Rix In 1753, the king of Por- In 1759, the duties on In 1770, the empress Maria-Theresa received from duties, &c. on tobacco In 1773, the duties on tobacco in the Two Sicilies amounted to In 1780, the king of France received from tobacco a revenue of 29 millions of livres, that is, about Total annual revenue of 7,330,933 thele fix kingdoms from duties, &c. on-tobacco 446,000 fary an article of drefs; the form of the pipes, from which the Dutch feem to have taken the model of theirs, fo original; and, laftly, the preparation of the yellow leaves, which are merely rubbed to pieces and then put into a pipe, fo peculiar; that we cannot poffibly derive 40,000 all this from America by way of Europe; efpecially as India, where the habit of fimoking tobacco is not fo general, intervenes between Perfia 806,000 and China. May we not expect to find traces of this cuftom in the first account of the voyages of the Portuguele and Dutch to China?' To inveftigate this fubject I have indeed the inclination, but, at prefent at leaft, not fufficient leifure; and must therefore, leave it to others. However, I can now adduce one important confirmation of my conjecture from Ulloa's voyage to America: It is not probable,' fays he, that the Europeans learned the use of tobacco from America; for, as it is very ancient in the Eaftern countries it is natural to fuppofe that the knowledge of it came to Europe from thole regions, by means of the intercourfe carried on with them by the commercial states on the Mediterranean Sea. No where, not even in thofe parts of America where the tobacco-plant grows wild, is the ufe of it, and that only for fmoking, . either general or very frequent. 7,250,000 18,372,933 a fum greater than the revenues of the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden together, on an average, amount to. To me it appears probable, remarks profeffor Beckmann, that, even before the difcovery of the fourth quarter of the globe, a fort of tobacco was fmoked in Afia. This conjecture being mentioned, to the celebrated traveller, M. Pallas, he gave the following aniwer: That in Afia, and especially in China, the ufe of tobacco for fmoking is more ancient than the difcovery of the New World, I too fcarcely entertain a doubt. Among the Chi-' nefe and among the Mongol tribes who had the most intercourfe with them, the cuffom of fmoking is to general, fo frequent, and become lo indifpenfable a luxury; the tobaccopurfe affixed to their belt fo necef piety of their ancestors, than to preferve any memory of them, and has already deftroyed the greateft part of thefe I am going to mention; I hope it will appear in a different light to the learned fociety of Antiquaries, whofe chief care is to collect and preferve to futurity a faithful remembrance of whatever concerns former ages. If a time fhould ever come when an exact account of this fmall part of the British nation fhall be found interesting, the following lifts of thefe eftablishments, collected with care and exactness, may not prove unwelcome, as they may lead to fources where a complete account of each of them inay be found. I fhall make no farther apology for this effay than to beg it may be confidered rather as a teftimony of my profound refpect for the learned fociety to which I have the honour of prefenting it, than for any intrinfic value which I attribute to it. Spain, eftablifhed for the fame 4. College at Rome about 1578. 9. A school for boys of the lower claffes at Efquerchin, near Douay, about 1750. 10. The Jefuit's college at St. Omer's came into the hands of the fecular clergy in 1764. II. Jefuits. 1. The college at St. Omer's, founded in 1594, removed to Bruges 1764, fuppreffed 1773. 2. The noviciate at Watten, near St. Omers, 1611; removed to Ghent 1765. 3. The college at Liege efia blifhed 1616; turned into an academy for youth 1773: 4. The profeffed houfe of Jefuits at Ghent, 1662; fuppreffed 5. Schools for youth at La Celle in Brie, dependent upon the priory at Paris. "omen. 1. Abbey at Bruffels, established in the year 1598. 2. Abbey at Cambray, in 1623. 3. Abbey at Ghent, 1624. 4. Abbey at Paris, 1651. 5. Abbey at Pontoife, 1652. 6. Abbey at Dunkirk, 1662. 7. Abby at Ipres, a filiation from that of Ghent in 1665; given over to Irish nuns, part whereof went to Dublin in 1685 or 1686; the reft remained at Ipres till 1794. V. Carthufian Monks. The monaftery of Shene, near Richmond, in Surrey, founded by king Henry V. in 1416; retired to Bruges in 1559; next to Louvain in 1578; then to Mechlen in 1591; and finally fettled at Nieuport in Flanders. 1626, till their fuppreffion in 3 2. A college of Dominicans in Louvain, dependent on the convent of Bornhem. Women. 3. A convent of Dominican nuns at Bruffels, eftablished in 1690. VIII. Francifcan Friers. 1. A convent of English recollects, founded in Douay 1617. Women of the Order of St. Francis. 1. A convent of poor Clares at Gravelines, 1603. 