"Calo tonantem credidimus Jovem regnare: præfens Divus habebitur Auguftus"—"We have believed that Jupiter reigns thundering from heaven: Auguftus fhall be esteemed a prefent God." In another place he exprefsly calls Auguftus Jupiter-EPIST. i. 19—43.— "Rides ait, et Jovis auribus ifta fervas"-"You joke,' fays he," and referve your verfes for the ear of Jove.' For all fovereigns, while they are in power, are compared to the Sovereign of the Gods, however weak, wicked, or worthlefs they may be Nihil eft quod credere de fe, Non poffit, cum laudatur Dis æque potentas. I must not forget to add, that this edict of the Emperor was followed with numerous addresses from large bodies of the men who were once called Romans, allowing the reality of the plots, lamenting the decay of piety, and promifing to refift all innovation, and to defend his facred Cæfarean Majefty with their lives and fortunes. HORACE, BOOK I. ODE XXXIV: TILL now I held free-thinking notions, Reach'd to the country's utmost bound; と And And ev'ry river in the nation, From concave fhores made replication*. I fee what power your Gods can fhew, And in his ftead exalt the base: Thus Fortune's gifts fome lofe, fome gain, Confultus erro, nunc retrorfum Cogor relictos---Namque Diefpiter Mutare et infignem attenuat Deus, Suftulit: hîc pofuiffe guadet. THE THE EMBASSY TO CHINA†. HE jealoufy of the Chinese, who, judging from the example of India, might fufpect that the mercantile establishments which we afked for, were meant as Shakespear's Julius Cæfar, A&t i. Scene 1. The ludicrous circumftance that gave rife to this Jeu d'Esprit was ftrongly affirmed to be a fact by feveral of the East-India Company's officers. the the first step to an affumption of power and territory, that might enable us to give them the law in their own dominions; this jealoufy, added to fundry other grave reasons of ftate, are generally fuppofed to have occafioned the failure of the magnificent embaffy we sent across the Indian seas. That these reasons would have had due weight with the wary Chinese, and that they might have baffled all the skill of the most artful negociator, is highly probable; but the abrupt termination of the treaty is faid to be owing to another caufe: to a cause so curious, that to obtain belief it was neceffary that the information fhould be seriously given, as it really was, by officers who left China in the fleet under convoy of the Lion. It seems, that the fagacious perfons who were empowered to make a felection of proper prefents for the mighty Emperor of China, wifhing to give fomething to utility, as well as to fhew, included among the fpecimens of the ingenuity of our artifts, a newly-invented cabinet d'aifance, in plain English, a patent water-clofet. It is not eafy to determine by conjecture, whether the Interpreter of the folemn embaffy explained by words the conftruction of this curious machine, or whether one of the Ambaffador's retinue was appointed to demonftrate its purpose by appropriate action. As foon, however, as the nature of it was known, nothing could equal the horror and difguft of the Mandarins of State. By the immortal Tien, it was too much! What! did thefe audacious foreigners fuppofe that the Holy Son of Heaven, the Sole Governor of the Earth, could have occafion for a water-clofet! In all the countless ages that China has exifted as a ftate; during the twenty dynafties that have fucceffively held the reins of government, fuch a fhocking affront had not been offered to the majesty of the empire! And, indeed, to a people fo ceremonious, fo refined, and fo full of veneration for their auguft Emperor, the indecency must have appeared as grofs, as would appear to the modefty of the English court the prefent of a Lob-lob a Lob-lob book from the merchants of Canton. It was as bad as it would be at Madrid to fuppofe the Queen of Spain to have legs, or to peep at those of a favourite Sultana on the banks of the Bofphorus. It amounted to what the French used to call Leze-Majefté au premier chef. It was a fort of facrilege; and doubtless would have been punished accordingly, if the Ambaffadors had not been protected by their diplomatic character. The nature of several other prefents was very diffatisfactory to the Chinese; but it was chiefly the cabinet d'aijance that made them turn up their noses at our commercial offers. The failure of fo grand an enterprize, from a cause of fuch low import, is a new proof that great effects may fpring from little caufes: and it will, no doubt, furnish matter of regret to those who selected the prefents, when they reflect, that their dreams of finding gold in China might poffibly have been realized, if their ideas had not favoured fomewhat too ftrongly of gold-finding.---Gazetteer. COPY OF A LETTER * From BANEELON, one of the Natives of New South Wales, now in London, to his Wife BARANGAROO, at Botany Bay. THO HOUGH this is a very fine country, my dear little Barangaroo; though I every day fee very fine fights; and though there is great plenty of kangaroos and fish, yet I wish I were got back to my wife and the woods, as I am afraid fome accident will happen to me here; having juft learnt, that all the men in King George's country are mad; as for fome time paft, I have heard them fay nothing to one another, but" What's the news?" I faid the fame to one of them this morning; and he told me very ftrange and fad things, indeed. He faid, that fome months ago it was discovered, *This letter appeared fome months after the declaration of war, when Baneelon was in London. that that a part of the tribe of English-gal* meant to take advantage of the reft, by putting every body upon the fame footing; and were defirous of ruining their own country entirely, by way of being happy. That a great many of the red men were called together, to prevent their doing fo, juft as they used to prevent our taking bread, when we were hungry at Botany Bay. I then asked him, if the red men had killed them, as they did fome of the tribe of Comeringal in our country; and to my great aftonishment, he told me, that the red men had left all these mischievous men juft as they were, and had gone across the great water to fight the tribe of French-gal. When I afked, why they made war upon the tribe of French-gal, he told me, it was for fear the tribe of French-gal fhould make war upon them fome hundred moons hence; and that the English, who were the only people in this half of the globe, who had cut off the head of their Chief, and made their own laws, were refolved never to forgive the other tribe, because they had cut off the head of their Chief, and wanted to make their own laws. He faid, befides, that, as it was much to be feared that the tribe of French-gal might fall out, and kill one another, the English, and a number of other tribes, were gone to prevent it, by killing the greatest number of them poffible." Sun and Moon !" exclaimed I," can this be true!" And the Englishman laid his hand upon his breaft, and faid it was true. He then went on to tell me, that because the other. tribes were afraid, that certain opinions of the tribe of French-gal fhould find their way into their country, they fent thither all the Frenchmen they could lay hold of; and that, because the French had threatened to kill the Princes of this country, the English Princes were gone to be killed in the country of the French. Here, my *Gal, in the language of the natives of New Holland, is a kind of generic termination, indicating a tribe or nation. |