excellent fervice in putrid or inflammatory fevers. It feems to be entirely free from thofe qualities which make milk improper in fevers. Fresh yaourt is a great article of food among the natives of Turkey and Arabia, and europeans foon become fond of it. No other acid will make the fame kind of curd. All the curds made by other acids, after the acid fermentation is over, become putrid. The turks were originally, as the arabians are still, paftoral tribes. It is natural for men in fuch a ftate, to be very curious about different preparations of milk. The kalmuks have a preparation of milk called kumifs, which poffefles qualities fimilar to the favourite refreshment of the turks and arabians. It is related by Buchanan, in his hiftory of Scotland, that the inhabitants of the western ifles of scotland, in his time, preferved whey for feveral years; and that, after this age, it was prefented at great entertainments, as the most delicious beverage that could be given. Whether they used any other method of preparing and preferving it. than fimply boiling it, and putting it, as all their other liquors, into fkins, we are not informed. It is a pity but this cuftom and art. if any art were neceffary, were revived; fuch acidulous and cooling liquor was infinitely more falubrious, as well as pleafing to an unvitiated pal te, than the favourite drink of the modern highlanders, whiskey. I he natives of the Highlands and Hebrides, and, we believe, the welsh too, as well as thofe of fome diftrits in Cornwall and Devonshire, have various preparations of milk, not known in the other parts of Britain, equally palatable and falutary. It would undoubtedly be worth the while of the board of agriculture to afcertain and to circulate all thofe different preparations; as it would, alio, be that of phyficians to inquire into their medical virtues; for, that they do poffefs fuch virtues, is a matter not to be doubted. It is well known to the natives of the northern parts of this ifland, and alfo, we believe, of Ireland, that perfons labouring under feverish distempers are very apt to call for fourish whey, and for a frumentaceous and acidulous liquor, prepared from the bran of oats, fteeped for a week or two in water, at first boiling, and all along kept near a fire, or in fome other warm place, for the purpofe of promoting fermentation; and farther, that by copious draughts of these drinks, they are commonly thrown into profufe perfpiration, from which they experience *If the highlanders have degenerated in the art of cookery, in fome refpects, they have improved in it in others. At the period of which Buchanan writes, i. e. about 250 years ago, they were in the habit of eating raw flesh, only fqueezing out the blood. Buchan. Rer. Scot. Hift. liber primus. There is nothing more important in the hiftory of human nature and civilization, than to mark fuch eras. About two centuries and a half ago, part of the inhabitants of the british ifles were in a ftate almost as favage as the indian or native tribes in America, It will fcarcely appear credible at an equal diftançe hence of future time, that at this day, towards the clofe of the 18th century, in the islands, and fome parts of the Highlands, the natives, every spring or fummer, attack the bullocks with lances, that they may eat their blood, but prepared by fire. the the happiest effects. There was a time when phyficians fet their face against fuch indications and efforts of nature, when, in fevers of all kinds, and even the fmall-pox, they were careful above all things to exclude the external air, and to keep their patients warm. Progreffive expérience and knowledge liften to the voice of nature; Bartholinus is reftored to his former, and even to greater credit and confideration.-Natura optima morborum medicatrix.-A publication has lately appeared, by a philofopher and a phyfician, cautious and circumfpect in both capacities, recommending, modifying, and directing the use, external and internal, of cold water in febrile disorders; the good effects of which, indicated by nature, are more and more confirmed by daily experience. To fuch philofophers and physicians we addrefs thefe notices refpecting various cooling and palatable preparations of milk, the grand nurfe and panacea of fo great a proportion of animated nature. In our Retrofpe of the Active World, Difcoveries, Inventions, Sc. for April, 1798, we took notice of fome facts, not generally known, which drew our attention in perufing fome recent publications respecting the ruffian empire. Among thefe, we mentioned the buttermilk of mares, which has been found, almost uniformly, to cure ruffian officers in confumptions, given over by their physicians. The fact itself, with our obfervations thereon, have met with very refpectable attention and obfervation. We are not, therefore, without fome encouragement to bring under the public eye any thing that may tend to the advancement of medicine, the most useful and interefting end of science. It is true, that the preparations in quef-. tion, particularly that of leban, or yaourt, which has led to thefe reflections, have been common in the east, for ages. Yet still, in refpect of thofe to whom they were not known, they may be juftly confidered in the light of difcoveries. But what avails it to declare the excellent qualities of yaourt, without explaining, at the fame time, the manner in which it