.

unconcerned, and moved on towards the mountains; we kept up an incessant fire for near half an hour: the Nawab and most of his Omras used rifles, which carried two and three-ounce balls; but they made very little impression; the balls just entered the skin, and lodged there. I went up repeatedly, being mounted on a female elephant, within ten yards of the wild one, and fired my rifle at his head; the blood rushed out, but the skull was invulnerable; some of the Kandahar horse galloped up to the wild elephant, and made cuts at him with their sabres; he charged the horsemen, wounded some, and killed others; being now much exhausted with the loss of blood, having received above 3000 shots, and many strokes of the sabre, he slackened his pace quite calm and serene, as if determined to meet his approaching end; I could not at this time refrain from pitying so noble an animal. The horsemen seeing him weak and slow, dismounted, and with their swords began a furious attack on the tendons of his hind legs; they were soon cut; unable to proceed, he staggered, and then fell without a groan. The hatchetmen now advanced, and commenced an attack on his large ivory tusks, whilst the horsemen and soldiers, with barbarous insult, began a cruel assault, to try the sharpness of their swords, display the strength of their arm, and shew their invincible courage; the sight was very affecting; he still breathed, and breathed without a groan; he rolled his eyes with anguish on the surrounding crowd, and making a last effort to rise, expired with a sigh. The Nawab returned to his tents as much flushed with vanity and exultation as Achilles; and the remainder of the day, and many a day after, were dedicated to repeated narrations of this victory, which was ornamented and magnified by all the combined powers of ingenious flattery, and unbounded exaggeration:

"Soothed with the sound, the Prince grew vain,

Fought all his battles o'er again,

And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain.”

"From the mountains we directed our course towards Buckra Jeel, ' where we arrived on the 4th of December. Buckra Jeel is a large lake about three miles in circumference at its most contracted size in the dry season, and about 30 miles in its extensive period, the rainy season; surrounded by thick and high grass at the foot of the Gorruckpoor hills; the jungle or wild which entours the lake is full of wild elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, leopards, wild buffaloes, deer, and every species of aerial game. This was the place destined for the grand hunt, which we were daily taught to expect with pleasing anxiety, by the florid descriptions of his Excellency. On the 5th of December, early in the morning, we were summoned to the sylvan war; a line of 1200 elephants was drawn up op the north of the lake facing to the east, and we proceeded rapidly through the high grass, with minds glowing with the expectation of the grand sport we should meet. Lay down your pipes, ye country squires, who boast in such pompous language the destruction of a poor reynard or puss, and say in what terms ye could convey an idea of the scene I saw, and now endeavour to describe! When we had arrived at the eastern extremity of the lake, we perceived a large drove of wild elephants feeding and gamboling at the foot of the mountains: I counted

above

above 170. At this critical moment, a Mr. Conway, a gentleman in the Nawab's service, fell off his elephant, owing to the animal's stepping his fore foot into a concealed hole. Mr. Conway was much bruised, pale, and almost senseless; the Nawab stopped to put him into a palankeen, and send him back to the encampment: this gave the wild elephants time to gaze on our dreadful front, and recover from their amaze; many of them scampered off towards the hills. The Nawab divided our line of 1200 elephants into four bodies, and sent them in pursuit of the wild ones, which they were to take or destroy. I remained with the division attached to the Nawab: we attacked a large male elephant, and after a long contest, killed him after the same manner I have already described; we killed also four smaller ones; and our division, including the other three, caught 21 elephants, which we led to our encampment in hightriumph. I have only given a short account of this grand hunt, as it is impossible to describe what we saw and felt: the confusion, tumult, noise, firing, shrieking and roaring of 1200 tame elephants, attacked and attacking 170 wild ones, all in " terrible disorder tossed," formed a dreadful melange, which cannot be imagined by the most luxuriant fancy. There were above 10,000 shots fired from all quarters; and, considering the confusion, I am surprized the scene was not more bloody on our side; about twenty men were killed and wounded, and near half a dozen horses. I had two rifles and two double barrel guns, and a boy to load for me in the khawar; yet I could not fire quick enough, though I expended 400 balls. Many of our tame elephants, which were must, and brought to oppose the wild ones, were knocked down, bruised, pierced, and made to Aly. The largest elephant we killed was above ten feet high*, and would have sold for 20,000 rupees if he had been caught. Our prize of this day might, without amplification, be estimated at 50,000 rupees; but you know our only object was amusement.

