1807.] 



( 565 ) 



ExtraSlsfrom the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 



SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. 



THIS ininilter, who was a ftrenuous 

 advoctite tor peace, in his Gorrcfpon- 

 dence witli Cardinal de Fleury, tells lome 

 cui'ioLi.s truths. 



" I am hard put to keep thefe folks 

 from lighting, not tliat tliev are fully de- 

 termined for war, but becaufe I am in- 

 clined to peace. Our Engliih mull always 

 ikirmidi in the field of Mars, or on the 

 benches of VVeilminller." — Again, 



" I pay a i'uLiiidy to one half the par- 

 liament to keep it within pacitic bounds ; 

 but as tlic King has not money enough, 

 and as thofe to whom 1 have given none 

 declare thcmfclves openly for war, it 

 would be proper for Your Eminence to 

 fend me three millions tournois for low- 

 ering the voice of thofe who cry loudell. 

 Gold is here a metal that has a pi-odigi- 

 ous ei1e6t in cooling hot blood and mar- 

 tial Ipints. There is no impetuous war- 

 rior in the parliament, but a penlion of 

 two thoufaud pounds would make him 

 exceeding gentle. Befides, if England 

 declares heri'elf, you will be obliged to 

 pay in fublidics to powers for making the 

 balance, without reckoning that the fuc- 

 celfes of war may be uncertain ; whereas 

 by fending me money, you will purcliale 

 peace at tiie tirft hand." 



ANECDOTE. 



This word was originally given by the 

 Greeks to every thing of whatever nature 

 that was made known to the people for 

 the firft time. In its literary acceptation 

 it fignifies hillorical details of fucli events 

 which have taken place in the courts of 

 fovcreigns, and which it never was in- 

 tended iliould be publillied. 



Cicero in his 17th cpillle to Atticus, 

 lib. 14. make^ afe of the word,^ but it is 

 obfcrvable that he ules it as a Greek 

 term, and even writes it in Grecian cha- 

 racters, as if it had not in his time a fyiio- 

 niinous exprcffion among the Romans. 

 Pi-oc jpius has given this title to an in- 

 famous libel, in which he reprefcnts in 

 the moll odious anil dilgufting colours 

 tlie Emperor .lullinian and iiis wife The- 

 odora. It fullies the reputation, aiui dc- 

 trai'ls from tiie credit of a writer wiiufe 

 public Iliftories are valuable; but after 

 the venom of his malignity has been fuf- 

 fered to exhale, the refidue of the Anec- 

 dotes, even the molt difgraceful farts, are 

 eftabiillied by their internal evidence on 

 tlie autiicntic mouumcnts of the tiiiics. 

 lie feems to be the only oui; among the 



Monthly-Mao., No 151. 



ancients who wrote in this licentious ftyle. 

 Suetonius, it is true, has minutely de- 

 fcribed the debaucheries of the tirft Cie- 

 fars. He detailed the privaic as well iis, 

 the public a6ts of each emperor, with too 

 much plainnefs perhaps, out certainly 

 without the premeditated latire of Pro-, 

 copius. Vanlias, a Frenchman, has pub- 

 lillied Anecdotes of the Houfe of Medici, 

 in which are a number of doubtful and 

 contradiiitoryllateineni.^, which have con- 

 tributed not a little to difcredit his book. 

 Ijcfules thefe fecret Ilillorics, the more 

 rigid critics have given the fame title to 

 every Ipecies of writing which has never 

 before been publilhed. It is in this fenfe 

 that Muratori, wlicn he printed avariety 

 of manufcripts, which he had difcovered. 

 in dirt'erent libraries, entitled liieni ' Greek 

 Anecdotes.' — At prelent, the word is, 

 commonly aujjlied to any detached ac- 

 count of ceicbrated fayings or remark- 

 able actions, vvhicii are eitjier omitted in' 

 general hiltorio , or are made to fupply 

 the place of a reSular narrative. 



A GKEEXLAND FEAST. 



The following is a bill of fare of an 

 enlcrtai;nnent given by fonie piincipal 

 Greenlanders to a fa6i;or: — 1. Dried 

 herrings. 2 Dried fea-lilli. 3. Boiled 

 ditto. 4. Mimiak, a favourite didi, com- 

 pofcd of half raw and rotten f fli. 5. Boil- 

 ed willocks. C. A piece of njtten whale's 

 tail. This was the bun-buuc/ie, the haunch, 

 ol vcnifoii to which the siucfts were prin- 

 cipally invited. 7. Dried falmon. 8. 

 Dried rein-deer. 9. A dcfert of crow- 

 berries, mixed with the chile from the 

 maw of a rein-deer. 10. '1 he fame ele- 

 gant confection enriched with train-oil. 



SUMOKOKor. 



The progrefs of literature among the. 

 IlulTians has been hitherto veiy flow and 

 gradual. In power, in fplendou;-, in war- 

 like achitvtments tliey perhaps equal 

 any oiiier iiatioii in Europe. — But it re- 

 quired all tiic comiiiHuding authority of' 

 Peter tlie Great, and the f )lierinLj encou- 

 ragi/'.nent of the late Empreis Catharine, 

 to i>ufe them from the Hate of barbarifin 

 in which they had been involved for fo 

 maiiy centuries. All the literature of the 

 early ages is abfolutely confined to the 

 obfcure annals of iNcltur and Nikon, and 

 it was not till the beginning of Uie laft 

 century that Theophunes Procopovitz, 

 Archbilhop of Novogorod, firft began to 

 diHemimite a tafte for the fcicnces, and 

 tg encourage llfem by his example and 

 4 C protettioii. 



