty in great perfection. They are that he should write one volume for eminently masters of the pathos. The general, and one for therapeutic Firm drew tears from us in the stories of readers. The latter has not yet come little Dominick, and of the Irish beggar to our hands. The former we have who killed his sweetheart: never was read with pleasure. It is very sensibly any grief more natural or simple. The and agreeably drawn up; and the only

circumstance we regret is, that, upon the whole, it must be rather considered as a compilation from previous writers, than as the result of the author's experience not that he is exactly on a footing with mere compilers: because every account which he quotes of scenes to which he is familiar, he sanctions by his authority; and, with the mass of borrowed, there is a certain portion of original matter. It appears also, that a brother of the author, in company with a Mr. Watt, penetrated above 400 miles into a part of Africa totally unknown to Europeans; but there are very few observations quoted from the journal kept in this excursion; and the mention of it served for little more than to excite a curiosity which is not gratified by further communica

tion.

By the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, Mr. Winterbottom means the windward coast, or that portion of the western shore of Africa which extends from the river Senegal to the latitude of nearly five degrees north, where the coast quits its easterly direction, and runs away to the south, or a little to the east of south.

The whole of this coast is inhabited by a great number of independent nations, divided by different shades of barbarism and disputed limits of territory, plunged in the darkest ignorance and superstition, and preyed upon by the homicide merchants of Europe. The most curious passage in this section of the work, is an extract which Mr. Winterbottom has given us from a report made to a Committee of the House of Commons by the Directors of the Sierra Leone Company; and which (as we conjecture, from Dr. Winterbottom's mode of expressing himself, it has never been printed) we shall extract from his book.

of Sierra Leone, called from them the Mandingo country. As is the practice of the professors of that religion, they formed the doctrines of Mahomet were taught: schools in which the Arabic language and and the customs of Mahommedans, particularly that of not selling any of their own religion for slaves, were adopted; laws founded on the Koran were introduced; those practices which chiefly contribute to depopulate were eradicated; and, in spite of many intestine convulsions, a great comparative idea of civilisation, unity, and security, was introduced: population, in consequence, was rapidly increased; and the whole power of that part of the country in which they are settled has gradually fallen into their hands. Those who have been taught in their schools are succeeding to wealth and power in the neighbouring countries, and carry with them a considerother chiefs are adopting the names asable portion of their religion and laws; sumed by these Mahommedans, on account of the respect with which it is attended; and the religion of Islam seems to diffuse itself peaceably over the whole district in which the colony is situated, carrying with it those advantages which seem ever to have attended its victory over African super

stition."

Agriculture, though in a rude infant state, is practised all along this coast of Africa. All the lands must be strictly appropriated in a country, and the greater part cultivated, before any can be cultivated well. Where land is of little value, it is cheaper and better to till it slightly than perfectly; or rather, perfection, under such circumstances, consists in idleness and neglect. The great impediment to be removed from the fresh land which the Africans mean to cultivate, are those troublesome weeds called trees; which are first cut down, and then, with the grass, set fire to at a particular season of the year. This operation is performed when the Pleiades, the only stars they observe, are in a certain position with respect to "A remarkable proof (say the Directors) the setting sun. At that season the exists in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, fires are scen rolling in every direction of the very great advantages of a permanent, over the parched and inflammable though very imperfect, system of govern- herbage; and the blazing provinces ment, and of the abolition of those African are discerned at an immense distance laws which make slavery the punishment in the night by ships approaching the of almost every offence. Not more than coast. At this period of arson, it is seventy years ago, a small number of Mahommedans established themselves in a not safe to travel without a tinder-box; country about forty miles to the northward for, if a traveller is surprised by the

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