"From Buckra Jeel we came to Fazabad, where we reposed for three weeks, to recover from the great fatigue we had undergone. After a gay scene of every species of oriental amusement, and festive dissipation, we returned to this place, having killed in our excursion eight tigers, six elephants, and caught twenty-one. To enumerate the other kinds of game, would require a sheet as ample as the petition which was presented to Jungaze Khan, and might, perhaps, be treated by you in the manner that Asiatic Conqueror treated the petition.-Adieu.-Your's, &c."

"Travellers say there are elephants sixteen feet high; but this is the exaggerated language of travellers, who, in general are more anxious to excite wonder, than to convey information. I never saw an elephant eleven feet high, and I have seen some thousands. The Nawab gives extravagant high prices for the uncommonly large elephants, and he has none eleven feet high. Their general height is about seven or eight feet.".

The

The Praise of Paris: or, a Sketch of the French Capital; in Extracts of Letters from France in the Summer of 1802; with an Index of many of the Convents, Churches, and Palaces not in the Freneh Catalogues, which have furnished Pictures for the Louvre Gallery. By S. W. F.R.S. F.A.S. 8vo. PP. 186. 5s. 6d. Baldwins. -1803.

WHEN this book was first advertised we were so stricken with the title, that we ordered it to be purchased; but some delay having occurred in the execution of our order, we had the mortification to be told that it was not to be had. Whence we naturally concluded that the rapidity of its sale had exhausted the first edition, and that a second would speedily appear; or that, for some reason or other, it had been withdrawn from circulation. Be that as it may, we could never obtain a sight of it till the other day, when we met with it by chance. The title, as we have said, struck us; but recollecting that one book had been written in "Praise of Drunkenness," and another in "Praise of Hell," our astonishment began to subside, and we sat down, with tolerable composure, to read the production before us. The title page had sufficiently informed us that the book was written by a well known Grecian, and, of course, if we did not expect to find much light and amusing matter, we made sure of a rich Classic feast, of many learned remarks, erudite comments, and scientific annotations. What, then, was our disappointment, on casting our eyes over the half-blank pages of this meagre volume, in which it may be truly said, that “a rivulet of letter-press strays through a vale of margin !" If that rivulet, indeed, had contained some tolerable fish, if it had presented a pure current, softly gliding over the pebbles of wit and learning, we could have derived pleasure from the contemplation of it, and have been, in some degree, satisfied; but finding it a foul and muddy stream, whence neither pleasure nor profit could be derived, we regretted extremely the waste of our time and our money, and turned from it in disgust. In short, the scraps of letters, for they are literally scraps, here jumbled into the form and shape of an octavo volume, are fit for nothing but to make paragraphs in a newspaper; and indeed the matter contained in two of these octavo pages would scarcely be sufficient to form (we speak of quantity) one paragraph of common length. It is really too bad to pass such an imposition on the public.

66

In an "Advertisement" the author displays his erudition on the etynology of "Paris." The word, he tells us, was derived from PAR Ists, because Paris was built near the famous temple of Isis, not far from the site of the Abbey of St. Germain des Prés. "At the establishment of Christianity the temple was destroyed; but the idol" (what idol? he has mentioned none, though no doubt he means the image of the goddess)" remained till the beginning of the sixth century, when it was thrown as a trophy into a corner of the Church of St. Germain des Prés, founded by Childebert, with the title of the Holy Cross and St. Vincent." We suppose he intends to say, that the Church was called the Church of the Holy Cross, and that it was dedicated

to

to St. Vincent. "The title of the Holy Cross and St. Vincent," is arrant nonsense. The Advertisement is an useless manifestation of pedantry; and the author would have been more instructive, as well as more intelligible, if he had simply translated the remarks of the ingenious and truly learned author of "Historical Essays on Paris" on this subject.

"The commerce of the Parisians by water," says M. De St. Foix, was very flourishing; their city appears to have had, from time imme. morial, a ship for its symbol. Isis presided over navigation; she was even worshipped by the Suevì, under the figure of a ship*. These reasons were more than sufficient to convince etymologists, that Parisii came from zapa’Içdos, near to Isis; the Greek and Celtic having been originally the same, and both using the same characters. I do not pretend to defend this etymology, but Moreau de Mautour was deceived, when he maintained +, that that goddess was not worshipped by the Gauls, even after their subjection to the Romans. Her priest had their college at Issi, and the church of St. Vincent, afterwards St. Germain des Prés, was built on the ancient ruins of her templet.'

