glish parody of this fort, "Penetrated with cold rather then with any other fenfation;" the rest had been erafed. To moft people, I fhould fuppofe, it would feem a ftrange return for the most difinterested hofpitality, thus to endeavour to wound the feelings of the humble entertainYou will remark alfo a refine ment in this illiberal pleafure: the monk receives from the hand of his er. gueft the farcafm in a foreign language; he doubts not that it is a compliment, and he behaves accordingly. Long after the writer has taken his leave, fome friend explains the meaning, and the astonished monk blots out the ungenerous lines. But the writer derives no more enjoyment from his wit than he who defaces a direction-poft; the injury is not witneffed by him who inflicts it. Anecdotes of Me. Ledyard and Lucas, Miffionaries fent by the African Affociation to make Discoveries in the interior parts of Africa *. L EDYARD was an American by birth, and feemed from his youth to have felt an invincible defire to make himself acquainted with unknown or imperfectly difcovered regions of the globe. For feveral years he had lived with the Indians of America, had ftudied their manners, and had practised in their school the means of obtaining their protection, and of recommending himself to the favour of favages. In the humble Stuation of a corporal of marines, to which he fubmitted rather than relinquifh his purfuit, he had made with Captain Cook, the voyage of the world; and, feeling, on his return, an anxious defire of penetrating from the north western coaft, which Cook had partly explored, to the eastern coaft, with which he himself was perfc&ly familiar, he determined to traverse the vaft continent, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. His first plan for the purpose, was that of embarking in a veffel which was preparing to fail, on a voyage of commercial adventure, to Nootka Sound, on the western coaft of America; and with this view he expended in fea flores, the greateft part of the money which his chief benefactor, Sir Jofeph Banks, (whofe generous conduct the writer of this narrative has often heard him acknowledge), had liberally fupplied. But the scheme being fruftrated by the rapacity of a cuftom-houfe officer, who had seized and detained the veffel for reasons which, on legal inquiry, proved to be frivolous, he determined to travel o ver land to Kamfchatka, from whence to the western coaft of America, the paffage is extremely fhort. With no more than ten guincas in his purfe, which was all that he had left, he croffed the British channel to Oftend, and by the way of Denmark and the Sound, proceeded to the capital of Sweden; from whence, as it was winter he attempted to traverse the gulf of Bothnia on the ice, in order to reach Kamfchatka by the fhortest way; but finding, when he came to the middle of the fea, that the water was not frozen, he returned to Stockholm, and, taking his course northward, walked into the arctic circle, and, paffing round the head of the gulf, defcended, on its eastern fide, to Petersburgh.. There he was foon noticed as an extraordinary man. Without ftockings or fhoes, and in too much poverty * From Proceedings of the Association; printed for the ufe of the Members. verty to provide himself with either, he received and accepted an invitation to dine with the Portuguese ambaffador. To this invitation it was probably owing that he was able to obtain the fum of twenty guineas for a bill on Sir Jofeph Banks, which he confeffed he had no authority to draw, but which, in confideration of the bufiness that he had undertaken, and of the progress that he had made, Sir Jofeph, he believed, would not be unwilling to pay. To the ambaffador's intereft it might alfo be owing that he obtained permiffion to accompany a detachment of ftores which the emprefs had ordered to be fent to Yakutz, for the ufe of Mr Billings, an Englishman, at that time in her fer wice. Thus accommodated, he travelled eastward through Siberia, fix thoufand miles to Yakutz, where he was kindly received by Mr Billings, whom he remembered on board Captain Cook's fhip in the fituation of the aftronomer's fervant, but to whom the emprefs had now entrusted her fchemes of northern difcovery. From Yakutz, he proceeded to Oczakow, on the coaft of the Kamchatka fea; from whence he meant to have paffed over to that peninfula, and to have embarked on the eastern fide in one of the Ruffian veffels that trade to the western fhores of America; but finding that the navigation was completely obftructed by the ice, he returned again to Yakutz, in order to wait for the conclufion of the win minions. As they parted they told him, that if he returned to Ruffia, he would certainly be hanged; but that, if he chofe to go back to England, they wished him a pleafant journey. In the midst of poverty, covered with rags, infefted with the ufual accompaniment of fuch clothing, worn with continued hardihip, exhausted by disease, without friends, without credit, unknown, and full of mifery, he found his way to Koningsberg. There, in the hour of his utmost diftrefs, he refolved once more to have recourfe to his old benefactor; and he luckily found a perfon who was willing to take his draft for five guineas on the Prefident of the Royal Society. With this affistance, he arrived in England, and immediately waited on Sir Jofeph Banks, who told him, knowing his temper, that he believed he could recommend him to an adventure almost as perilous as the one from which he had returned; and then communicated to him the wishes