he accompanied Mr. Matthews, a commercial traveller, into the north of Italy, through Bologna, Venice, and Parma; and then he returned to Rome. On the conclusion of the peace of 1763, he undertook a journey through France to Great Britain; and here the biographer breaks off.

Of the fragment thus given, we may say that it is truly interesting, and reveals more of the nativeness of genius, and the influence of self-education, than authors can accomplish in biographies to which the hero contributes no record of personal observation. We have omitted (from want of space) to specify several entertaining anecdotes; such as the discovery of the bones of two officers named Halket, who perished in the disastrous action under General Braddock, which occupies the fifth, sixth, and seventh sections of the fourth chapter, and was once intended by Mr. West to form a picture, on which account the narrative, though episodical, is here introduced. The story of the modern Homer, a celebrated Roman Improvisatore so named, (p. 114.) is also very impressive. We must not, however, refuse a page to a statement respecting General Washington, which furnishes another proof of the considerateness and firmness that belonged to this great man.

Dr. Smith, Provost of the College at Philadelphia, was himself possessed of a fluent vein of powerful eloquence, and it happened that many of his pupils who distinguished themselves in the great struggle of their country, appeared to have imbibed his talent; but none of them more than Jacob Duchey, who became a clergyman, and was celebrated throughout the whole of the British Provinces in America as a most pathetic and persuasive preacher. The publicity of his character in the world was, however, chiefly owing to a letter which he addressed to General Washington, soon after his appointment to the chief command of the army. The purport of this letter was to persuade the General to go over to the British cause. It was carried to him by a Mrs. Ferguson, a daughter of Doctor Graham, a Scottish physician in Philadelphia. Washington, with his army, at that time lay at Valleyforge, and this lady, on the pretext of paying him a visit, as they were previously acquainted, went to the camp. The General received her in his tent with much respect, for he greatly admired the masculine vigour of her mind. When she had delivered the letter he read it attentively, and, rising from his seat, walked backwards and forwards upwards of an hour, without speaking. He appeared to be much agitated during the greatest part of the time; but at length, having decided with himself, he stopped and addressed her in nearly the following words: "Madam, I have always esteemed your character and endowments, and I am fully sensible of the noble principles by which you are

actuated

actuated on this occasion; nor has any man in the whole continent more confidence in the integrity of his friend, than I have in the honour of Mr. Duchey. But I am here entrusted by the people of America with sovereign authority. They have placed their lives and fortunes at my disposal, because they believe me to be an honest man. Were I, therefore, to desert their cause, and consign them again to the British, what would be the consequence? to myself perpetual infamy; and to them endless calamity. The seeds of everlasting division are sown between the two countries; and, were the British again to become our masters, they would have to maintain their dominion by force, and would, after all, retain us in subjection only so long as they could hold their bayonets to our breasts. No, Madam, the proposal of Mr. Duchey, though conceived with the best intention, is not framed in wisdom. America and England must be separate states; but they may have common interests, for they are but one people. It will, therefore, be the object of my life and ambition to establish the independence of America in the first place; and in the second, to arrange such a community of interests between the two nations as shall indemnify them for the calamities which they now suffer, and form a new era in the history of nations. But, Madam, you are aware that I have many enemies; Congress may hear of your visit, and of this letter, and I should be suspected were I to conceal it from them. I respect you truly, as I have said; and I esteem the probity and motives of Mr. Duchey, and therefore you are free to depart from the camp, but the letter will be transmitted without delay to Congress."

'Mrs. Ferguson herself communicated the circumstances of this interesting transaction to Mr. West, after she came to England; for she, as well as Mr. Duchey, were obliged to quit the country.'

We exhort Mr. Galt to continue his instructive task with every allowable degree of rapidity: since to pages inspected by Mr. West himself an authenticity attaches, which no posthumous continuations can be expected to attain.-A something of superstition, or belief in omens, seems to characterize several passages of the narrative.

ABT. V. Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon. By Claudius James Rich, Esq., Resident for the Hon. East-India Company at the Court of the Pasha of Bagdad. With three Plates. 8vo. pp. 71. 8s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1815.

IT

T was remarked by Major Rennell, in his work on the Geographical System of Herodotus, that the curiosity of the learned might in all probability be amply gratified respecting the antiquities of Babylon, if researches were diligently pursued for that purpose; and he justly added that the REV. Nov. 1816. $ description