The "Advertisement" is followed by a "Preface," from which we learn, that Paris, a second Troy, had suffered a ten years' siege, from 1792 to 1802, during which time she had been "beset with troubles from without, and violent agitations from within, and perpetual spoil;" a city beset with spoil, is a new spectacle for the wondering traveller. Of spoil, indeed, Paris has certainly had her share, for she is gorged with the spoil of plundered nations, and of murdered individuals. If the author had represented her as the grand receiver of stolen goods, he would have been more correct, and more intelligible. In 1792, Paris was all confusion and disorder; but in 1802, our author says, "I find it swept and garnished, restored to its senses, and in its right mind." Most unquestionably, if this, were his real opinion, he could not be in his right mind. It was necessary, however, that he should say so, as he could find no other excuse for giving to his book of scraps the foolish title which it bears. But he is so eloquent, and so argumentative on this subject, that it would be the highest injustice not to let him speak for himself.

* See Lactantius, Apuleius, and Tacitus de Moribus Germanorum. + Histoire de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. iii. p. 295. D. Martin (in his Religion of the Gauls, vol. ii. p. 295,) proves this, by monu. ments with which the academician in question ought to have been ac quainted. The town of Melun having adopted the worship of Isis, changed its ancient name (Melodunum) for that of Iseos or Isia. Abbon. carmen 3. lib. 1.

This celebrated temple of Isis, says Sauval, which gave its name to the whole country, was served by a college of priests, who lived, as it is believed, at Issi, in a castle, the ruins of which were still visible at the commencement of the present century.

* But

"But since we all see things and persons with different eyes (and most fortunately for the general content, and the acquisition of truth and reality), many, probably, will be more inclined to find fault than to commend; in order, therefore, to preserve some balance between panegyric and pas. quinade, and prevent the preponderance of censure, I have resolved to reserve the good part to myself, and leave the bad for my fellow-travellers; just as the hero of Ivry served his prime minister, by giving him all his troublesome affairs to negotiate, and keeping the tarif of favours, and the dispensation of benefits, in his own hands."

This is a most curious reason truly for misleading the public. The author thinks that more will be disposed to censure than to praise, which is a tacit admission that he thinks there is more just ground for blame than for commendation; and, on this account, and not from any conviction of the justice or propriety of his conduct, he determines to praise whatever he beholds. Why, in the name of common sense, aye, and of common honesty too, why prevent the preponderance of censure, if censure be called for by justice, and pronounced by truth? What is this but to say, there is too much truth on one side, so I will throw in a little falsehood on the other? Mr. S. W. should be told, however, that the hero of Ivry affords no sanction to such preposterous and reprehensible conduct: his honest heart was a stranger to duplicity, imposition, and fraud; his tongue was the herald of truth; and he never sought for a pretext to give to his language the varnish of falsehood; he had his frailties; and who is without them? but an avowed admiration of the fruits of theft and murder, without a detestation of the thief and assassin, was certainly not one of them. We do not mean to charge the author with the actual commission of falsehood, but merely to shew the absurdity of his motive, and the danger of his inference. He represents the Parisians as the same lively, gay, thoughtless race as they always were. Not having seen them ourselves since the revolution, we can only say, that his account differs toto cælo from the various accounts which we have received from other travellers, from men, too, who knew the French well under the Monarchy, and who are incapable of falsehood or deceit. He justifies all the opulent upstarts of the day, on the ground that they were not the authors of, nor agents in the French Revolution, but only reaped the fruits of it; in other words, they did not commit robberies themselves, they only received the stolen goods! Blessed morality this! But the assertion is at variance with the fact. Was not the Imperial Ruffian himself one of the prime authors and agents of the revolution? Were not most of his family, his brother-in-law, who assumed the name of the cutthroat Marat, and nearly the whole of his generals, among the most active of the regicidal gang? Let the author amuse himself as much as he pleases with his fantastical speculations, but let him not pervert facts! The Corsican, he thinks, has finished the revolution, and the reign of pence and good order is restored! We fear he will find that the worst part of it is yet to come.

As a fair specimen of the amusement and information to be derived

from