1804.] 
hits forty characters with an explanation 
in Portuguefe and Latin ; each having one 
of the forty rectangles allotted to them. 
There is not a fingle page * blank; 
only here and there one or two, and very 
feldom three of the forty rectangles are 
jeft vacant, when a new /ound or tone be- 
gins; yet, by faying that this fecond vo- 
lume contains 14,000 characters, as the 
Index, the fame ample allowance is made 
for blanks of 2800 characters. 
Thus, Mr. Editor, I can affure the 
public by my own experience, that this 
invaluable MS, contains every imaginable 
various forms of the moft familiar charac- 
ters, all written in a large and legible 
fize both in the Index and 1n the body of 
the work; and that by this means the 
European ftudent is never difappointed, 
as he muft often be in all the other dic- 
tionaries above defcribed. It contains, 
befides many charatters not introduced 
nor tranflated in all the other dictionaries 
feen by me. 
The Chinefe have felested a determined 
number of characters to exprefs the names 
of their families, which they call Pe-kia- 
fim* ; and it is highly important to be- 
come acquainted with thefe characters, 
fince the imperial names, and fome of the 
geographical nouns are exprefled with 
them. The fecond volume of Mr. Raper’s 
dictionary never fails to point out iuch 
characters by the Portuguefe word Alcun- 
bia, meaning family. Bue I have two 
Chinefe editions of a fort of compofi- 
tion, embracing all thefe Family Names, 
fo that I could eafily publifh them in a 
feparate page. The précife number of 
fuch charaéters are 439 ; but fome of 
them are three or four times repeated in 
the compofition juft mentioned ; hence the 
above number riies to 476 ace 
Another fingularicy of the Chinefe lan- 
guage is that of joining, in the enumera- 
tion of any thing, a particular auxiliary 
character, befides thofe of the numerals, 
fpecifying what kind of things they reck- 
on. Thus, reckoning beds, or tables, 
they put, befides the numeral, the particle 
* By miftake the author turned once two 
leaves ata time, and made twoblanks ; but 
thefe are not comprized in the 420 given as 
the total of this volume. 
* Pe meaning a hundred, many go on with 
the notion that the family-characters are no 
more thanone hundred ; but thefe characters 
are fo called from the firft diftribution of the 
people by their firft Emperor, Fo-hz, into a 
hundred tribes, or families, as related in the 
Annals.—See Milla Hift. Génér. dela Chine, 
vol. i, p.6. My Chinefe friend, Paul-ko ufed 
to tell me, that the family-names were one 
thoufand. The two Chinsefe editions I have 
ef thefe characters, have, however, afcer- 
Chinelt Diftionary.—Mr. Robinfon and Mr. Cole, 911 
cham, and fay, One bed, ye-cham-choam. 
To flowers they put the particle #o, and 
fay, One flower, ye-to- boa; bccn Sac 
F. Varo, in his Grammar, printed at 
Canton, 1703, gives a Jilt of no lefs than 
so of thefe auxiliary characters. In Sir 
William Jones’s Dictionary the lit of 
them amounts to eighty-four. I have al- 
ready copied it, and itcould be publithed 
with Mr. Raper’s Dictionary. 
You fee, then, Mr. Edtror, what a de. 
gree of fuperioriry my materials for pub- 
lithing a Chinefe Dittionary are entitled 
to. The Dictionary itfel will contain at 
leaft three thou/and characters more than 
any of the MSS. above delcribed ; while 
all other very important Vocabularies, Di- 
alogues, and Tratts, annexed to it, will 
render it quite unique and invaluable. 
I hope you will deem thefe obfervations 
as deferving a room in your invaluable 
Mifceliany, “and by inferting them in it, 
you will greatly oblige, Sir, your’s, &c. 
Antonio Montucci. 
Pancras, March 12, 1804. 
? DI 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
AM very ready to afk pardon of the 
manes of Mr. Robinfon if I have mif- 
taken in my affertion concerning his charge 
againft King James I. It is true, as the 
writer of the Cantabrigiaga {uppoles, that 
I quoted from memory.; but I know not 
whence I could have got the notion but | 
from actually reading fuch a pafflage, Has 
your correfpondent een the earliett edition 
of the work in queftion? T believe there 
have been feveral: I am fure I was not 
incorrect in faying, that the performance 
is ftrongly tinétured with party virulence 
and credulity. Oldmixon (fay the Monthly 
Reviewers) is his nig fans ie it ase 
may, Iam net forry that I took the op- 
portunity of demonfirating the falfehood 
of a charge againit James, which, having 
been repeated by different writers, may 
perhaps {till obtain a degree of credit with 
incautious readers. Nor fhall I hefitate 
ftill to maintain the chara€ter of a moderate 
man by occahonally expofing party bigotry 
aod falfehood on either fi'e. ee 
Your Coliana, Sir, feems likely enough 
to afford matter for fuch expofure 5 for it 
is evident, that the writer of the feraps fo 
entitled, had a plentiful fhare of credulity 
and illiberality. A mvre pregnant exam- 
ple of both eannot eafily be met with, 
than what appears in p. 34, of your pre- 
fent volume, under the article The Mo. 
nument. Myr. Cole fays, fpeaking of the 
fire of London, ** It has alwavs been a 
part of my. political creed, that a fet of 
people diametrically o ofite to the paoit 
