Retrofpeé? of French Literature.— Mifcellanies. 
igat have procraftinated the misfortunes 
of the reigns of Lovis XV. and XVI. ; 
while the avoiding of fo flight a burden, 
has coft the people enormous fums, ge- 
neral and partial bankruptcies, the mile. 
ries attendant on a feven years war, the 
ruin of commerce, the Joff<s experienced 
on three millions of Law’s notes, and 
thirteen millions of affignats. In fhort, 
#¢ jt is not for che intereft of the treafury, 
but of the nation,” that the author con- 
tends. 
After this, M. de Guer proceeds to 
rorrect the vices that have crept into the 
adminiftration of the finances; he alfo 
points out the propriety of diminithing 
the moft onerous of the taxes; he, at the 
fame time, prefents a plan for the fimpli- 
fication of the whole; and he propofes 
that no fum fhould be borrowed, without 
affigning certain f{pecific taxes for the pay- 
ment of it. 
We are affured, that the general contri- 
bution for the expences of the ftate, as 
well as for the departments and communes, 
the repairing of the great roads, &c. &c. 
amounted in 1784 to 577,500,000 livres, 
Since that period France, by her con- 
quefis, has acquired an increafe of full 
one-fitth ; and yet, notwithftanding’ this, 
the general contribution is at this prefent 
day only 578,000,000, with this effential 
difference, that, whereas in the former 
cafe, the people did not confider them- 
felves as aggrieved ; yet, in the latter in- 
ftance, a prodigious number believe them- 
felves oppreffed. 
To relieve the French people from their 
prefent fituation, the author propofes a 
qvar tax, fomewhat in the manner of that 
raifed on property in England ; to increafe 
the direé&t taxes to the amount of twenty 
millions ; to add confiderably to the du- 
ties on confumption ; and, in particular, 
to raife the tmpoft on tobacco to 25 per 
cent. The following is the general fcale : 
1. An augmentation of fifty millions on 
the public revenues in time of peace. 
z. An exiraordinary fubfidy of one 
hundred millions in time of war. 
3- A referved fund of 75 millions for 
the payment of intereft, and partly for the 
gradual annihilation of whatever may be 
borrowed during hoftilities. — taal 
We have been the more particular in 
giving an account of this work, becaufe 
the prof{perity of every government is in- 
timately conneéted with the ftate of its 
finances; and alfo, becaufe this publica- 
tion is likely to occafion a confiderable fen- 
fation in France, as it is not only pa- 
709 
tronifed hy the Conful Cambacéres, but 
is the refult of a memoir prefented 'o the 
council of fate, and printed by order of 
the government, 
“ Lettres d’un Mameluque; ou, Ta- 
bleau Moral et Critique de quelques Pare 
ties des Moeurs de Paris,”? &c.—Letiers 
of a Mameluke; or, a Moral and Cr tical 
Picture of the Manners of Paris ;- by Jo- 
sePH LavaLveg, of the Philotechnical 
Society, &c. &c. 1 vol. 8vo. 
A Mameluke, of the rame of Giéfid, 
having arrived at Paris, in confequence of 
the memorable events which configned 
Egypt, during two whole years, to the 
management of the French, he immedi-« 
ately enters into a correfpondence with 
his friend Giafar. This curious ftranger 
is continually contrafting all the new ob- 
jets that occur in the metropolis of 
France, with the images fo familiar to 
him at Alexandria and Grand Cairo; but 
he at times interfperfes hs remarks with 
quotations from hiftory, not at all adapt- 
ed either to the flation or the acquirements 
of his Egyptian friend. In fhort, the 
charaéter of a Mameluke is not uniformly 
preferved. + 
The theatres form an ample fourfce of 
criticifm, and the coffume, on which the 
managers now pique themfelves fo much, 
does not efcupe animadverfion. ‘*I have 
lately beheld (fays he) the tragedy of 
Brutus, the vanquifher of the Tarquins. 
He himfelf appeared to refide in a magni- 
ficent palace while, at the fame epoch, 
his colleague Valerius infpired diftrutt, 
in confequence of a paltry cottage, which 
happered to be a little too prominent. If 
have beheld Virginia in the midit of a 
public fquare, furrounded by triumphal 
arches, temples of porphyry, and Co- 
rinthian cohimns, while Auguftus boaft- 
ed five hundred years after this period, 
that he had found Rome brick, and Jeft it 
marble. I have feen King Agamemnon 
aflaffinated at the foot of a column, which 
Callimachus did not invent until 640 years 
pofterior. I have viewed Bayard giving 
audience in one of thofe cafemates for 
which we are indebted to Vauban; be- 
fides a thoufand other things of a fimilar 
nature, equally ill-timed and ill-placed.”’ 
Upon the whole, this little volume, of 
which we have already a tranflation in our 
own language, is written with confider- 
able wit and tafte. 
«© Eclairciflemens fur plufieurs Points 
concernant la Théorie des Operations et 
des Facultés Intelle€tuels.**—Information 
relative to feveral Points concerning the 
Theory 
