the late wat in the Carnatic, Hyder marched with a body of horfe, from Oombly, near Tritchinopoly, to Chillimbrum, in 27 hours; he moved off at three o'clock in the morning, and at feven the next morning, he reached Chillimbrum, a diftance of about feven gow, or twenty-eight cofs, equal to feventy niles; the third day his infantry and guns came up. At the commencement of Tippoo's late war against the Mahrattas, he lay with his army at Perour, in the Kiadurg Country: marching at three o'clock in the morning, he arrived, at feven o'clock the next morning, at Kirchungood, near to Adoni, and attacked a body of 4000 Mahratta plunderers. He keeps in his pay 300 hircarrahs, at three pagodas a month each: fuch as prove themselves moft active and clever, are employed for intel ligence. Befides thefe, he ftations news-writers in fuch principal places as he thinks neceflary; and these are inftructed to write in the ftyle of foucars, and the intelligence required is made applicable to the coins, &c. treated of; fo that if a letter is intercepted, no difcovery is made: fhould there be any thing that cannot be fo introduced, it is given verbally to the bearer of the Jetter. Tippoo feldom rewards with prefents; and when he does, they are very trifling, perhaps not more than five rupees. Thefe anecdotes place the character of Tippoo Sultaun in its true light. His abilities have undoubt edly been over-rated. He was neither fo wife a ftatesman, nor fo able a general, as he has been reprefent ed. Though he poffeffed a confiderable thare of prudence, and was not wanting either in promptitude or judgement, yet was he greatly deficient in that comprehenfion and vigour of mind, which are effential ingredients in the compofition of all true greatnefs. Selfish, cunning, and rapacious, in government as well as in war, he acted upon narrow principles. His Revenue Regulations,* which are certainly framed with great ability, and which feem well calculated to enrich both the prince and people, were fruftrated in their operation by his fifting and fhallow policy. As a warrior, he was brave, cautious, and intrepid: but his courage was tinctured with ferocity; and his firmness proceeded from obftinacy rather than from a juft confidence in his own powers; and he never difplayed any depth of forefight, or fpirit of enterprize. As a politician, he fhewed little dif cernment, and lefs fagacity: though his understanding was full of artifice, he feldom employed it fuccefsfully and the fchemes which he laid to over-reach his enemies, generally proved abortive. Cruel in his dif pofition, and impetuous in his tem per, he was often guilty of enormous acts of tyranny; though, for the moft part, his prudence taught him to rule over his own fubjects with a degree of juftice, that rendered them lefs oppreffed than thofe of any other Mohamedan prince in India. Tippoo was ambitious to furpals his father in every thing; and he had the vanity to imagine See the Myforean Revenue Regulations, tranflated by Burrish Crifp, efq. from the Perfian original, under the feal of Tippoo Sultaun, in the poffeffion of col. John Murray. See alfo, a Differtation on the Revenues of Myfore, at once luminous and concife, in hiftorical and political view of the Deccan, by James Grant, efq. Printed for J. Debrett, 1797 VOL. XLI. Y that that he was infinitely fuperior to that extraordinary man. But, in truth, he furpaffed him in nothing but the low arts of private treachery and public intrigue. Hyder was not only endowed with great genius, but with many exalted virtues: he was a confummate fatefman, an enterprising warrior, a generous conqueror, a faithful ally, a ftrict obferver of the laws of war, a benevolent fovereign, a Mohamedan free from fuperftition, a fteady friend, and an indulgent parent. Tippoo's talents were not much above mediocrity; the qualities of his heart were greatly below it: in ftate affairs, he was narrow-minded and prejudiced in the conduct of his army, he never fhewed any masterly generalfhip; the few victories which he gained, were fulled with the most atrocious cruelties: in his alliances, he was faithful, out of hatred to his enemies, not from any principle of honour or integrity: in war, he difregarded almost all the rules that are obferved by civilized nations in the administration of his government, he was lenient only becaufe it fuited his own intereft; in his religion he was a fierce and gloomy bigot; he was unfufceptible of friendship, and deftitute of parental tenderness.---Hyder, without the benefits of education, raised himself, by the dint of his own abilities, from a private station, to the throne of a powerful kingdom. Tippoo, though inftructed from his earliest youth in the art of politics, and left by his father at the head of the best disciplined army that any Indian prince had ever commanded, loft that kingdom to his pofterity, and facrificed his army, by the groffeft mifmanagement. Hyder had the addrefs to render the affiftance of the French fubfervient to his own purpofess Tippoo allowed himfelf to be duped by their intrigues, and to be made the mere inftrument of their ambi tious projects. Nor did Tippoo differ lefs from his father in private, than in public life. The father poffeffed the ut moft franknefs of manners, enli vened with humour and cheerful. nefs; the fon was proud, diftant, fullen, and auftere. The father defpifed the pageantry of the eastern courts: the fon maintained the pomp and haughtiness of the most voluptuous