hus, and of Scanderberg. With such men properly disciplined, a general might do wonders, and could, perhaps, change the face of the oriental world. In the decline of the empire, the Albanese alone have maintained their true characteristicks; proud, and panting for battle, they are delighted, they are transported, at the clashing of arms. The Albanese officers are generally accompanied by a kind of squire, who, on a march, carry their cuirass, and their arms. Their dress and mode of living, give some faint idea of our ancient knights.

It would be useless here to detail the petty intrigues, the desultory warfare and the crimes of all kinds by which Ali gradually extended his dominions. They now comprise Epirus, Arcadia, the mountains of Pindus, Phocida, a part of Etolia, Thessalia, and some districts of Macedonia; together with Crevesa, and other seaports formerly belonging to the Venetians, and which he has wrested from the French.

The pachas of Arta, Argyro-castron, Ochrida, and Delvino, are, in fact, dependent on him, though he suffers them to enjoy the show and trappings of authority; and even the fierce tribes which dwell in the craggy mountains of Epirus, have either felt the power of his arms, or have been subdued by his intrigues.

The revenue drawn by Ali from these countries, may be valued at 400,000l. including the taxes, which are collected with less severity than in the rest of the empire; the produce of his numerous flocks, and his profits on the sale of wool and timber, and indeed on trade in general, for he is the greatest trader and first monopolist in his dominions. This sum is sufficient to pay his tributes to the Porte; to defray the expenses of his household; and to maintain his army.

His forces may amount in peacea ble times to six or eight thousand Albanese; though in cases of great

emergency, as in the expedition against Passwan Oglu, he has brought five and twenty thousand men into the field; but then the additional expense is amply repaid by the Porte. He has, besides, in his dominions, the elements of a most excellent militia ; for the profession of arms is that of every Albanese. They are found throughout the empire, in the service of every pacha, whose guard they generally compose, and they take an active and leading part in all the commotions which desolate the em pire. When by these means they have acquired what they consider a competency, they invariably return to their native mountains; and are always ready to obey the call of their pacha. Others prefer the profession of haïdouts, i. e. highway robbers, and after having acquired a property by that course of life, they likewise return, and are never thought the worse of, on that account. As they are acquainted with the darkest passes of the country, they are most formidable in partial encounters, in which the Mussulmen are known to be ge nerally superiour to the disciplined troops of Europe.

To these natural means of defence and attack, Ali unites all the craft of a politician; as well in attaching men to his interests, as in effecting the ruin of those whose designs he suspects. He never vexes his agas by preventing their extortions. On the contrary, he lets them act at their own discretion; well convinced, that' rogues will never seek for change, when they are assured of impunity; and from this conduct some of them are fanatically devoted to him.

He never lulls himself in danger. ous security; and, always on the watch for European news, as we have observed already, he never lets a for reigner pass through his dominions, without summoning him into his presence; not so much with a view to extort a present from him, though he is as greedy as any other

Turk, as to get information. He afterwards compares the various intelligence that he has received; he calculates events; and every thing induces a belief that Ali will be one of the strongest supports of his master, though his services will be those of a great feudatory, rather than of a devoted slave.

The pachalick of Ali, like the rest of the Ottoman empire, having a population infinitely disproportionate to its extent of territory, the land though not remarkably fruitful or well cultivated, produces more than is adequate to the wants of the inhabitants. With the surplus they procure the money for paying their taxes; and to purchase European manufactures, so necessary in a country where even the most common arts of civilisation are utterly unknown. Arms of every kind form an object essentially neces sary to such a warlike people. They even are an object of luxury among them. They generally prefer the guns and pistols from the manufactures of Brescia. They likewise import their glass and their paper from

Italy. Their women, whose greatest finery is a gold-embroidered handkerchief, receive gold and silver thread from Vienna. Germany also, supplies them with woollen cloth and hardware.

From the ports of Orta, Crevesa, Vallona, Durazzo, and from the mouths of the Boïnna, they export annually in Sclavonian, or Ragusan vessels, five or six cargoes of oil, for Trieste and Venice; three or four of wool, of all kinds, mostly unwashed, destined for Ancona and Genoa : three or four of corn for Genoa; and one or two of tobacco, for Naples and Messina.

Before the revolution, France, which had a constant intercourse with Albania, monopolized most of that trade, with the addition of several valuable cargoes of timber, much superiour in quality to that of the Baltick. It was employed in the dock yards of Toulon; and it has been remarked that the finest frigates in the French navy were built of that kind of oak, which had been furnished by the forests of Albania.

