&vo, handsomely printed, with a few copies on royal paper. The present Edition of this incomparable English Classic is offered to the world, with the advantage of possessing upwards of a hundred original Letters, Essays, and Poems, by Dean Swift, which have not hitherto been printed with his works. These have been recovered from the following authentic sources:-First, The most liberal communications by Theophilus Swift, Esq., Dublin, son of the learned Dean Swift, the near kinsman and biographer of the celebrated Dean of St Patrick's. Secondly, A collection of Manuscripts, of various descriptions, concerning Swift and his affairs, which remained in the hands of Dr Lyons, the gentleman under whose charge Swift was placed during the last sad period of his existence. To the use of these materials the Editor has been admitted, by the favour of Thomas Steele, Esq., the nephew of Dr Lyons. Thirdly, Fourteen original Letters from Dean Swift, never before published, two of which are addressed to Mr Addison, and the others to Mr Tickell the poet. This interesting communication the Editor owes to the liberality and kindness of Major Tickell, the descendant of the ingenious friend of Swift and Addison. Fourthly, Several original unpublished pieces, from the originals in Swift's handwriting, in the possession of Leonard MacNally, Esq., barrister-at-law, Fifthly, The unwearied friendship of Matthew Weld Hartslinque, Esq. furnished much curious and interesting information, the result of long and laborious research through various journals and collections of rare pamphlets and loose sheets, in which last form many of Swift's satires made their first appearance. From such sources a good many additions have been paid to Swift's publications upon Wood's scheme, as well as his other Tracts upon Irish affairs. Sixthly, Dr Berwick, so well known to the literary world, has obliged the Editor with some most curious illustrations of the Dean's last satirical Tracts, and particularly of that entitled the Legion Club. Were this a suitable place to offer such acknowledgements, the Editor might mention many other gentlemen well known in the literary world, who have had the goodness to give countenance to his undertaking. But enough has been said for the present purpose, which is only to give an ac count to the public of some of the facilities afforded to the Editor of improving the present Edition of Swift's Works, both by the recovery of original compositions, and by collating, correcting, and enlarging those which have been already published. In the Biographical Memoir, it has been the object of the Editor to condense the information afforded by Mr Sheridan, Lord Orrery, Dr Delany, Dean Swift, Dr Johnson and others, into one distinct and comprehensive narrative. Some preliminary critical observations are offered on Swift's most interesting productions; and historical explanations and anecdotes accompany his political treatises. So that, upon the whole, it is hoped this Edition may be considered as improyed, as well as enlarged; and, in either point of view, may have some claim to public favour. Mr Walter Paterson is about to publish, in one volume octavo, the Legend of Iona, a metrical Romance, with other Poems. Mr David Buchanan's edition of Smith's Wealth of Nations, besides the particulars mentioned in our last, will contain Observations on the value of Gold and Silver since the year 1773, on the East India Company-on Finance-and on Taxation. Com Commercial Intelligence. HOLLAND, and the expulsion of the French armies from the greater part of Germany, has restored full activity to the commercial and manufacturing districts.The business done at Glasgow, Paisley, and Dundee, is now as ex tensive as ever remembered. The consequence also is, that colonial produce, which had fallen below prime cost, has risen from fifty to a hundred per cent. We may expect a corresponding fall in articles of continental produce, as soon as time is given for cargoes to arrive. FORMULA of the Bills of Credit to be created in virtue of the first Article of the Convention, signed on the 18th of September, between the Plenipotentiaries of his Britannic Majesty and of his Prussian Majesty, and with the Emperor of all the Russias, on the 30th of September, 1813, for 2 millions Sterling, or fifteen millions of Thalers. BY AUTHORITY of the KING and PARLIAMENT The Bearer of this Certificate will be entitled, after the Exchange of the Ratification of a General Peace, to one thousand Prussian Thalers current, of 14 to the Cologne Mark weight of silver, according to the Manzfuss of 1764, or the value thereof in Spanish dollars, at the rate of two Spanish dollars of the present standard, for three thalers of 1764, conformably to the conditions of a Convention concluded on the 30th of September 1813, between his Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland, and their Majesties the Emperor of all the Russias, and the King of Prussia. the Dated at day of A.B. His Britannic Majesty's Commissioner. Memorandum.By the 5th Article of the said Convention, the will be entitled, at his option, either to have the amount thereof sub- Des Description of the Castle of the Seven Towers, or Turkish State Prisons. From Travels in the Morea, &c. by F. C. Pou. QUEVILLE. 