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the havock spread around. It was propofed by fome to march out immediately, and attack the English army; but this operation was impracticable; becaufe no artillery could move through the inundation, nor could the troops carry their own ammunition dry; otherwife three hundred men, properly armed, would not, for three hours after day-light, have met with 100 together in a condition to refift them. The wifh of every one then turned to expectation that the hips from Madagascar might arrive in the interval before the English fhips in the road were repaired, or others joined them from the fea: but the excellence of the opportunity did not alter Mr. Lally's mistrust of the refource; and letters were immediately difpatched to the agents at Puliacate, Tranquebar, and Negapatam, ordering them. to fend away provifions with inftant expedition, at every risque, on any kind of embarkation.

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The anxiety for the miffing fhips continued until fun-fet of the next day, when the Norfolk with admiral Stevens's flag was difcovered in the offing. The fhip, prepared at all points, before the fouth-eaft ftorm arofe, fcudded before it with a stayfail, without lofing a maft, and without being obliged to anchor until the wind fell, when in the morning they discovered Sadrafs. The apprehenfion of more bad weather made the admiral put out again to fea; when he met the Liverpool, entirely difmafted. This fhip, having parted her cable, and got under fail before the others, had gained more fea-room than any of them; but the fouth-eaft florm had carried away all her mafts; foon after they were joined by the Grafton, who gave the welcome information that he had left, on the 28th of December, the Lenox, admiral Cornifh, with the York, and Weymouth, 30 leagues off the land: they were all returning together from Trincomaly the Grafton, after parting with them, met hard weather during the hours in which the storm was raging near the coaft. The admiral leaving her to take care of the Liverpool, anchored in the road of Pondicherry the next morning, and they in the afternoon. The other three fhips came in the next day. On the 7th came in the Salisbury, with the prize la Compagnie des Indes, likewife from Trincomaly, and the Tyger from Madrafs, where the violence of the ftorm had not reached. No more were to be expected; for the Elizabeth and the Southfea-caftle, wanting the dock, were failed for Bombay, with the two other prizes, the Hermione and Baleine. But by this time, the four difmafted fhips, although not quite refitted, were again in a condition to act on neceflity; and thus in a week after the ftorm, which had raised fuch hopes of deliverance in the garrifon of Pondicherry, they faw their road again blockaded by eleven fail of the line, and although three of them were only of 50 guns, all were manned above their complements by he addition of the crews which had been faved from the three ftranced ships. Their boats continually cruising, intercepted, or drove away whatfoever embarkations came towards

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the road with provifions; but feveral boats which were launched from the town in the three nights immediately after the ftorm, favoured by the wind, the current, and the darkness, escaped to the fouthward.'

This hiftory is illuftrated with a great number of plates, and contains fo clear and faithful a detail of the transactions in the Eaft Indies, as must afford ample fatisfaction, in respect both of information and curiofity, to fuch as are interested in those affairs; to this we may add, that the materials must have been collected with extraordinary pains and application.

The first volume of this work was originally published in the year 1763 ; a new edition of which has been lately publifhed, with many additions and improvements, and a copious index, by the author.

Elements of General Hiftory. Tranflated from the French of the Abbé Millot Part 1. Ancient Hiftory. 2 Vols. 8vo. 145.

bound. Cadell.

TH

HE importance of history towards the attainment of political and moral knowlege is univerfally admitted; and it is by means of this great repofitory of events, their causes and their confequences, that we acquire the most intimate acquaintance with thofe various motives which are calculated to influence human action. It infpires by great examples the love of virtue; it excites the abhorrence of vice; and tacitly affords the most excellent rules of conduct in almoft every fituation of life. For answering these effential purposes, however, it is indifpenfibly requifite that we diftinguish between genuine hiftory and fuch as is fabulous, left while we imagine. we are following truth, we fhould be inadvertently led aftray by the illufions of credulity and error. To establish this ufeful criterion appears to be the defign of the work now before us, in which the author difcovers that laudable spirit of inquiry, and that rational degree of fcepticism, fo neceffary in perufing hiftorical writers, especially the more ancient.

