participation of the best society which the town affords. Hence the general manners of the circles of mercantile fashion will not perhaps bear the minute and fastidious criticisms of Chesterfield. It is almost impossible for those who have spent the prime of their life in the unceremonious bustle of the wharf and the ware-house to divest themselves of a certain air de bourgeois; and where lately acquired property is, by a kind of tacit compact, made the chief criterion of respectability, it would be idle to expect to meet with the high polish which at once graces and renders uninteresting the society of aristocracy. But the people of Liverpool may challenge a comparison with the inhabitants of any town in the kingdom, with regard to the essence of true politeness, viz. friendly attention and hospitality. In Liverpool no man lives to himself. The selfish save-all, who after poring over his ledger all the morning, at noon hastily devours his unsocial steak at a chop-house, and then returns for his evening's amusement to his dungeon of a counting-house, a character which perpetually occurs in the metropolis, is here unknown. Conviviality is indeed a striking characteristic of the place. Its inhabitants feel a laudable disposition, not only to acquire, but to enjoy, the good things of life; and wherever this disposition prevails, it inevitably produces the cordial warmth of hospitality. It has been well observed, that "our very meals, our very cups, are tasteless and joyless, unless we have a companion to partake of them." The hospitality of Liverpool renders it an agreeable place of resort to strangers. Military gentleman find it a very pleasant station. It is enlivened by the amusements which usually diversify the occupations of large towns. The theatre is open during the greater part of the year. Public concerts are given every fortnight, in an elegant room appropriated to the purpose. As semblies are held at stated periods. Clubs and societies of various deno. minations and descriptions occur in every tavern, and the crowded discomfort of publico-private routs occasionally vies with the folly of the metropolis. The spirit ofliberality which influences the inhabitants of Liverpool is not, however, exhausted in revelry and show. Every charitable institution, every scheme projected for the alleviation of human misery, meets with their ready and strenu ous patronage. The exertion of public munificence has long supported in this town the Blue-coat hospital, in which a considerable number of poor child. ren are provided with clothes, lodging, board, and education....a remarkably well regulated infirmity, and a dispensary. Of late years, the marine society, several Sundayschools, and a school of industry for the blind, have claimed, and have received, the public support. Several Nor does the genius of commerce in this great emporium refuse to associate with the Muses. Various publications bear testimony that here literature has been cultivated with considerable ability. names might be enumerated of gentlemen, who, in the midst of the active concerns of this town, have found leisure to attend to the study of the polite arts. It is a remarkable fact, that the two works which have lately obtained the greatest share of public approbation (the life of Lorenzo de' Medici, and the life of Burns), issued from the Liverpool press. That a taste for reading is widely diffused through all ranks of the residents in this place, is evinced by the numerous list of subscribers to the Liverpool public library: and an inspection of the catalogue of that library will prove that this taste has been systematically directed to useful objects. The constitution of the Athenæum, of which an account was given in the Monthly Magazine for July, 1799, indicates an increas ing maturity of literary taste; and the resort of the young men to the reading rooms of this institution, after the hours of business, gives a good augury of the future accomplishments of the rising generation. When to this is added, that a plan for the extension of the old library has been eagerly adopted, and that proposals for the establishment of of a botanic garden, now in circulation, have been countenanced by a respectable number of subscribers, ample proof has perhaps been adduced that letters are by no means neglected in Liverpool. in the mutual accommodations of business, at once lose the remembrance of a dispute in which, but a day or two before, they had spared neither their personal exertions, nor their purses. The public indignation has been so successfully excited against the African trade, the profit and infamy of which are almost monopolized by the town of Liverpool, that many will be apt to suppose that this unpopular branch of commerce must have some effect upon the manners of its inhabitants. But when it is considered how few out of a population of sixty-five thousand persons have any direct concern in this trade, it will be obvious that its influence on the habits of society cannot possibly be discernible. The merchant who buys and sells one thousand negroes, may be as sociable in his manners, and as humane in his general conduct, as the statesman who hires, or lets to hire, one thousand soldiers. A company of tradesmen may fit out an adventure to Africa; a cabinet may lay a plan to plunder a province: but the individuals of the company, and the members of the cabinet, will, in all probability, be found to differ little from the other men of their own station in the common intercouses of life. It is obvious that the public establishments which have been enumerated, cannot be supported without the united exertions of all sects and parties. It is highly to the honour of Liverpool, that its peace has very seldom been disturbed by the rage of religious bigotry, or the effervescence of political enthusiasm. Not that we shall find within its precincts that unanimity of opinion which is the result of passive ignorance. The dissenters of all denominations are numerous, and