AN article in the foreign jour nals, under the head of Mersburgh, June 10, says: "A distinguished professor in one of our colleges being desirous to excite emulation among his pupils, brought before them a child of only seven years and ten months. He listened with attention to the Greek lesson which the professor was expounding, and which he desired the child to go on with. All his astonished pupils heard the child construe, to the satisfaction of every one, a passage in Plutarch with which he was previously unacquainted, and give every explanation that could be required. Cesar's Commentaries were next handed him, and he translated, readily and distinctly, sentences which had puzzled the

youths around him. In the course of his translating, he was also examined on the parts of speech, con. cord, syntax, &c. which he analyzed and explained with a facility and accuracy which excited the astonishment of all who were present. He construed, likewise, an Italian book, which one of the company had brought with him, and conversed familiarly in that language. The sequel of the conversation proved his extensive knowledge in history, geography, &c. Fortunately for this prodigy of learning, he is well formed, and enjoys perfect health. He possesses all the playfulness, all the modesty and simplicity of a child of his tender years, and is not even conscious that he is the object of

universal admiration. His father is the celebrated doctor Charles Wette, minister of Lochan, near Halle, who unfortunately refuses to communicate the method (peculiar to himself) which he adopted to instruct a child who resembles Heincken and Baratier, the prodigies of their times. It is a well attested fact, that the former

excelled in knowledge at the tender age of two years, and that he died before he had completed his fourth. Baratier, after having astonished Europe by the variety and extent of his acquirements at a very early period, died, apparently of old age, before he attained his nineteenth year.

ON the 11th of last March, died at Tiverton, Devonshire, the place of her nativity, in the 66th year of her age, Mrs. Hannah Cowley, an authoress, who may be justly said to have been celebrated in every walk of the drama, and in every measure of poetry.

This lady was the daughter of the late Mr. Parkhurst, also of Tiverton; a gentleman as universally respected and esteemed for his learning and probity, as for a peculiar flow of humour which enlivened his conversation. Mrs. Cowley's genius may, in some respects, be considered as hereditary. Her grandmother by the father's side having been first cousin to the celebrated poet Gay, by whom she was held in such high estimation, that he passed a considerable portion of his time at her house in Barnstaple.

In addition to his other qualifica tions, Mr. Parkhurst had attained a proficiency in classical literature, which gained him the reputation of having been an excellent scholar. Under such a tutor, was the gemius of our authoress inspired and cultivated; and she presented him in return with the first fruits of her muse, by prefixing his name to the poem of the Maid of Aragon, in a dedication, which evinced at once the

fire of youthful genius, and the ge nuine effusions of filial gratitude.

Mrs. Cowley's first dramatick Coup d'Essai, was the comedy of the Runaway. This play, produced in March, 1776, was the last new piece brought out by Mr. Garrick, previous to his resigning the management of Drurylane theatre.

The first act of this play, verbatim, as it now stands, is said to have been produced one morning before dinner. It met the encouragement of her husband, who wished to see it finished. It was accordingly comple ted in a fortnight, and transmitted to Mr. Garrick, at his then residence, at Hampton court.

This comedy which was so favourably received, that it first introduced the practice of what, in dramatick phraseology, is termed "Running Plays," was performed a successive number of nights, with distinguished applause. And we may judge what must have been the receipts of the treasury of the theatre, when it produced to the fair authoress eight hundred guineas.

Her next effort in the drama, in point of composition, though not of representation, was the tragedy of Albina, which was brought out by Mr. Colman, at his summer theatre in the Haymarket, on the 30th of

July, 1779. The farce of" Who's the Dupe," was performed at Drurylane, in the month of April preceding, and it was received with that applause, which, whenever performed, it now never fails to obtain.

The Belles Stratagem, came out at Covent Garden, in February, 1780, and it was received with such loud and boundless acclamation, that it had the honour of being patronized by the queen, before whom it was performed once every season, for twenty years after its first appear

ance.

This play, when published, was by express permission dedicated to her majesty.

Stimulated by her favourable reception with the publick, Mrs. Cow. ley continued to cultivate her acquaintance with the dramatick muses, and the Belles Stratagem was successively followed by the comedies of" Which is the Man," "A Bold Stroke for a Husband," &c.

The limits of this article will not permit us to dwell upon the merits of several beautiful pieces of fugitive poetry; such as her specimens in imitation of Cowley, Monologue on the death of Chatterton, the verses occasioned by lady Manners's Ode to Solitude [which produced an intimacy between the two ladies] her poem entitled, Edwina, inserted in a late history of Cumberland, with some beautiful little poems, which appear ed in the newspapers of the day, and which raised newspaper poetry to an eminence it had never before attained. We proceed to notice her flights in the higher regions of epic poetry.