The abbé Millot begins his narrative with the ancient hiftory of Egypt; of which he gives only a general account; his purpose being rather to fearch for truth, than to give a detail of events. The fubfequent paffage on the government and laws of the Egyptians affords an example of the judg ment with which he conducts his remarks.

Hiftorians have attributed to Sefoftris the divifion of Egypt into thirty-fix nomes or departments, which he trufted to those men who were the most worthy of governing. Nothing is more

See Crit. Rev. vol. xvi. p. 249.

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neceffary for a great kingdom, where the eye of the prince requires the affiftance of fo many others. The lands were divided between the king, the priests, and the foldiery. Such a divifion proclaims defpotifm and fuperftition, rather than an equitable government: it was undoubtedly very proper that the defenders of the country fhould be perfonally interested in its prefervation, because the holding of poffeffions was a motive to infpire them with courage; but fo extenfive a property could not fail to infufe a spirit of effeminacy. The Egyptians were a cowardly people, almost always enflaved. Mercenaries, fubject to proper difcipline, would have been of more value to the fate, than thefe foldiers, who were born rather to enjoy the comforts of life, than to endure the fatigues of war.

As to the priests, their immenfe poffeffions were looked upon with the more reverence, as they pretended that they held them of Ifis herself. The third of the lands, joined to the respec which a regard for religion infpired for them, with an exemption from all impofts and public burdens, rendered them fo powerful, that the authority of the priesthood could not be counterbalanced by the civil power; and it is impoffible to look upon the public inftitutions, but as the work of their hands. They governed the kings and the people; they were at the head of the council; the principal dignities, the administration of juftice, the archives and annals, in one word, the laws and opinions were in fome degree in their poffeffion. I leave it then to be judged, whether their traditions collected by the Greeks, de ferve much to be credited.

• Some hiftorians tell us, that the lands of the military were not fubject to taxation, any more than the lands held by the priests. Upon whom then did the taxes fall, or were there no taxes? On the other hand, Herodotus tells us, that Sefoftris divided the lands, and impofed a tax in proportion to the quantity poffeffed by every individual. It would only be lofs of time, to endeavour to clear up fuch contradictions, which are so com mon in ancient history.”

The policy of the Egyptians in obliging children to follow the profeffions of their fathers has been highly applauded by fome writers of great reputation: but the abbé Millot juftly condemns it, as repugnant to the free exertion of native genius, as well as to the accidental variety of corporeal qualifications.

The next fubje&t of the author's remarks is the ancient hif tory of the Chinefe, which is followed by that of the Affyrians and Babylonians. Concerning the credit due to ancient hiftorians, in regard to the latter, the abbé thus expreffes his opinion.

The darkness in which the hiftory of Egypt is enveloped, is nothing in comparison with that of the first nations of Afia,

in which scarce one ray of truth is to be difcovered. If we were to give credit to numbers of hiftorians, Nineveh and Babylon, though but a little distance from one another, were two immenfe cities, and the capitals of two great empires; but if we look back to the fource, examine the evidence, and compare the different criticisms without prejudice or prepoffeffion, it will appear evident that the Affyrians and Babylonians were very foon blended together into one people, united into one empire, and shat the fame state was frequently mentioned by both names.

• For spreading and perpetuating fables nothing more has ever been requifite, than that they fhould be published by an author of reputation, and, which is always the cafe, be repeated after him by fucceeding writers. Ctefias of Cnidus, phyfician to the younger Cyrus, is the author of all the falsehoods which have been fo often tranferibed concerning the Affyrian empire. Diodorus Siculus who was cotemporary with Cæfar, has copied the tales of Ctefias, and many later hiftorians have followed Diodorus, fo that this corrupted fource has infected almoft all the channels through which that history has flowed. What credit can be given to the authority of Cyrus's physician? Ariftotle did not think him worthy of attention, and all the world allow that his history of India, which he boldly narrates, as having been an eye-witness, is filled with the groffeft falfehoods; having therefore been convicted of endeavouring to impofe in one cafe, he should be lefs credited in others, and the rather as even his hiftory of Affyria has in it fome ftriking marks of abfurdity. Let us lay afide every prejudice for a moment to hearken to Ctefas and Diodorus, and let us not be afraid to judge for ourfelves.