may be made? It is only to be procured by an application of yaourt already made. The question is, how are we to make yaourt by a procefs within our own power? Mr. E. fays, perhaps new milk curdled with four milk, and this again used as a ferment, and the fame procefs continued, might, in time, acquire the qualities of yaourt, which can never be made in Turkey without old yaourt.' It occurs to us, that a more certain, and not a very difficult mode of introducing the art of making yaourt, or leban, into Britain, would be to bring over a fmall quantity, even a fev ounces, of dried yaourt from Conftantinople, or Aleppo, or any other turkish port. As the most important discoveries are ufually made, not by human fagacity and forefight, but by accident, it is not to be wondered at, if many useful difcoveries and hints are prefented by great empires and ancient nations: although they fhould be but little converfant with the sciences. It was from Turkey that Europe derived the falutary practice of inoculation for the fmall-pox. We have been informed, that there are a great many mechanical contrivances, and a great many practices depending on a knowledge of properties and The celebrated danish phyfiologist and phyfician. powers powers of fubftances with which we are unacquainted, common in the Eaft-Indies, and other parts of Afia. This is a wide and inviting field of difcovery; and will, no doubt, engage the attention of the ingenious and obfervant european, as well as the literature, antiquities, and hiftory of the afiatic nations. It is well known, that wool is among the substances called by experimenters in natural philofophy non-conductors. Dr. Pearfon, of Leicester-fquare, by an improvement of this fact, has invented a method of keeping water, or other fluids warm, for many months, by -means of flannel. In our laft number we had occafion to take notice of a very curious improvement in the art of war, by the infurgents in Ireland. We have now to mention another equally fingular; they entrench themselves, man by man, in holes dug in the ground, and by these means often furprize and annoy our troops, particularly the cavalry. NATIONAL AFFAIRS. Ar the prefent crifis, when all kingdoms are, more or lefs, moved from their centre, and in danger of being torn to pieces by anarchy, or of being precipitated into univerfal dominion, instead of making our ufual tour through the great independent governments, we fhall, for this time, confine our obfervations to the present state, and mutual relations of the whole, confidered as co-eftates in the grand circle and fyftem of civilization. And this we may do with the greater propriety, that the world is in fufpenfe with regard to the defigns of the man, on whofe fingle mind it's deftinies seem so much to depend: a man formed for the accomplishment of extraordinary ends, by extraordinary means; and who has launched the thunder of war, though we are yet ignorant of the nation or region of the earth, on which the ftorm is to fall, if it have not yet fallen. The boundless ambition of the directory is fully unmasked: their feizure of Turin, and of Malta, has opened the eyes of the continental powers, who begin to fee the prefent war in it's proper light; as a flame not to be extinguished, or prevented from spreading, but by an union among all the independent powers of Europe. The poffeffion of the harbours of Malta and Corfu gives France the keys to the eastern empire. The citadel of Turin commands the entrance into Italy, while the garrisons of Mantua, Berne, Mentz, Breda, and Bergen op Zoom, are at once the fecurity of France, and the terrour of Germany. Within such a military pale, the french nation is left to furvey the reft of Europe, not as an object of reftraint, but as a field for influence. By what means has this extraordinary change been effected? The former wars of Europe produced not any fimilar tranfmutation in the limits and fortunes of nations. Thofe wars, for the laft hundred and fifty years, generally terminated without producing any violent changes. From the war of thirty years, which ended with the peace of Weftphalia in 1648, the principal nations. of Europe maintained their refpective rights with little variation of fortune. Provinces and colonies were occafionally interchanged; one or two ftates rofe from fecondary to primary rank; while others declined in the fame proportion. But, on the whole, a general balance was regularly preferved in what has Heen very properly called the political conftitutión of Europe. This balance was emphatically denominated the balance of power; and the ftudy of this, as a fcience, with the arts of negotiation, conftituted the fchool of diplomatic knowledge. But the politicians, who attribute the maintenance of the order of Europe to the fyftem of the political balance alone, have overlooked other causes, more forcible, though lefs apparent in their nature. From the time that war ceafed to be carried on by the fpear and arrow of the feudatory vaffal, it became a bufinefs of vaft expenfe; and was generally determined more by finance than by arms. But, after the discovery of America, and the paffage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, Europe became the emporium of the world; and the european ftates were gradually drawn into the intermixed relations of one great commonwealth; the feparate branches of which were dependent upon