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 reafons of state, are generally fuppofed to have occafioned the failure of the magnificent embaffy we fent across the Indian feas.

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 caufe fo curious, that to obtain belief it was neceffary that the information fhould be feriously 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, wishing 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 demonstrate 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 state; during the twenty dynafties that have fucceffively held the reins of government, fuch a fhocking affront had not been offered to the majefty of the empire!

And, indeed, to a people fo ceremonious, so 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 doubtlefs would have been punished accordingly, if the Ambaffadors had not been protected by their diplomatic character.

The nature of feveral other presents 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 felected 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.

HOUGH this is a very fine country, my dear

Barangaroo, I every 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 strange and fad things, indeed.

He faid, that fome months ago it was difcovered,

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 afked 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 thefe mifchievous 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, besides, 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 breast, and said 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,

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dear

dear Barangaroo, my patience ran away from me, and I swore by my father's bones, that the people of this country must be mad. The Englishman, to whom I was fpeaking, and who, I believe, is not quite fo mad as the reft, faid, with the tears fhining in his eyes, that he was afraid fo too; and that very learned men had proved, that the whole tribe of English-gal went mad once in feven years." And is there no way of preventing it?" faid I.-" Alas! no," anfwered he; "for we never find out that we have been mad till seven years after."

It has been proposed to me to go and throw my spear at the French; but I have always faid, that as the French never took away my wife, or stole my fishingnets, lines, and throwing-ftick, I was not angry with them; and that I could not fight without being angry. No, my dear Barangaroo, I hope to escape in fafety from this mad country; and in the mean time, I beg of the great Spirit to fave you from lightning, sharks, and red men. What can I fay more? Gazetteer.

BANEELON.

MY POOR TURKEYS*.

MR. EDITOR,

HA

TAVING a confiderable number of turkeys to fend to town, I trusted my fecond fon with the care of driving them, and gave him a proper charge, on his fetting off, to be very careful that he loft none by the way; he then flourished his red rag, at the word of command, and departed with the whole corps in ex

This letter appeared shortly after the Duke of York received his first reinforcement of cavalry; at the embarkation of which, our most gracious Sovereign attended in perfon, and generously gave the foldiers one fhilling each. His Majefty is also said to have encouraged the foldiers, by faying---" Hurra, my boys! this is my war." But this latter fact we do not affirm and fhould he loth to believe,

cellent

cellent order. The first half mile was attended with no accident worth mentioning, except the lofs of three fowls, which were fwept into a gypfey woman's apron; but, a little farther on, when he came to a bridge, he drove twenty-five of them into the stream, and suffered five more to tumble through the balluftrades, all of which were loft irrecoverably. It appears, that in the next two miles he loft but three in all, two of which were run over by a broad-wheel waggon, and the other was fnugly depofited in a tinker's wallet, Still, however, he went on without miffing them, though four more fell down a cellar-window by the market-place at Norwich, fixteen were ftolen by a foraging party of militia-men; nine walked into a farm-yard, and two of the largest in the whole flock were flogged up into the boot of a mailcoach, while his head was turned another way. At laft, being informed that his number was diminished, he wrote to me for a reinforcement, which I attended myself on their journey for a part of the way, and I had the fatisfaction to hear that they joined him in good order; but, by the fame exprefs, I found that he had lamed thirty-five of the firft flock, by driving over flint-ftones, and had borrowed more than as many butcher's skewers to fplice the legs of others; that three fhepherd's dogs had killed eleven, and left fixteen more without hopes of recovery; that a penny pye-man had hid two fine cocks in his basket; that a countryman, ftaggering drunk from the fair, had knocked down two more, mistaking them for weazles; and that a higgler coming by in the night, while my boy was found afleep, had condefcended to load his cart with them. I fhall fay nothing of the one hundred and fifty that ftrayed away; of the dozen that dropped into a well; of the four-and-forty that were trod to death by a drove of oxen; of the feven-and-twenty demolished by poachers; of the nineteen that took phyfic for indigestion, and died under the operation; but content myself with observing, that nine-tenths of my Turkeys were at

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length