• Ninus being poffeffed with a rage of conqueft, fubdued an infinite number of nations all the way from Egypt to India; but fufpended his warlike enterprifes to found the city of Nineveh, which Diodorus places upon the banks of the Euphrates and not the Tigris; an error perhaps of the tranfcriber, yet not unwor thy our notice. Nineveh was quickly built with walls a hundred feet high, having fifteen hundred towers, two hundred feet in height, to ferve equally for its ornament and defence; the circumference of the whole city was four hundred and eighty Radia (furlongs) eftimated at twenty-five or thirty leagues; even adopting the reduction of the length of the ftadium propofed by M. de l'le, Nineveh will fiil be feven times larger than Paris.

This work being completed, Ninus refumed his arms at the head of a million of fighting men, and Semiramis, who was the wife of one of his officers, diftinguished herself by her heroic exploits. The king married her, and left her his crown, and this ambitious princefs being defirous, in her turn, to render her name immortal, in a very few years built the city of Babylon, which much exceeded Nineveh, its wall's being of fufficient thickness to allow fix chariots to go abreast. The quays, the

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bridge over the Euphrates, the hanging gardens, the prodigies of fculpture and architecture, the temple of Belus, which had in it a golden ftatue forty feet high, were all works of Semiramis. She likewife built other cities; fet out to conquer kingdoms; marched against the king of the Indies, with an army of three million of infantry, five hundred thousand horse, a hundred thousand chariots, &c. and, to fupply the want of elephants, the contrived the following excellent ftratagem. She ordered three hundred thousand black oxen to be killed, and their hides to be formed into the fhape of elephants, which being placed upon camels, were drawn up in battle array, but the ftratagem did not fucceed, for the heroine was defeated, wounded, and put to flight; and, fome time after, died in her own country.

Her fon Nynias was but the shadow of a king. From the time of that prince, to the voluptuous reign of Sardanapalus, which is a space of more than eight hundred years, we do not find a fingle incident worth being mentioned. That prince is faid to have destroyed himself by fire, with his women and treafures, when befieged by Arbaces governor of the Medes; and thus ended the Affyrian monarchy, to which Ctefias and Diodorus gave a duration of fourteen centuries, while Herodotus tells us that it lafted only five hundred and twenty years. Such a hiftory is, like the fairy tales, unworthy of reflection.'

From taking a view of the Affyrian and Babylonian empire, the author paffes fucceffively to that of the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, or Jews, and the Medes and Perfians. As an inftance of the little authority due to hiftories that depend folely upon tradition, he mentions the various accounts which have been delivered relative to the death of Cyrus. According to Xenophon, this celebrated hero died in his bed, after a glorious reign of thirty years. Herodotus relates, that he was killed in a battle with Tomyris queen of the Maffagetes; when, with her own hands, fhe threw his head into a veffel full of blood, accompanying the act with thefe words, Thou baft always thirfted after blood, now take thy fill. If we credit the account of Diodorus Siculus, Cyrus was crucified by this princefs. Ctefias, on the contrary, affirms that he died of a wound which he received in Hyrcania; and feveral other writers represent his death in different ways. The character of this prince is drawn in colours as oppofite as the manner of his death is doubtful; and amidst such varieties of teftimonies, it will ever be impoffible to afcertain the truth, If without implicit faith we examine the history of the immediate fucceffors of Cyrus, we fhall be led to conclude that it alfo is greatly blended with fable.

Our author then proceeds to the ancient hiftory of the Indians, taking likewise a curfory view of the people of Alia;

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