Her productions in this line, which have yet been published, are the Maid of Aragon, the Scottish Village, and the Siege of Acre.

The poems which we have above alluded to, abound with beautiful and glowing imagery; but in critical justice it must here be admitted, that amidst the most luxuriant descriptions, and the most smooth and ele

VOL. II.

It must still, however, be allowed, notwithstanding these objections, that nothing can exceed the charms of the poetry, in many of the passages; thus, in the Maid of Aragon, the Old Aragonian King, the Fair Osmida, the Moorish Prince, and the French De Couci, are so many distinct portraits, coloured by the vivid pen of genius; whilst in the tragedy of Albina, the characters of Old Westmoreland and Gondibert, are portrayed in the grandest style, and display an intimate acquaintance with the age of chivalry.

The wonderful facility of this lady's pen, and the rapidity with which, if we may be allowed the term, the flashes of her genius were transferred to her paper, is not less remarkable than the strength and variety of its powers. Her productions, indeed, from that sprightliness and ease, by which they are characterized, exhibit those spontaneous coruscations of genius, which all the laboured exertions of art must despair to accomplish.

Ipse volens facilisque sequetur, Si te Fata vocant; aliter non viribus ullis Vincere, nec duro poteris convellere ferro

In all the walks of the legitimate drama, Mrs. Cowley has left ample specimens, to entitle her to rank with the first dramatick authors of the day. Scorning to attempt ephemeral fame, to administer to the perverted taste of the times, to court the acclamation of the galleries, and implore the aid of the grimacer, the painter, or

Dd

the machinist, Mrs. Cowley, like the veteran Cumberland, has never deserted those banners of legitimate comedy, under which she first enlisted.

Equally at home in the sublime and pathetick, as in the humorous, she entered at once into the feelings of a hero, or a monarch, with as much success as into those of a slopseller, or a coquette. Doiley, in the farce of Who's the Dupe, is perhaps unrivalled on the stage; whilst Gradus, Doricourt, Flutter, Hardy, lord Sparkle, and the Pendragons, are all distinct and highly coloured portraits. /

We must also here, in justice to departed merit, notice her peculiar excellence in colouring the female character. For proof of this we can safely rest our appeal to her Miss Hardy in the Belles Stratagem, and Olivia in the Bold Stroke for a Husband.

The last hurried effort of this lady's pen was in unison with the excellence of her heart. It was a little poem in aid of benevolence; an act of charity to one who moved in the humble sphere of sexton of the parish, and whose little property had been swallowed up by the late floods. This little poem gives a pathetick picture of the poor man's efforts, whilst his cottage was overwhelmed; describes his losses; and delicately claims attention towards one whose pride was in conflict with his poverty; one whose situation claimed that assistance which he could not bring himself directly to beg.

From her habits, Mrs. Cowley might truly be termed a most disinterested votary of the muses. Her pen was not guided by mercenary views. She wrote merely for the pleasure she felt in writing. The poem of the Siege of Acre, was given to a respectable bookseller, who asked for it. She reserved none of her manuscripts, nor did she wait to correct them. Thus her newspaper poetry was written and sent off, fres

quently within four and twenty hours after the event which had given birth to it.

Her dramatick habits had given a dramatick hue to all her compositions; and we find her occasionally assuming a fictitious signature, and answering or addressing some lovesick youth, or despairing maid, where existence to her was merely ideal.

In this lady's conversation (and the writer of this article has had the pleasure of having been occasionally present) there was nothing of that proud superiority which persons, possibly of more learning, but less genius, sometimes assume to awe and intimidate. Easy and affable in her manners, it was ever Mrs. Cowley's endeavour to raise to a level with herself, those whose timidity would have placed below it.

Sometimes, indeed, she would enliven the topick under discussion with some sprightly sallies; but these were bright without being dazzling, the spontaneous effusions of genius, emanating from an excellent heart, and corrected by a well regulated mind.

The same ease and affability which distinguished her conversation, cha racterized her epistolary correspondence, where the ease and familiarity of the style soothed any sense of inferiority, and rendered her letters probably not the least perfect of her compositions.

Mrs. Cowley was married at a very early period to a gentleman who died in India, a captain in the company's service, and brother to Mr. Cowley, an eminent merchant of Catea

ton street.

She has left a son, now at the bar, and a daughter, married in India to the Rev. Dr. Brown, provost of the magnificent college of Calcutta.

The following is a list of her principal known publications, viz.

Epic poems-The Maid of Aragon; Scottish Village; and Siege of Acre.

Tragedies.-Albina, Fate of Sparta.