KARAMSIN’s TRAVELS THROUGH PRUSSIA, &C. 
repartee. The sally makes the auditors 
| oe and if the repartee is gay, lively, 
and strikingly pointed, all ot a sudden 
the laughers change sides. Here then 
fs a victory lost at the very moment 
be one party was beginning to enjoy 
HL itis very well known that the rage 
for duelling was attended with very se- 
tious evils in the army, not among the 
officers metely, but the privates, who 
are said to have gone out m bodies con- 
sisting of a brigade perhaps, and settled 
some affair of honour! Many of our 
readers will recollect the account in the 
Paris papers, {Nov. 3, 1803,) of two 
soldiers of the Parisian guard, who 
fenced with sabres, naked to the waist, 
in the Champs Elysées. Women of the 
first fashion and elegance attended the 
spectacle! fortunately tor one of the com- 
OUR readers will naturally be cu- 
rious to know the remarks of a Russian 
traveller, even in his tour through Ger- 
many, Switzerland, and France ; but will 
survey, with peculiar interest, his obser- 
vations on our own dear native country. 
We shall therefore devote a larger space 
to M. Karamsin on this account, than 
perhaps we should be induced to do from 
he sole merit of his publication. 
~ We learn, from the work before us, 
that M. Karamsin is a young Russian 
nobleman, well versed in German lite- 
rature, and deeply enamoured of Sterne, 
and some other English authors of the 
Same stamp. Neither science, nor na- 
tural history, nor politics, nor statistical 
details, appear to be the objects of his 
et: he travels not like the illus- 
ious Peter, to bring back to his coun- 
try the arts and the sciences, but to 
Si isfy at least a harmless curiosity, con- 
cerning the manners and social habits 
f the principal nations of Europe, and 
‘B desire of seeing and conversing with 
‘those literary men, from the perusal.of 
whose works he had derived the greatest 
le The study, however, of men 
and national characters is attended with 
eculiar difficulty : it requires long rest- 
dence, habits of great intimacy, a per- 
fect command of the language of a 
country, quick discrimination, and a ha- 
bit of seizing minute circumstances as 
they arise; in short, such a combina- 
on of natural talents and fortunate 
Opportunities, as are very rarely found 
fo unite in one person, But though 
mann. Rev. Vor. II. 
97 
batants, whose blood began to flow, an 
officer interfered by his authority and 
saved his life. The translator of these 
letters says, that within this last year, 
even ladies have begun to fight with 
pistels: in May 1802, a Madame Deu- 
naigly fought and wounded with a pistol 
a Madame de 'Tourville, whom she ac+ 
cused of having seduced her lover! 
On the whole, though by no means. 
disposed to think highly of the execntion 
of this work, it would be injustice not 
to say ‘that there are several little traits 
of French character delineated, which, 
perhaps, scarcely any one but a French- 
man would have touched upon. 
The translation is wretchedly exes 
cuted, abounding both with Gallicisms 
and blunders. 
Arr. XXIL Travels from Moscow, through Prussia, Germany, Switzerland, France, 
and England. By Nicouar Karamsin. Translated from the German. 3 vols, 12mo. 
M. Karamsin ranks not in the same 
class with the late Dr. Moore, he ap- 
pears to have been by no means negli- 
gent of the occasions afforded him of 
collecting interesting anecdotes, or des 
scribing his interviews and conyersation 
with the literary characters of Germany 
and Switzerland ; and if, in the other 
parts of his travels, he is guilty of egre- 
gious misrepresentation, it appears to be 
rather attributable to ignorance than an 
intention to deceive. 
M. Karamsin, on leaving Moscow, 
took the road to Petersburgh, whence 
he proceeded through Courland, and 
the Prussian part of Poland, to Berlia, 
At Konigsberg, he had an interview 
with the celebrated Kant, who appears 
to be an amiable cold man, of simple 
manners and liberal sentiments. Too 
many pages are devoted ‘to conversa- 
tions with innkeepers and his fellow-tra- 
vellers in the stage-coach: an innkeeper 
is the same animal all the world over, 
and ignorance ana brutality are not pe- 
culiar to Prussian officers. 
From Berlin, M. Karamsin, passing 
through Leipsig, Weimar, and Man- 
heim, arrived at Strasburgh. “ When 
we reached the French boundary the 
postillion stopped. A fellow of a filthy 
appearance, approaching the coach, ad- 
dressed us, * Vous des deja en France, 
Messieurs, et je vous en felicite” It was 
the-custom-house officer, ayho expected 
a few sous for this aravikeaion?? 
At Weimar, our traveller relates his 
visits to Herder and Wieland. ‘To the 
