S738 
or still more unfriendly vicissitudes of 
external temperature. There is in this 
country an indiscreet passion fer air. 
We often find taking the air to be, 
with the hectically disposed, the same 
as taking a chill, and of that chill con- 
sumption to he the ultimate, if not imme- 
diate, consequence. To the pthysical, a 
spare diet should be recommended; an 
abstinence, for instance, in a great mea- 
sure, from animal food. To the scro- 
phulous, on the contrary, a generous re- 
gimen is most wholesome and congenial. 
But the generous ought here to ke dis- 
tinguished from the stimulating; which 
latter is almost exclusively, but from its 
decidedly bad operation upon the health 
very improperly, called good living. 
The writer may be suspected of 
having, on a recent occasion, © driven 
the matter too far, when he _ repro- 
bated the use of strong liquors alto- 
gether. This may have appeared as the 
prudery of temperance, as carrying it 
to an unnecessary and even ridiculous 
extent. But it should be recol- 
dected that prudery consists not in the 
State of Public Affairs in April. 
[May I, 
excess of a virtue, but in the affectation 
of it. Those are the real prudes in regi- 
men, who would strain at a gnat and 
swallow a camel; who would on no ac- 
count drink a glass of wine, but would 
not scruple, every day of their lives, to 
ingurgitate in a pharmaceutical shape, 
tertié quaque hor& draughts containing 
the worst and most concentrated spirits. 
In this consists the privileged debauchery 
of nervous valetudinarians. 
A man, it is true, may bei intemperate in 
his eulozy of abstinence, and violate mode- 
ration in his invectives against excess. But 
where are we to find or fix that imaginary 
line, the meridian of moderation? It 
should at the same time he considered 
that what is evilin its essence, no reduc= 
tion of quantity can convert into good. 
Vice retains its character in all the gra- 
dations of its scale. Ju none of its de- 
scending degrees can it produce any thing 
better, than more diluted and mitigated 
mischief. 
April 24, 1810. J. Reip. 
Greuville-sireet, Brunswick-square. 
i 
STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS IN APRIL, 
Containing officiul Papers and authentic Documents. 
=e 
RUSSIA. 
Substance 0} f the Uhkase, issucd February 2, 1810, 
by bis baprial Majesty, on the bie of 
Finances, after baving received the Aswice of 
* bis Council of State. 
ALL theBank assignats (the paper money of 
the country) now in circulation, are once 
snore declared to form part of the national 
debt, and guaranteed by all the weaith of the 
empire. From the present moment, the bank 
assignats shall receive no increase. In order 
to pay the national debt, a loan shall be 
opened in the interior of the country, at fix- 
ed prices. In order to provide for all ex- 
penses, and to reduce the taxes to their for- 
mer state, it is orvered, provisionally, for the 
present year, and until the publication of ge- 
neral regulations for the finances and taxes, 
that‘the following additional vee shall 
take place: 
An increase of 2 rubles a-head on_ the 
crown e asantry. 
An impost of 3 Dy 22; and’ rubles, accord- 
ing to the various governments, on the pea- 
santry occupied in cultivating the lands of 
the state. : 
Citizens employed in the arts, and other 
branches of public industry, shall pay 5 rubles. 
Coustrymen trading in boih capitals shall 
pay for every shop 160, 50, and 25 rubles, 
according to localities, and besides, those of 
the 2d guilde, 1% per cent. of the capital they 
have declared themselves possessed of, and 
those of the 3d guilde, 25 rubles. 
Foreign tradesmen of both capitals shall 
pay 100 rubles, their partners 40, and their 
workmen 20 rubles, . 
In both capitals a duty of half a ruble shall 
be raised on houses, in virtue of the existing 
im posts. 
The tax on traders shall receive an increase 
of half copeek on the produce of industry and © 
the capital. 
The price of salt, formerly fixed at 40 co 
peeks per pocd, shall be raised to one ruble. 
The impost on copper shall be augmeated 
three bbls per pood. 
The Custom-house duties on imported 
goods, shall be raised from 210 to 490 tubles, 
and in proportion. 
Stamps have also sii 3 an advance 
in price. 
The nobility shall assist in sclicwing. the 
wants of the state, by paying a duty of 50 
copecks for every peasant in their possession. 
SWEDEN. 
The following royal decree has been 
issued : 
Know all men by these presents, that We, 
Charles XIII. having in the third article of 
the 