the opponents of his majesty's ministers are neither few nor silent. But it has so happened, that the exercise of the virtue of mutual forbearance has happily preserved Liverpool from those public acts of acrimonious hostility, which have at various times since the era of the French revolution troubled the quiet of other districts of the kingdom. This fact cannot be entirely the result of a fortunate concurrence of MADAME RICAMIER'S BEDCHAMcircumstances. It is the effect of various causes, among which may be enumerated the prudence and candour of the leaders of parties; the regular and constitutional manner in which the overt acts of support and of opposition to ministry have been conducted; the activity of the police; but, above all, the intermingling of interests, which necessarily results from the extension of commercial transactions. It has been observed with pride and satisfaction, that even immediately after the intemperate heat of a contested election, the merchants and tradesmen of different interests neet together at the exchange, and, BER. THE luxury of les parvenus ; du, nouveaux riches, upstarts, or new gentry, is scarcely conceivable ....the following is a description of the house of Madame Ricamier. The drawing-room and salle a manger (eating-room) were not yet finished. The furniture prepared for each was rich. I did not think it particularly beautiful; but the bedroom and bathing cabinet exceeding in luxury every thing which I ever beheld, or even ventured to imagine. The canopy of the bed was of the finest muslin, the covering of pink sattin, the frame of beautiful mahogany, supported by figures in gold of antique shapes. The steps which led to this delicious couch were covered with red velvet, ornamented on each side with artificial flowers, highly scented. On one side stood, on a pedestal, a marble statue of Silence, with this inscription.... "Tutatur somnos et amores conscia lecti." On the other, a very lofty gold stand, for a taper or lamp. mirror filled up one side of the bed, A fine and was reflected by one at the top, and another at the opposite side of the room. The walls were covered with mahogany, relieved with gold borders, and now and then with glass. The whole in excellent taste. The bathing cabinet, which adjoined, was equally luxurious. The bath, when not in use, forms a sofa, covered with kerseymere, edged with gold; and the whole of this cabinet is as pretty as the bed-room. Beyond this room is the bed-chamber of Monsieur, plain, neat, and unaffected; and on the other side a little closet, covered with green silk, and opening on the garden, in which Madame sits when she amuses herself with drawing. To conclude, I find "the loves" which "Silence guards," and of which this Paphian seat is the witness, are those of January and May; for the wife is twenty, the greatest beauty in Paris, and the husband something less than sixty." ACCOUNT OF THE TANGUN HORSE FOUND AT THIBET. This species, which is indigenous to Bootan, has its title from the region in which they are bred: being called Tangun, vulgarly Tannian, from Tangustan, the general appellation of that assemblage of mountains which constitutes the territory of Bootan. The breed is altogether confined within these limits, being found in none of the neighhouring countries; neither in Assam, Nipal, Thibet, nor Bengal. I am inclined to consider it as an original and distinct species: they are distinguished in colour by a general tendency to piebald: those of one colour are rare, and not so valuable in the opinion of the Booteea, but they are more esteemed by the English, and bear a ed, which are composed of the higher price than the party-coloursorrel, upon a ground of the purvarious shades of black, bay, and est white. They are usually about thirteen hands in height, and are remarkable for their symmetry and just proportions; uniting, in and beauty. They are short boan eminent degree, both strength died, clean limbed, and, though deep in the chest, yet extremely active. they derive such a superiority in seem principle of their nature; and to inherit this spirit as a hence they have acquired a character among Europeans, of being headstrong and ungovernable;.... though, in reality, it proceeds from an excess of eagerness to perform their task. Indeed, some of those that come into our hands aged, have acquired habits of resistance, which it is rather difficult to modify or reform. These are chiefly to be attributed to are governed: I have seen a Tangun the strong hand with which they horse tremble in every joint, when the groom has seized both ends of a severe bit, and compressed his jaws, as it were, in a vice. Under the strongest impression of fear, they execute their labour with an energy unsubdued even by fatigue; and their willingness to work, added to their comparatively small value, has drawn upon them a heavy share of the hardest services in Bengal, equal with that of the tallest and most powerful horses in India, both for the road and draught yet, in the heaviest carriages, they are never seen to flinch, but often betray an impatience, and start forward with a spring, that sometimes surprises their driver. If they happen to have been unskilfully treated, they will not unfrequent,y bear against the bit with a force which seems to increase with every effort to restrain them. Sometimes, with less apparent cause on their side, they lean against each other, as though it were a struggle which of them should push his companion down; at other times, they lean with so great an inclination from the pole, that a person unacquainted with them would apprehend every instant, that they must either fall or the traces break. These are habits, indeed, which it requires the greatest patience to endure, and a long coure of mild and good usage to subdue. By such means it is practicable to govern them; but to a person not endued with a very even temper, I would by no means recommend the contest; for, after all, strong and hardy as Tanguns