each other, from their reciprocal wants and particular productions; while they retained their feparate independence for the common beneath. They had, in fact, without knowing it, but a common lock, of which, public faith, or what is called public credit, was the guardian, as private faith, or perfonal credit, fupported the agency of individual concerns. When flates fo fituate went to war with each other, bounds were prescribed to it's duration, by the enormity of it's expenfe. Like parties involved in a law-fuit, the winner could gain but little, while he had to pay the costs of his victories. In fuch wars, if they lafted long, every nation became an eventual fufferer. The belligerent powers, most exhaufted, were obliged, by new impofitions, to raife the price of thr particular manufactures and, produce; fo that a prolonged fate warfare became a general tax, T funded fyftem, introduced by political neceffity, completed the termixture of the property of Europe. The ftates at war borrowed from thofe in peace. The fums borrowed, called a funded debt, being made transferable, became an article of trade. And thus, the debts of the european ftates, like their manufactures, became articles of an intermediate commerce. Holland, for example, had been for a century accumulating the profits of a pacific com. merce, for the mere purpose of lending them to the states who were diftreffed by war. It is from this fortunate and peculiar pofition of, modern Europe, as a great federal and commercial commonwealth, chiefly, that we are to account for the manner in which her internal wars have been clofed, from the peace of Weftphalia, abovementioned. The power of a Charlemagne could not arife amid fimilar circumstances; that of Lewis xiv, and of Catherine II, found their fucceffive repreffions. .. When the prefent revolutionary war burst forth, it was not con fidered, by the powers who were called on to oppofe it, that it was a war of a new character. It was neither a war of chieftainship, nor of chivalry, nor of religion, nor of the balance of power, nor of co lonization ! lonization and commerce. No! it was a war, in which the multitude were excited against the magiftrate, and phyfical force made to bear againft that public opinion, which was equally the guardian of eftablished authority, and of private property. Had the revolutionary war of France derived it's finews from the common fources of contribution, it might have been reduced to a fpeedy conclufion by the ordinary tactics of refiftance. But the finews of the new war were acquired by reverfing the order of private and public credit; by ifuing a fign of property, which was, in fact, a confifcation of the whole wealth of the ancient proprietors of France, as well as a fraud · committed on her foreign creditors. The first treasury of the revolutionary war was the affignats. Thefe were gradually depreciated, and finally became of very little, and almoft of no value; but not until they had repelled invafion. and carried the conteft into the heart of Holland, Germany, Italy, and Spain; not till the tribute of conqueft fupplied the place of regular and fair refources. The doctrine which we have endeavoured in former numbers, and now, at fill greater length, endeavour to explain and inculcate on Britain, Europe, and the civilized world, appears to us to be of the utmost importance to fociety, and all that is defirable in life. We may therefore be excufed, if we attempt to place it in various lights, that it may have the eafier accefs to dif ferent minds, and turns, and habits of thinking. It is faid, or implied, in the conduct of Britain, Let us first beat the enemy, which we fhall be able to do by the dint of our wealth, and then, and not till then, fhall we have peace. Had the prefent war been a war fupported by the former order of finance, the argument would be unanfwerable; for then, as in former wars, the heavieft purfe would carry the day. But, as the origin of this war has been different from that of thofe which preceded it, and, as it has been fupported by the violation of public credit, fo it cannot be terminated with fecurity or advantage, on either fide, without a reftoration of the laws of property and public credit.-How has it happened that France, which was not, a few years ago, to be found on the chart of nations, from the gulph of bankruptcy, has given law to the continent of Europe? Fury gives arms; but fury does not create gold, indifpenfably neceffary to the magnitude and complexity of modern warfare. France, by the unanimous report of the council of five hundred, on the 29th of january, 1796, fays, that The affignats made the revolution, founded the republic, and carried her victorious arms beyond the Alps, the Pyrenean mountains, and the Rhine. The council add, They procured us our liberty. The first propofition is true; the fecond not true. For France has not yet obtained her liberty; or can the ever obtain it, till her finance fall under the power of the public mind, and the protection of public credit. This, then, is the key to the enigma. While France had her own property under the confifcation of the affignats, liberty could not, and while fhe employs her arms in enflaving and extorting tribute from her fubjects, liberty cannot exist among her citizens. Her neighbours, for their own safety, must wish the french * Furor arma miniftrat. VIRG. AN. 1, 154. nation |