description of the site and remains would prove one of the most curious pieces of antiquity that had been exhibited in our own times. The Major's own disquisition on the subject is as satisfactory as a fair and laborious comparison of antient writers and modern travellers could possibly have made it but personal observation was still wanting; and, indeed, from those modern travellers who had visited Babylon previously to the publication of his book, he was enabled to glean much less accurate information than he might have hoped to gain. A French writer, M. Beauchamp, (whose correspondence was translated and published in the European Magazine for 1792,) had the fullest opportunity of observing these ruins with undisturbed attention; yet there is little doubt that his personal survey extended only to the division of the city to the east of the Euphrates, by which river Herodotus states that it was equally divided. This was also, according to Major Rennell, beyond a doubt the extent of M. Della Valle's observations. The Père Emanuel, whose communications on this subject are detailed by D'Anville, cannot, if we form our judgment from Mr. Rich's memoir now before us, have been a very accurate examiner of the scenes around him. Niebuhr, the most celebrated of these foreign travellers, was prevented from making any very close inspection of these regions by his fear of the Arabs. M. Otter, another foreigner, is either incorrect himself, or has been rendered so by his translators, since he describes large spaces of ground as covered with coppice-wood, and rendering undistinguishable the ruins which they conceal, whereas Mr. Rich positively states that the only wood discoverable near this place consists in the date-gardens of the town of Hellah. In addition to these modern authorities, Major Rennell had the travels of Messrs. Ives and Evans to compare with the antient descriptions; and the results which he has drawn from such a comparison have satisfied the literary world, and will probably continue to be decisive with that portion into whose hands Mr. Rich's unambitious memoir may never fall. From the premises before him, indeed, the Major made the only fair conclusions that could be deduced; and it did not seem very likely that these would be shaken by the accounts of travellers still more recent, when we read in a late publication that two such travellers remained a week at Hellah, in the immediate vicinity of which is the undisputed site of Babylon, without making any discovery that could even lead them to the certain conclusion that they were then treading on the ruins of the earliest and one of the most stupendous works of civilized man.

The geographical position of antient Babylon has been settled by Major Rennell, first, on a comparison of the traditions of oriental writers in general; 2dly, by notices found in antient authors, such as Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Q. Curtius, and others, corresponding with those traditions; and, 3dly, from the description of its remains by modern travellers, compared with these earlier accounts; - and, however the latter may have erred in their theories respecting some of the ruins, they agree in the only point that is essential to the geographical question, that such ruins do exist in a space corresponding to that which is represented by the authors of antiquity. Mr. Rich considers the site of Babylon to be thus satisfactorily established in the environs of Hellah; a town, as most of our readers know, situated in a district still called Babel by the natives, on the western side of the Euphrates; and containing, according to Mr. Rich, about 7000 inhabitants, consisting of Arabs and Jews, and such Turks only as are employed in the government.

This unassuming and sensible memoir was originally published, as the preface informs us, in a literary journal at Vienna, intitled "Mines de l'Orient," and is now re-published without any instructions from the author, and without the benefit of his correction.' It is modestly described as only the first fruits of imperfect research: but the writer's residence at Bagdad, and his consequent familiarity with the customs of the neighbouring countries, have undoubtedly afforded him more facilities in the prosecution of his inquiries, with less chance of interruption from casual and external circumstances, than can fall to the lot of the general traveller; and we regard the result of these investigations as sufficient to redeem the expectations which might be naturally engendered by such opportunities.

It will be our object, first, to notice a few of Mr. Rich's remarks on the country in his progress from Bagdad to the scene of his researches; 2dly, to state the points on which his personal observations have led him to differ from the conclusions of Major Rennell, or rather from those modern travellers from whose writings that gentleman made his deductions; and, lastly, to examine very briefly how far those of the present writer's statements, which are contradictory to the now generally received opinions on the remains of Babylon, are consonant to the accounts of antient authors, some of whom undoubtedly saw that city while it still possessed no inconsiderable share of magnificence.

Mr. Rich describes the whole country from Bagdad to Hellah as perfectly flat, and, with the exception of some small

$ 2

environs

environs of the latter place, as an uncultivated waste. This
contrast to its former state he fully ascertains by traversing
the lines of many canals now dry and neglected, the sure signs
of former cultivation; and by the observation of mis-shapen
masses of earth strewed with broken brick and other building-
materials, the equally indisputable traces of former population.
The only inhabitants of the region through which he passed
were Zobeide Arabs; and at convenient distances he found
khans for the accommodation of travellers, to each of which
was attached a small colony of Fellahs. The general direction.
of the road was N. and S.; the whole distance, about forty-
eight miles, estimated by the ordinary pace of a light caravan,
in which Mr. R. could not be much deceived; and the greatest
distance of these khans from each other was between eight and
nine miles, and the shortest about four. Between the second
and third of these stations, he passed the Naher Malcha, or flu-
vius regius, said to be the work of Nebuchadnezzar; which he
found quite dry, although it could be proved that it had been
used for the purposes of irrigation as late as the times of the
Bagdad Caliphs. At somewhat more than half the distance
of his journey, he arrived at Iskenderia, a large and hand-
some khan, all around which the vestiges of antient buildings
were very clearly distinguishable: indeed, the caravansera it-
self was built of bricks dug up on the spot; and the whole
scene indicated the former existence of a large town on the
site. When he had gone nine miles from Hellah, and was
proceeding in a direction due south, every thing, says the
writer, announced the approach to the remains of a large
city. Lest, however, any of our readers should miscon-
ceive the nature of the remains of Babylon now exposed to
the eye of the traveller, we will quote the few lines by which
Mr. Rich obviates the possibility of such error.
'Before en-

tering into a minute description of the ruins, to avoid repe-
tition, it is necessary to state that they consist of mounds of
earth, formed by the decomposition of building, channelled
and furrowed by the weather, and the surface of them strewed
with pieces of brick, bitumen, and pottery.'

It seems scarcely necessary to remind the reader, especially if he be acquainted with Major Rennell's celebrated work, that the cause of this decomposition of materials is to be found in the nature of the substance of which they were formed. We have the testimony of antiquity that much of Babylon was built of sun-baked bricks; a material not more durable than those hard mud-walls much used in cottage-buildings in the west of England, which, however strong while secured from wet descending vertically, are soon resolved into their ori