Imatges de pàgina
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who have no sort of ill-will to any individual member of administration, nor any favor for their opponents, make use of a language that is neither understood nor believed. I know, that a minister, as such, is one of the most destructive animals on the face of the globe, and, like a tiger, ought to be kept perpetually chained; otherwise there is no depending upon his good conduct: but, when I speak of watching the minister, it is understood by my countrymen I wish ill to the man; though nothing can be farther from my intention. When I expose the bad conduct of revenue officers, I am supposed to have no good-will to the raising a revenue from the people; though no construction could be farther from the truth; for I know that the revenue can only be augmented by promoting the industry of the people. What a glorious system of financiering would this afford, could the empire of reason be established on the ruins of oppression! But this I am not doomed to see. I shall at least, however, have the satisfaction of knowing that I am imperceptibly contributing towards that end. To do this, I am obliged to speak obscurely, and only to give gentle hints, instead of uttering bold truths: not that I have any fear of giving offence to any great men, or the heads of any party; for thank God I hold them all in equal contempt; but merely that I may not frighten away my readers; for if I have not readers, then my whole power is gone.

These, my good Sir, were the principal motives that determined me to undertake the laborious

task in which I have engaged;* and these considerations have induced me to put up with difficulties in the execution of it, that, I think, no other consideration could have made me bear: difficulties indeed of such an extraordinary kind as I am ashamed to mention, because no person could conceive them possible. In consequence of these embarrassing circumstances, my little work has hitherto been conducted in a manner that would make me blush to acknowledge it as my own, did I not hope to be still able to retrieve its character among men of liberal sentiments at least. Of two things I am very ambitious at present: the first is, to render the work not undeserving the notice of good sense and upright dispositions; the other is, to make it attractive to such as seek only for amusement. The last must ever be by far the most numerous class of readers, and those who have the most need of information. them my chief attention ought to be directed; but, alas! I possess not the talents necessary for accomplishing this myself in almost any degree. I am anxious therefore to obtain assistance in that line from others; and with that view I have applied to every person I knew to aid me in finding light attractive articles, that are not mere froth and flummery, either for love, or favor, or money: hitherto, I am sorry to say, with very little success. If you can aid me in this respect among your literary friends, you will oblige me very

To

*He alludes to the Bee, which was at this time in the course of publication.

much. I know that, in spite of your activity, you have not leisure yourself to do much in that line; but I have no doubt, from the motives I have explained, but you will assist me all you

can.

Literary persons in Scotland-those at least who have attained any name-are in general vain, indolent, and necessarily timid. They justly think, that, if the world will be pleased with such publications as cannot bear a deep investigation, it is more safe for them to keep up the veneration of the public by withdrawing themselves from view, than by coming familiarly among them; as in this last way imperfections would be more easily discoverable. Rousseau's judgment of authors in general was but too well founded: for one man who writes with a bona fide desire of serving his readers, a hundred write with an intention to exalt their own fame, and swell their self-importance; and, provided this last can be done, they are little scrupulous about the means of doing it. Hence, Sir, I have nearly the same veneration for grandeur in literature, as I have for grandees in civil polity; so that I am neither a favorer of the one nor a partisan of the other. In this way I cherish a spirit of independence myself, and wish to promote the like, with a due subordination to government, among all my countrymen. But you will easily see that I can neither become the right-hand man of a minister, nor the Atticus of any living author; and, though I live on very good terms with all of these, yet I can lay no claim to any share in that copartnery of

good offices, which Gilbert Stuart used to call the incense of the puffing club. Yet the public at large are so obliging as to receive my little efforts with a kind indulgence; and I have nothing to fear from the attacks of any one; but I have as little to hope for from the assistance of the fine geniuses of Scotland.

MR. W. G. BROWNE* TO MR. PINKERTON.

Alexandria, Jan. 30th, 1792.

If a letter, like the camel so much used in this country, were qualified to travel only in proportion as it carries the materials of renovation in itself, I much fear that mine would scarcely survive the third day's journey: yet I am resolved to hazard its passage, though its original imbecility should be increased by the fatigues of the way. But an end shall be put to apologies, which have generally the reputation of being insincere, by adding only that I should with difficulty excuse myself for not complying with the desire you have been kind enough to express

* Mr. Browne, so well known for his travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the year 1792 to 1798, and particularly for his singularly interesting account of Darfûr, where he was long detained in captivity, was, unhappily for science, murdered by robbers in Tartary, July, 1813, during a journey which he had undertaken to explore the shores of the Caspian sea. It was stated, at the time of his death, that the memo

of hearing from me an account of the progress I should make. After the loss of a complete month by contrary winds on the coast of England, the rest of the voyage was expeditious and pleasant, having extended only to twenty-six days between Torbay and Alexandria. The vessel I sailed in being a merchantman, though cleared for Naples, owing to some commercial finesse, did not touch at that place; a circumstance from which I felt little inconvenience, as the detention of a ship on those occasions is so precarious as not to afford much opportunity for observation. I have therefore not repented having chosen that mode of conveyance.

It was indeed with no small reluctance, as you will readily conceive, that I forbore to use so fair an opportunity of revisiting France; and if, according to the report current in this place, the aspect of affairs in that country is daily growing so much less favorable, as to promise no long duration to the constitution, my regret at having done so will not be easily removed.

My discoveries here have not been great. Indeed it seems to me very difficult, from the remains of antiquity which now exist, to fix the site even of those buildings which have been considered as ascertained by travellers. I think I have found a few Greek letters on the column

randa made by him in the course of his last journey had been preserved; and it is to be lamented that any observations, however imperfect, from the pen of so enterprising, so acute, and so enlightened a traveller, should be withheld from the public.

VOL. I.

T

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