2. A convent of the fame, called 4. A convent of Conceptionifts, 5. A convent of nuns of the third 6. A convent of poor Clares, at IX. 7 of the members retired to Bruges, in Flanders; from whence they returned to London, in June, 1555, and remained in The Savoy till November, 1556, when poffeffion was given them of the Chartreufe of Shene, near Richmond in Surrey, and they were foon after formally reinflated therein by letters patent of cardinal Pole, bearing date December 31, 1556. After the acceffion of queen Ilizabeth to the throne, thele monks, by the interceffion of don Gomez di Figuerofa, duke of Feria, the Spanish ambaflador in England, were permitted to depart the kingdom in a body unmolefied. being in number twelve profeffed monks, and three converfe brothers. Their prior was don Maurice Chauncey, who wrote the hittory of their emigration, printed at Mentz. They arrived in Flanders July 1, 1559, and retired to the Chartreufe at Bruges, where they remained till 1569, when they removed to a large houfe in St. Clare's Street, in the fame city. The 19th of April, 1578, they were driven out of Bruges by the Geufian faction, and paffing through Lille, Douay, Cambray, and St. Quintin's, they went to the Chartreuse near Noyon, where they ftaid til the 5th of July following; from whence returning to the Low Countries by the way of Namur, they arrived at the Chartreufe of Louvain the 17th of the fame month. Here they were received and lodged by order of don Juan of Auftria - till 1590 or 1591. Prior Chauncey died at Paris, July 12, 1581, in his retera from Spain, where he had been to folicit fuccours for his community, and had obtained an annual penfion from Philip II. but which was never regularly paid, especially under his fucceffors. Chauncey was fucceeded as prior by don Walter Pvits, who feeing his community unealy at Louvain, is faid by feveral hiftorians of the Low Countries to have removed it to Antwerp in the year 1590; but this does not appear from any certain records of the time. However that was, the next year, 1591, he bought a large houfe in the Bleek-street at Mechlin, where the community refided till its removal to Nieuport in Flanders, in September, 1626, by virtue of a charter given by Philip IV. of Spain, bearing date Bruffels, June 20, 1626. The fame king made a grant to this houfe of about 250 acres of land in the neighbourhood of Nieuport, in lieu of the annual penfion given by Philip II. Here this community re mained until its final fuppre fion by the emperor Jofeph II. in the year 1783, at which time it was reduced in number to three profefied monks and two lay-brothers. It is to be obferved, that this was the only English community of religious men that had never been difperfed or extinct fince the reign of queen Mary. In its library, which was confiderable and well chofen, there was a moft beautiful large folio Bible, written on vellum in the 12th century, and given to the Chartreufe of Shene by king Henry V. its founder; it was in perfect prefervation. There were likewife preferved many other manufcripts, and many church ornaments and paintings, which had been brought over from England in 1559. At the final fuppreflion in 1783, all these were difperfed, and many of them loft. The manufcript Bible, fpoken of above, was deftined for the royal library at Brullels, but never got thither, nor could I ever learn what became of it. 2. Brigittine Nuns. Thele religious women were of a feat of the duke of Northum berland, where they had been re-established by queen Mary, In the year 1559 they obtained, by means of the Spanish ambailador, duke of Feria, a fafe conduct to leave the nation; and they retired first into Zealand: from thence they went to Antwerp, where they refided in 1571, and fome time after. Civil wars raging in the Low Countries, and elpecially at Antwerp, these nuns were obliged to feek fome other refuge, and fled into Normandy, and from thence they went to Lisbon, where they had obtained a fettlement which fubfifts to the prefent, time, and is now almoft the only The following curious particulars refpecting these nuns were communicated by the learned Mr. Corrêa de Serra, F. S. A. &c. in a letter to the fecretary, dated Pentonville, 19th of March, 1800.- Sir, from the two Portuguese books, quored in the end of this note, and which are in the library of chevalier d'Almeyda, our ambaffador, I have been able to collect the following information: "On the fourth day of May, in the year 1594, arrived in the port of Lisbon fifteen English nuns of the order of St. Bridget, with a novice, accompanied by three fathers of the fame order. They were the only remaining part of the community of Mount Sion, near London, which, before the abolition of tha monaftery, confifted of fixty nuns and twenty-five friers, who after that difaftrous event had wandered through France and Flanders, in an unfettled ftate, and forced by the wars to change often their afylum. On their arrival at Lifbon, they were hofpitably received by the Francifcan nuns of the monaftery of our lady la Efperanca, and in that convent they lived, till Ifabel de Azevedo, a noble lady, made them a gift of fome houfes and grounds in the place called Mocambo, where they built their church and monaftery. The then reigning fovereign Philip II. endowed them with a penfion of two mil res's per diem (11 thillings 1 penny halfpenny,) and twelve mayos of wheat yearly (36 English quarters,) paid from the revenue of the fens belonging to the crown at Santarem. This revenue they enjoy at prefent, and befides that, feveral legacies of houfes and lands. As far back as 1712, their revenue was valued at five thousand cruzados. The facraments are adminiftered to them by two fecular priefts, one of whom is alfo the adminiftrator of the temporal concerns of the community. "On the 17th of August, 1651, both church and monaftery were burnt to the ground, and the nuns of Efperanca afforded again for five years an afylum to the diftreffed English nuns. In the fame year, 1651, on the fecond of October, the firit ftone was laid in the foundations of the new building, and in 1656 they returned to their prefent monastery. The church was finished fome time after, by the benefaction of Ruy Corrêa Lucas, and his wife, D Milicia, who remained with the honours and profits of the advowion. Geografia Hiftorica of Lima, t. II. p. 150. Coregrafia Portuguela of Carvatho, t. ill. p. 515, and following. I have |