defpotifm. The father was liberal and fincere: the fon was parfimonious and treacherous. In fine, Hyder poffeffed all those qualities which feem requifite for the fplendid actions he performed, and who, if he had been an European inftead of an Afiatic prince, would have been considered as one of the firft politicians, as well as one of the greatest heroes, of any age or nation; whereas Tippoo can only be ranked among the defpots of India, as a crafty but impo litic prince, whofe paffions domineered over his judgment, who was ever ready to gratify his revenge at the expense of his intereft, and who fell a facrifice to his own hypocrify, Memoirs of the Life of Charles Berns Wadftrom, by Helen Maria Wil liams. Undertake with pleasure the task you have enjoined me of giving you a fketch of the life of our friend, Charles Berns Wadftrom. It is fomething to recount the virtues of thofe from whom we are feparated by death; while thus employed, imagination, a few fhort moments, renews for us their existence, and the the heart cherishes an illufion which it loves. The tribute of regret for the lofs of this eftimable citizen, and of refpect for his memory, ought not to be confined to the bofom of friendhip. The man who devotes his life to the public fervice, has a claim to public regret; and perhaps no individual ever made more zealous efforts to promote the happiness of his fellow creatures, to the entire facrifice of all selfish views; perhaps there never exifted a truer patriot in the moft enlarged definition of the term; perhaps no man ever deferved more of humanity than the perfon whofe death we lament. 'Charles Berns Wadftrom was born at Stockholm, in the year 1746. Having finished his academical ftudies, he was employed in the quality of engineer in the fervice of his Swedish majefty. From the knowledge he had acquired in mechanics, and mineralogy, the states of Sweden in 1767, and 1768, confided to his care the direction of a part of the works which they were then erecting in order to render navigable the famous cataract of Trolhaétta; and in 1769, he was employed by the government in the working of the copper mines at Atvédaberg.He was afterwards engaged in the direction of various eftablishments, and I have heard him mention his having had frequent perfonal intercourfe with the late king of Sweden on thofe fubjects. But thele were employments infufficient to fatisfy a mind glowing, like that of Wadftrom, for a wider fphere of ufefulhefs and benevolence. The various fchemes by which, through a long life devoted to the caufe of philanthropy, he purpofed to promote this great aim of his existence, were indeed fometimes romantic, and perhaps fometimes delufive. His heart feemed more enlarged than his understanding-his feelings were always in the right, but his judgement fometimes erred; and he had a kind of trufting fimplicity in his nature, which made him often the dupe of his own credulity. But let us not blame too feverely this mifplaced reliance on others; there is no danger of the example becoming contagious: let us rather amidst that egotifm to which the prefent modes of fociety give rife, that wakeful fufpicion which puts every heart in a pofture of defence, that careful vigilance with which the old inculcate, and the young acquire, the lessons of felfish prudence, let us turn for relief to one mind, whofe weakneffes were only modifications of virtue, the failings of unguarded humanity, the exceffive confidence of too liberal a fpirit, the uncircumfcribed benevolence of too warm a heart. . No project could be more fublime than that which occupied the greater part of the life of Wadftrom; which was the emancipation and civilization of that numerous portion of the human race inhabiting the vaft continent of Africa. With the view of obtaining authentic information respecting the fituation of the natives of Africa, and of ftudying their difpofitions, characters, and manners, he undertook voyage to that continent, where he remained two years. I have, indeed, fometimes heard this "circumnavigation of philanthropy" afcribed to other motives than those of pure benevolence. As Ponce de Leon and his companionis roved amidst the Lucayo iflands, not merely animated by the general spirit of difcovery, but in the vifionary fearch of a fountain of fuch wonder ful virtue as to renew the youth, and recall the vigour of every perfon who bathed in its waters; fo Wadftrom's view in his expedition to Africa has been represented not to have been the emancipation of the flaves, but the difcovery of the New Jerufalem, which it feems, in illuminated charts of Swedenborg, lies fomewhere concealed, amidst thofe hitherto unexplored regions. But it is certain that Wadftrom, though perhaps courteous to fome errors of that travelled apostle, never carried his complaifance fo far as to undertake a voyage to Africa in his fervice. That voyage was a crufade of humanity; the liberty of the Africans was the favourite project of Wadftrom's mind, and he lived to enjoy the most noble recompenfe of his labours in their caufe. Too long condemned to bear the fcorn of thofe commercial fpeculators in blood, who fmile at the folly of fympathy, and deride the energies of benevolence, condemned to fuffer the torment of meditating on calamities which he was unable to relieve, with what exulting triumph did he contemplate the fetters of the flave torn off in the French colonies, and the deftinies of that portion of our fpecies which feemed only born to fuffer, for