of the Affociation for discovering the inland countries of Africa. Mr Ledyard replied, that he had always determined to traverfe the continent of Africa as foon as he had explored the interior of North America; and, as Sir Jofeph had offered him a letter of introduction, he came directly to the writer of thefe memoirs, (Mr Beaufoy.) Before I had learnt froin the note the name and bufinefs of my vifitor, I was ftruck with the manlinefs of his perfon, the breadth of his cheft, the openness of his countenance, and the inquietude of his eye. I opened the map of Africa before him, and tracing a line from Cairo to Sennaar, and from thence weftward in the latitude and fuppofed direction of the Niger, I told him, that was his route, by which I was anxious that Africa might, if posfible, be explored. He faid, he should think himself fingularly fortunate to be entrusted with the adventure. I alked afked him, when he would fet out? "To-morrow morning," was his anfwer.' MR LUCAS had been fent, when a boy, to Cadiz, in Spain, for education as a merchant, and having the misfortune on his return to be captured by a Sallee rover, was brought as a flave to the imperial court of Morocco. Three years of captivity preceded his restoration to freedom and his confequent departure from Gibraltar, where, at the request of General Cornwallis, he accepted the offices of Vice-Conful and Chargé d'Affaires in the empire of Morocco, and had the fatisfaction to return, as the delegate of his fovereign, to the very kingdom in which, for a long period he had lived as a flave. At the end of fixteen years, he once more revifited England, and was foon appointed Oriental Interpreter to the British Court, in which fituation he was when he became known to the committee, and expreffed his willingnefs, with his Majesty's permiffion, to undertake in the fervice of the Affo ciation, whatever journey his knowledge of the manners, culoms, and language, of the Arabs, might enable him to perform. * Mr Ledyard died at Cairo A Slight View of the Conflitution of Geneva, and of the two laft Revolutions there. ber 250. 3. The general or fovereign council; or, as it is otherwife termed, the national affembly, or the affembly of the people. This is compofed of the citizens, who have arrived at the age of twenty-five years; and on the moft numerous affemblies, it confifts of about 1600 perfons. Eefide these, are three other claffes of men : The inhabitants are chiefly ftrangers who are allowed to fettle in the town. The natives are the children of inhabitants, born in the town: the number of these equals that of the ci Previously to the two laft revolutions, Geneva had undergone three political changes fince the commencement of the eighteenth century. These difputes had originated with, and were principally confined to, the legiflative power. In the firft, in 1707, the citizens had demanded the re-eftablishment of periodical general affemblies; and although they had, in a great meafure, fucceeded according to their wishes, yet the fenate, taking advantage of the airival of a body of Swifs troops, had caused fome of the leaders to be executed: among these, fell the illuftricus Fatio; who, contrary to all forms of juftice, and, after a general amnefty, proncunced by themfelves, was, by order of the lenate, fhot in his prifon. The next caufe of complaint arofe from the two councils taking to themfelves the right of impofing taxes, and of erecting fortifications without the confent of the general council. This difpute increased; till, in 1738, the parties coming to open hoftilities, France, Zurich, and Berne, cffered their mediation, which was accepted. Their interference, doubtlefs, was friendly and, and their decifion was impartial; but this act, which was then thought to be a benefit, afterward proved the calamitous fource of the greateft miferies to Geneva. Their edict confirmed to the council general all legiflative, confederative, and elective power, as well as the right of making war and peace, of impofing taxes, and of augmenting the fortifications; and that no future difputes might arife, the three powers agreed to become joint guarantees to the new law. The third revolution had its rife in the unjuft decrec, paffed in 1762, against J. J. Rouffeau. This decree occafioned remonttrances on the neglect of the law, which, in the eager nefs of their zeal, the fenate had violated. The remonftrants argued, that, as the fenate would not redrefs the grievances which had been produced by infringing the law, their complaints ought to be fubmitted to the decifion of the council-general, whofe duty it was to watch over the laws, fo that no change whatfoever should be made without its conf. nt.' The recufants (Les Negatifs), for fo we call them, for want of a better term, infiited that the fenate were the proper judges, whether they had infringed the law, or not; and that, as no matter could be brought before the council-gene ral, unless propofed by the fenate and council of two hundred, the fenate and council therefore were to deter mine whether this complaint fhould be heard: in fact, that they poffeffed a negative power, by which they could, in their own body, crush all remonttrances, and prevent the propofal of any question, which they did not wish to be investigated. The fenate thus refufing to fuffer any appeal to the council-general, the confequence was, that, at the election of fyndics, who were to be chofen by the council-general from the members of the fenate, the citizens, in turn, rejected the whole lift. They were ob1iged