4to, London. THE Seven Towers has been the scene of many bloody executions; almost every step taken within its walls recalls some dreadful association. There stands the tomb of a vizier, whose services in the reduction of the isle of Candia were recompensed with a tragic death: gloomy sentiments, the names of Turks, of Greek princes inscribed upon the walls, speak the sad fate of those by whose hands they were traced. Towers filled with irons, with chains, with ancient arms, tombs, ruins, horrible dungeons, cold and silent vaults, a pit bearing the name of the well of blood, the funereal cry of owls and of vultures, mingled with the roar of the waves,-such are the objects, such the sounds, with which the eye and ear are familiarized in these dreary abodes. But the Seven Towers is more par ticularly known in European countries as the prison where the Turks confine the ambassadors of the powers with whom they are at war. The prisoners are distinguished from all other prisoners of war by an allowance for the table which is assigned them by the sultan, and by the appellation of mouzafirs, or hostages. It may indeed be considered as a great favour to be regarded in this light, comparing their situation with that of all others whom the fortune of war has led into captivity among the Turks. This Castle is dignified in public documents and firmans with the appellation of an imperial fortress; and, conformably with that distinction, it is governed by an aga who has under his orders a guard and a band of music: he has a salary of six thousand piastres, for the payment of which two timars, or fiefs, in the neighbourhood of Rodosto, are responsible. This place is considered as a peaceable and Dec. 1813. an honourable one. The person who filled it when I was there was a venerable old man of Tartar origin, by name Abdul-Hamed. He had served many years in the seraglio in quality of muezzin and of sacristan; but at sixty years of age, having no longer sufficient power of voice remaining to sing upon a minaret, or at the door of a mosque, he had been created commandant of the Seven Towers. For the rest, he was a very worthy man, endowed with many virtues, and free from the fanaticism of those who assume only an exterior of religion. If fear of persons by whom he knew his conduct was watched made him sometimes appear severe towards us, the vexations we experienced were never to be ascribed to him. Yet a true Turk in his love of money. I have seen him sometimes, without any ceremony, drinking coffee with our cook, who was a Greek papas of Cerigo. It is to be observed, however, that the difference of ranks is not much considered in Turkey, where a porter may in four-and-twenty hours become a vizier or a general. The aga has under his orders a kiaya, or lieutenant; his garrison is composed of fifty-four disdarlis, divided into ten sections, each commanded by a belouk-bachi or corporal. The lieutenant at this time was an inventer of patterns for printing linens; and among the corporals were the imam or curate of the prison, a boatman, a dealer in tobacco-pipes, and other personages of equal importance. The disdarlis, or soldiers, are poor creatures who serve for only six aspres* a day, and who are notwithstanding the objects of envy to many others. The aga is named directly by the Porte; he chooses his lieutenant among the belouk-bachis, and his choice commonly falls on the oldest among them. He also names the belouk • About threepence English money. louk-bachis, who are obliged on entering into office to pay into his hands a caution of a hundred piastres; this is returned to them in case of dismission or voluntary resignation. The Turks who compose the garrison of the Seven Towers have, in the first place, the advantage of being esteemed persons of a certain distinction in their quarter; and, secondly, they are exempted from going out to war, to which every other Mussulman is liable. The belouk-bachis have twelve aspres a day, and the aga gives them two dinners during the Rhamazan. They form a sort of council under him, where a division is made of the booty taken from the prisoners under their care; they deliberate besides upon the discipline of the prison. In this capacity they often quarrel, and enter into mutual accusations of each other, till the commandant adjusts matters by ordering them the bastinado, or by expelling them, preceding the sentence of expulsion by a sort of juridical process that gives it additional sanction. This Castle stands at the eastern extremity of the Propontis, or Sea of Marmara; it is a tolerably regular pentagon, four out of the five angles of which are flanked by towers; the fifth angle had also a tower formerly, but it exists no longer. Its principal front is towards the west, and has, besides the tower at one of the angles, two others, which stand on each side of the ancient triumphal arch of Constantine. The gate of entrance to the Seven Towers on the side of the town is to the east, in a small square. The ground plot of the whole inclosure is about five thousand five hundred square toises. The longest side of the pentagon is that in which Constantine's arch is included: while towers existed at all the angles, this side presented a front of four towers; but the tower at one of the angles having fallen into decay, it has now only three. The first of these towers