are, they are less able to bear the heat of an Indian sun than any other breed, and they often fall victims to it when hard driven in very hot weather. PRAYER SANCTIONED BY PHILOSOPHY....BY EULER. BEFORE I proceed farther in my lessons on philosophy and physics, I think it my duty to point out to you their connection with religion. • I take the liberty, likewise, to restore the following passage, which M. de Condorcet, in his philosophi cal squeamishness, has thought un I begin with considering as objection, which almost all the philosophic systems have started against prayer. Religion prescribes this as our duty, with an assurance that God will hear and answer our vows and prayers, provided they are conformable to the precepts which he has given us. Philosophy, on the other hand, instructs us, that all events take place in strict conformity to the course of nature, established from the beginning, and that our prayers can effect no change whatever, unless we pretend to expect, that God should be continually working miracles, in compliance with our prayers. This objection has the greater weight; that religion itself teaches the doc trine of God's having established the course of all events, and that nothing can come to pass, but what God foresaw from all eternity. Is it credible, say the objectors, that God should think of altering this settled course, in compliance with any prayers which men might address to him? But I remark, first, that when God established the course of the universe, and arranged all the events which must come to pass in it, he paid attention to all the circumstances which should accompa worthy of a place in his edition of the work. "However extravagant and absurd the sentiments of certain philosophers may be, they are so obstinately prepossessed in favour of them, that they reject every religious opinion and doctrine which is not conformable to their system of philosophy. From this source are derived most of the sects and heresies in religion. Several philosophic systems are really contradictory to religion; but in that case, divine truth ought surely to be preferred to the reveries of men, if the pride of philosophers knew what it was to yield. Should sound philosophy sometimes seem in opposition to religion, that opposition is more apparent than real; and we must not suffer ourselves to be dazzled with the speciousness of objection.”. by each event; and particularly to the dispositions, to the desires, and prayers of every intelligent being; and that the arrangement of all events was disposed in perfect harmony with all these circumstances. When, therefore, a man addresses to God a prayer worthy of being heard, it must not be imagined, that such a prayer came not to the knowledge of God till the moment it was formed. That prayer was already heard from all eternity; and if the Father of mercies deemed it worthy of being answered, he arranged the world expressly in favour of that prayer, so that the accomplishment should be a consequence of the natural course of events. It is thus that God answers the prayers of men, without working a miracle. The establishment of the course of the universe, fixed once for all, far from rendering prayer unnecessary, rather increases our confidence, by conveying to us this consolatory truth, that all our prayers have been already from the beginning, presented at the feet of the throne of the Almighty, and that they have been admitted into the plan of the universe, as motives conformably to which events were to be regulated, in subserviency to the infinite wisdom of the Creator. Can any one believe, that our condition would be better, if God had no knowledge of our prayers before we presented them, and that he should then be disposed to change in our favour, the order of the course of nature? This might well be irreconcileable to his wisdom, and inconsistent with his adorable perfections. Would there not, then, be reason to say, that the world was a very imperfect work? That God was entirely disposed to be favourable to the wishes of men; but, not having foreseen them, was reduced to the necessity of, every instant, interrupting the course of nature, unless he were determined totally to diregard the wants of intelligent beings, which, nevertheless, constitute the principal part of the universe? For to what pur→ pose create this material world, replenished with so many wonders, if there were not intelligent beings, capable of admiring it, and of being elevated by it to the adoration of God, and to the most intimate union with their Creator, in which, undoubtedly, their highest felicity consists? Hence it must absolutely be concluded, that intelligent beings, and their salvation, must have been the principal object in subordination to which God regulated the arrangement of this world, and we have every reason to rest assured, that all the events which take place in it, are in the most delightful harmony with the wants of intelligent beings, to conduct them to their true happiness; but without constraint, because of their liberty, which is essential to spirits as extension is to body. There is, therefore, no ground for surprise, that there should be intelligent beings, which shall never reach felicity. In this connection of spirits with events, consists the divine providence, of which every individual has the consolation of being a partaker; so that every man may rest assured, that from all eternity he entered into the plan. of the universe. How ought this consideration to increase our confidence, and our joy in the providence of God, on which all religion is founded? You see then, that on this side religion and philosophy are by no means at variance. SWEDISH MODE OF TRAVELLING ON THE ICE, BY E. ACERBI. WHEN a traveller is going to cross over the gulf on the ice to Finland, the peasants always oblige him to engage double the number of horses to what he had upon his arriving in Grislehamn. We were forced to take no less than eight sledges, being three in company, |