ever linked with thofe of that glorious republic whofe liberty is durable as its power! -With what tranfport did he of late, behold France, after having broken the fetters of the Africans in diftant regions, preparing to teach them on their native foil, the noble leffons of enlightened freedom! he knew that the yearly caravan which travels from Egypt to Abyffinia with fplendid toys, and bears back in exchange, over the far-ftretched defart, its load of flaves, had, the pafi autumn, conveyed to thefe dif tant regions a new and aftouifhing hiftory of Europeans; that for the firft time, that name had been pronounced in Africa without horror, and unconnected with images of defpair. For the firft time Europeans had been called not the de ftroyers, but the deliverers of mankind; and tidings had been proclaimed, not of free-men fettered, but of flaves made free, of nations emancipated by that hero, whofe fublime genius, borrowing no force from age, and no fuccour from experience, has marked its illuftrious career by no gradations, but foared at once to the pinnacle of glorythat hero who has ever victory in his van, and liberty in his rear! Yes, our philanthropic enthusiastmast have difcerned with transport, that liberty, irrefiftible in its progress as the majestic waters of the Nile, when they overflow their banks and rufh over the land, and, benevolent in its effects, as that fructifying ftream which (preads only bleffings in its courfe; liberty would foon diffuse over the African continent the benign influence of civilization; and no one felt more ftrongly than Wadftrom what a wide meaning of happinefs that word contains! No one deplored more fincerely than himfelf, that humanity has been fo long infulted by partial civilization; and that even in thofe parts of the globe where flavery does not exift, particular portions of fociety have made a monopoly of knowledge, as if a certain degree of education were not the right of all. Wadftrom, in having powerfully contributed to the abolition of the flave trade, may be confidered not merely as the benefactor of the Africans, but has a claim to the honours of more extenfive benevolence; fince the fyftem of flavery is perhaps no lefs fatal to the Europeans than to the Africans. Where flavery prevails, all the paffions rage with ungovernable violence; every generous fentiment is obliterated; corruption degrades, licentiousnesfs debafes, power hardens the mind, and the dignity of human nature, violated in the perfon of the flave, is avenged by the confequent depravity of the mafter. Even women in thofe regions, they, who. fhould feel pity an irrefiftible inftinct, they who feem born to footh with fympathizing tears every mifery, and to plead with mild accents for every fufferer, even they, when flavery prevails, difplay the monftrous contraft of weakness and ferocity; of voluptuous indolence, and active cruelty; of a frame enervated by all the refinements of luxury, and a heart feeled by familiarity with crimes. And their children, on whofe ductile minds thofe leffons of mercy fhould be imprefled, to which the uncorrupted heart beats refponfive; who fhould be taught to lifp the glowing tale of the oppreffor punished, and the good made happy, imbibe, from example, all the caprices of cruelty, and before they can difcern the diftinctions of vice and virtue, are curfed with the inheritance of guilt. If then we are grateful to the memory of Wadfrom for his efforts to confer happiness on the Africans, we ought allo to remember with gratitude that he has refcued the colonists from mifery; for furely miferable amidst all that fortune can bestow, is he, who is condemned to look back on the record of life without finding the fweet memorial of one generous action, one wrong redreffed, one tear fhed without witnefs, for the unhappy! On his return from Africa, Wad ftrom vifited England, where thofe perfons who were acquainted with his philanthropic principles, folicited him ftrongly to remain fome time. The great question, of the abolition of the flave-trade, was at that period brought forward in the British parliament, and Wadftrom obtained permiffion from the king of Sweden to remain in England during the important difcuffion. He was repeatedly examined at the bar of the houfe of commons on this fubject, and produced the journal he had kept of the tranfactions of every day, during his ftay in Africa. His evidence was confidered as highly curious, ufeful, and interefting, and was often referred to in the debates which took place on that occafion. The opinions he delivered refpecting the abolition of the flave trade, and the establishment of philanthropic colonies, gave rife to the foundation of Sierra Leona, and Boulama, which may juftly be confidered as monuments erected in favour of humanity and liberty, hy generous and enlightened friends of mankind. Wadftrom published, seven years fince, in London, an octavo volume, containing much interefting information refpecting his African expedition, and many important obfervations on colonization. Buonaparte, when departing for Egypt, wifhed to obtain a copy of this work, and inquired of Wadftrom where it could be purchased. On account of the difficulty of communication between France and England, Wadftrom had of late been unable to fupply himself with any copies of this work, and had but one copy left in his poffeffion, which he immediately prefented to the general. But while Wadftrom, the friend of human kind, continued to exert Y 3 all |