forms one side of the principal gate to Constantinople; it is round, and covered with lead. The wall that joins it with the first marble tower of Constantine's arch is sixty feet high, and has a parapet mounted with six iron guns, which command the country on the side of BarouthHané, upon the road to St Stephen. The first marble tower is an enormous mass, between eighty and ninety feet high, with a platform at the top. On the side of the country, where it projects forty feet from the wall, it is built of polished marble, but within, the marble is rough. This tower, rent by the shocks of an earthquake, is still in a tolerably good state; the frize is well preserved, and at the north and south angles are two Roman eagles carved, but in a very indiferent style. The wall which runs from its eastern angle to Constantine's arch is equal in height to the tower, and the frize of the tower is carried along the top of it. The eastern side, which is within the inclosure of the prison, has a very large door. The triumphal arch of Constantine, which occupies the centre between the two marble towers, conducts to the golden gate in the exterior enclosure of the castle. This arch was more than ninety feet in height: it has been so much injured by artillery, that we cannot now form any judgement of the ornaments; but on the side within the inclosure there is a vast escutcheon surrounded by a wreath of laurel, having below it the emblem of thunder, and enclosing the chrysimon. By the sides of this arch, which resembles the gate of St Martin at Paris, there were two lateral gates, but they are now built up. The arch itself is also obstructed by two stages of cells which the Turks have made, and have turned arches here to support them. The lateral gate to the left has been converted into a powder magazine; but as it is lower ower than the ground, the water which stands there renders it the usual abode of frogs and salamanders*. From thence to the second marble tower the frize is continued along the rampart, but is interrupted in one part where a large breach had been made, and is filled up with brick work. This tower is not like the first; within it are cold and horrible dungeons, which have resounded with the sighs of hundreds of victims devoted to death. The principal of them has the name of the cave of blood: the first door by which it is entered is of wood; this opens into a corridor 12 feet long by four wide, having at the end twosteps that ascend to an iron door, and this leads into a semicircular gallery; at its furthest extremity is a second iron door, which completes the gallery, and ten feet further an immense massive door inclosing the dungeon. It is impossible to enter it without shuddering: never did the light of heaven penetrate into this abode of tears and groans; never did it echo with the voice of a friend come to console the victim whom despotism had condemned to death. The melancholy glare of a torch scarcely casts a dying light, so entirely is the air enclosed in this abyss deprived of its vivifying particles: assisted by its reflection, however, one may read some inscriptions engraved on the marble but it is impossible for the eye to reach the summit of the vault; it is lost in a gloom perfectly impenetrable. In the midst of this sarcophagus is a well, the mouth of which is level with the ground, and half closed by two flag stones: to this is given the name of the well of blood, because the heads of those who are Probably the lacerta aquatica, or the lacerta palustris, the former of which is called in French la salamandre a queue ronde, and the latter la salamandre a queue plate. TRANSLATOR. executed in the dungeon are thrown into it. THE BAGNIO. It must be observed, that if in the abstract our situation in the castle of the Seven Towers was by no means a pleasant one, we had ample reason to bless our lot when compared with that of our fellow countrymen incareerated in the bagnio; a place beyond all comparison more horrible. It was here that the brave garrison of Zante, with whose journey through the Morea the reader is acquainted, were immured. After a forced march of fifty-two days, those who had survived the fatigue of the route entered Constantinople in a moment the most heart-rending that the imagination could well conceive: the pasha of Albania had just sent thither the heads of the unfortunate French who had fallen upon the field of battle at Prevesa *, and they were exposed at the gate of the seraglio as a monument of Turkish prowess.Shouts of joy, occasioned by this event, were resounding on all sides when the captives of Zante came to augment the transports of the barbarians. The latter made their prisoners defile close by the remains of their friends: but this unfortunate party were already in some sort familiarised with spectacles of horror; even at that nioment they were themselves bearers of the ensanguined relics of such of their friends as had fallen victims to fatigue in the march. I have already observed that, when any one of them was from sickness unable to proceed, his head was struck off, and his sad remains left on the spot uninterred: whenever such an instance occurred, the comrades of the victim were compelled to scalp the head and carry * An account of this affair at Prevesa will be found in a subsequent chapter. |