by law only to elect fuch as were agreeable to them; and, by the fame law, they were permitted to refufe a part, or the whole, of the names which were offered; as then, none were agreeable, they rejected all. The fenate now had recourfe to the ruinous expedient of foliciting foreign affiftance; and, inftead of liftening to terms of accommodation with their countrymen, they appealed to power of France; for France, how different from its prefent glorious fituation! had not then ceafed to be the fanctuary of tyrants. The cantons of Zurich and Berne, to which the fenate like wife applied, delayed, for a while, their interference; but, finding that the fenate perfifted in its determination, they at length joined in a meafure which they could not prevent. Their mediation was fo unpleafant to the citizens, that when their propofals for a reconciliation were offered to the council-general, they were rejected by a large majority. The guaranteeing powers then retired to Soleure, where they pronounced a decree, which the Duc de Choifeul, at that time prime-minister of France, in vain attempted to compel the Genevefe to refpect. Their refiftance was conftant; and the decree, fo far from being put in force, was not even fuffered to be read in the general affembly. The fenate now found the neceffity of entering into fome terms of agreement; and in 1768, a treaty was concluded, by which the council general, in exchange for its right of refufal in election of fyndics, received the privilege of electing one half of the council of two hundred. The citizens obtained, likewife, the right of re-election, or of annually excluding, from the fenate, four of its members; who, after a fecond exclufion, could not again be chofen. This power was given as a balance to the droit negatif of the fenate, concerning which, nothing was ftipulated. During thefe troubles, we have feen feen that the contention was between the citizens and the magiftrates; between two parties, in whom power was vefted, ftruggling for the fuperiority: but there was another, and a more numerous clafs of men at Geneva, whofe liberties feem to have been little regarded. The citizens, whofe anger was fo vehement against the Aristocracy, appear to have forgotten that they, in fact, formed a part of that Ariftocracy; that they were the governors, while the natives were the governed and oppreffed. Though debarred from all power of making or affenting to laws by which they were bound, forbidden to engage in the practice of the liberal profeffions, excluded from the benefit of trial by their equals, and deprived of the fruits of their own industry, by restrictions on their commerce, the natives, by a curiously fingular expedient of tyranny, were called on to bear the principal burthen of the expences of the state. Men, in this fituation, hearing the word, liberty, founded in their ears, would naturalJy wish for a flare of that bleffing, for which others were contending. Accordingly, we find that, in the late revolution, they had afferted their right to the privileges of citizens. Their pretenfions, however, had been declared criminal and feditious by the fenate: the citizens, too, difapproved them. The natives foon perceived that little attention had been bestowed on their interefts; and they openly complained of the hardships of their fubjection. The ferate answered their arguments, in that kind of logic at which tyrants are fo expert, by baLihing one of their body for ten years, for having, according to his fentence, wished to ufurp the title of citizen, and for having d fended his pretenfions by arguments dj.ructive of the conftitution: and the citizens, that they might not be backward in the good work of oppreffion, complained that the natives encroached on their exclufive privilege of trade; and obtained an order, pointing out the narrow limits beyond which they were not to ftep. Thus, driven to extremes by both parties, they found a tempter in a third. The recufants, who were the chiefs of the Ariftocratic party, feeing themfelves fruftrated in their defigns on the citizens, fecretly encouraged the natives, because they were in oppofition to the citizens; and thus, paradoxical as it may appear, affifted the caufe of liberty, becaufe they wanted to be tyrants. The Minifter of France alfo appeared to befriend them. Under thefe circumstances, matters were hurried to extremity by the fol ly of the fenate, who imprisoned a native for finging fome fatirical verfes, in which he afferted that he was a citizen. be pronounced on the prifoner, the When judgment was to natives affembled, and declared their refolution to fuccour him, if any fevere punishment was to be inflicted. The punishment was trifling, and the prifoner was carried home crowned with laurels. On that fame night, him to his houfe, he appeared in pub contrary to his fentence, which confined lic among his clafs. The fenate were and, on this occafion, forgetting their determined to fuftain their decree ; difputes with the citizens, applied to the citizens, after contefting with the them to put themselves in arms; and fenate for years, joined them at the inftant when the oppreffion was to be removed from themselves to the na tives. So eafily can we act the ty rant to others, while we are fighting for liberty for ourselves! On the next morning, the delinquent was again feized; and the ra tives began to affemble. The citizens were immediately called to arms; and in cne street only, where fome of the most violent of the party had furni fhed themfelves with arms, a fcuffie enfucd, |