colleges, the inns of court, and the houses of Edinburgh.

The apartments themselves are remarkable neither for ornament, for furniture, nor comfort. They are adapted, in general, for single persons; more rarely for two. Their common dimensions are those of a pretty goodsized bed-room, and may be from 12 to 15 feet by 10 or 12. If designed for two, they may be still larger; or this enlargement may be produced by a considerable recess on one side. The floor of each, though inlaid with inferior workmanship, can scarcely be expected, when the number is so great, to be kept shining and beautiful, as those of the best rooms. It is therefore merely dusted, and occasionally washed; in which state it has no advantage over a common deal floor. The walls in the oldest houses, are simply white-washed, without any sort

of ornament.

HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION.

HIS MAJESTY owes to himself and to Europe a frank Exposition of the motives which have dictated his late measures in the Baltic.

His Majesty has delayed this Exposition only in the hope that more amicable arrangements with the Court of Denmark, which it was his Majesty's first wish and endeavour to obtain, for which he was ready to make great efforts and great sacrifices, and of which he never lost sight, even in the moment of the most decisive hostility.

Deeply as the disappointment of this hope has been felt by his Majesty, he has the consolation of reflecting that no exertion was left untried on his part to produce a different result. And while he lainents the cruel necessity which has obliged him to have recourse to acts of hostility against a nation, with which it was his Majesty's most earnest desire to have established the relations of common interest and alliance; his Majesty feels confident that, in the eyes of Europe and of the world, the justification of his conduct will be found in the commanding and indispensable duty, paramount to all others amongst

the obligations of a Sovereign, of providing, while there was yet time, for the immediate security of his people.

His Majesty had received the most positive information of the determination of the present Ruler of Frauce, to occupy, with a military force, the territory of Holstein, for the purpose of excluding Great Britain from all her accustomed channels of communication with the Continent; of inducing or compelling the Court of Denmark to close the passage of the Sound against the British commerce and navigation; and of availing himself of the aid of the Danish Marine for the invasion of Great Britain and of Ireland.

Confident as his Majesty was of the authenticity of the sources from which this intelligence was derived, and confirmed in the credit which he gave to it, as well by the notorious and repeated declarations of the enemy, and by his recent occupation of the towns and territories of other neutral States, as by the preparations actually made for collecting a hostile force upon the frontiers of his Danish Majesty's Continental dominions, his Majesty would yet willingly have forborne to act upon this intelligence, until the complete and practical disclosure of the plan had been made manifest to all the world.

His Majesty did forbear, as long as there could be a doubt of the urgency of the danger, or a hope of an ef fectual counteraction to it, in the neans or in the dispositions of Denmark.

But his Majesty could not but recollect that when, at the close of the former war, the Court of Denmark engaged in a hostile confederacy against Great Britain, the apology offered by that Court for so unjustifiable an abandonment of a neutrality which his Majesty had never ceased to respect, was founded on its avowed inability to resist the operation of external influence, and the threats of a formidable neighbouring power. His Majesty could not but compare the degree of influence, which at that time determined the decision of the Court of Denmark, in violation of positive engagements, solemnly contracted but six months before, with the increased operation which France had now the means of giving to the same principle of intimidation, with kingdoms prostrate at her feet, and with the population of Nations under her banners. Nor was the danger less imminent than certain. Already the army destined for the invasion of Holstein was assembling on the violated territory of neutral Ham

burgh. And, Holstein once occupied, the island of Zealand was at the mercy of France, and the navy of Denmark at her disposal.

It is true, a British force might have found its way into the Baltic, and checked for a time the movements of the Danish Marine. But the season was approaching when that precaution would no longer have availed; and when his Majesty's fleet must have retired from that sea, and permitted France, in undisturbed security to accumulate the means of offence against his Majesty's dominions.

Yet, even under these circumstances, in calling upon Denmark for the satisfaction and security which his Majesty was compelled to require, and in demanding the only pledge by which that security could be rendered effectual-the temporary possession of that fleet, which was the chief inducement to France for forcing Denmark into hostilities with Great Britain;-his Majesty accompanied this demand with the offer of every condition which could tend to reconcile it to the interests and to the feelings of the Court of Denmark.

It was for Denmark herself to state the terms and stipulations which she might require.

If Denmark was apprehensive that the surrender of her fleet would be resented by France as an act of connivance, his Majesty had prepared a force of such formidable magnitude, as must have made concession justifiable even in the estimation of France, by rendering resistance altogether unavailing.

If Denmark was really prepared to resist the demands ́ of France, and to maintain her independence; his Majesty proffered his co-operation for her defence, naval, military, and pecuniary aid, the guarantee of her European territories, and the security and extension of her colonial possessions.

That the sword has been drawn in the execution of a service indispensable to the safety of his Majesty's dominions. is matter of sincere and painful regret to his Majesty. That the state and circumstances of the world are such as to have required and justified the measures of self-preservation, to which his Majesty has found himself under the necessity of resorting, is a truth which his Majesty deeply deplores, but for which he is in no degree reponsible.

His Majesty has long carried on a most unequal contest of scrupulous forbearance against unrelenting violence and oppression. But that forbearance has its bounds. When the design was openly avowed and already but too far advanced towards its accomplishment, of subjecting the Powers of Europe to one universal usurpation, and of combining them by terror or by force in a confederacy against the Maritime Rights and political existence of this kingdom, it became necessary for his Majesty to anticipate the success of a system, not more fatal to his interests than to those of the Powers who were destined to be the instruments of its execution.

It was time that the effects of that dread which France had inspired into the nations of the world, should be counteracted by an exertion of the power of Great Britain, called for by the exigency of the crisis, and proportioned to the magnitude of the danger.

Notwithstanding the declaration of war on the part of the Danish Government, it still remains for Denmark to determine, whether war shall continue between the two nations. His Majesty still proffers an amicable arrangement. He is anxious to sheathe the sword which he has been most reluctantly compelled to draw. And he is ready to demonstrate to Denmark, and to the world, that having acted solely upon the sense of what was due to the security of his own dominions, he is not desirous, from any other motive, or for any object of advantage or aggrandizement, to carry measures of hostility beyond the limits of the necessity which has produced them.

Westminster, Sept. 25, 1807.

MHER-UL-NISSA,

WIFE OF THE MOGUL EMPEROR JEHANGIRE,

WAS the daughter of Chaja Aiass, a native of the Western Tartary, who left that country to push his fortune in Hindostan, the usual resource of the needy Tartars of the north. He left home privately, with only one sorry horse, and a very small sum of money, the produce of his effects. Placing his wife upon the horse, he walk

ed by her side. She happened to be pregnant, and could ill endure the fatigues of so great a journey. This scanty pittance of money was soon expended, they had even subsisted some days upon charity, when they arrived on the skirts of the great solitudes, which separate Tartary from the dominions of the family of Timur, in India. No house was there to cover them from the inclemency of the weather; no hand to relieve their wants. To return was certain misery; to proceed, apparent destruction. They had fasted three days, and to complete their distress a daughter was born to them. No travellers appeared, night was coming on, the place was the haunt of wild beasts. Chaja Aiass, in this extremity, having placed his wife on the horse, found himself so much exhausted he could hardly move. To carry the child was impossible; the mother could not even hold herself fast on the horse. A long contest began between humanity and necessity: the latter prevailed, and they agreed to expose the child on the highway. The infant, covered with leaves, was left under a tree, and the disconsolate parents proceeded in tears. But when they had advanced about a mile from the place, and the eyes of the mother could no longer distinguish the tree under which she had left her daughter, she gave way to grief, and throwing herself from the horse on the ground, exclaimed, " my child! my child!" She endeavoured to raise herself, but had not strength to move. Aiass was pierced to the heart. He prevailed upon his wife to sit down. He pro mised to bring her the infant. He returned to the place; but no sooner had his eyes reached the child, than he was almost struck dead with horror. A black snake was coiled round it; and Aiass believed he beheld him extending his fatal jaws to devour the infant. The father rushed forward. The serpent, alarmed at his vociferation, retired into the hollow tree. He took up his daughter unhurt, and returned to the mother; and, as he was informing her of the wonderful escape of the infant, some travellers appeared, and soon relieved them from all their wants. They proceeded gradually to Lahore, where the Emperor Akbar kept his court. Here he had the good fortune to find a distant relation of his, one of that monarch's principal omrahs, who made him his secretary; and his ability and diligence being remarked by the emperor, he soon rose to be high treasurer of the em - pire.