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ORIGINAL ANECDOTE OF DR. JOHNSON. A man of fashion wished to be introduced to the late Dr. Johnson: this was accordingly effected by means of Mrs. Otway, a lady for whom the doctor entertained the greatest respect. At the hour appointed, he came to the door in an elegant chariot, and, after a loud rat-tat-tat, demonstrative of his consequence, entered the drawing-room, in a dress-suit, with a bag, sword, &c. Having been educated at the university of Dublin, and reckoned a good scholar in his youth, he hoped to recommend himself to the colossus of literature by a display of his early acquirements. After a speech of about half an hour, interlarded with plentiful quotations of Greek and Latin, he turned round towards his new acquaintance, in the full expectation of being complimented on his parts. How great, then, was his disappointment, when the doctor, addressing himself to the lady of the house, with his usual solemnity, said, "I will be much obliged to you, madam, if you will send one of your servants to the toy-shop, for a rattle to entertain this gentleman you wish me to be acquainted with."

SCANDERBEG.

The public has never yet been in possession of a life of Scanderbeg, a work that would doubtless be very interesting to all such as enquire into the manners, military constitutions, and circumstances, of governments and people in past ages. Scanderbeg was bred a Turk, and at the age of forty became a Christian. Soon after, he asserted his hereditary right to the principality of Albania, and recovered it. In various fields of battle, in numberless encounters with the enemies of his country, he performed prodigies of valour, and evinced such a knowledge of the military art, in a defensive war, as it is difficult to find a parallel for in history. With a feeble garrison, he defended his little city Croja against all the Turkish bost, under Amurath II. and dared to contend with a greater foe, Mahomet II. In the conspicuous achievements of this hero, valour might seem a principal subject, as the military power of the Turks was then at its height; but, 20 ATHENEUM VOL. 1. 2d series.

though brave to conquer, Scanderbeg was braver still, in restraining those sons of violence oftener by stratagem than by force. A history of the campaigns of this great and noble-minded captain would justly demand the respect, admiration, and esteem, of all who regard war as a necessary evil, employed by God to punish itself.

REVENGE.

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The following was communicated to me, by a friend of John Philip Kemble, as a circumstance which occurred in Worcestershire. Two lads were engaged in robbing an orchard, and afterwards one of them impeached the other; for which his companion swore bitterly that, one day or other, he would be revenged. They arrived at the age of manhood, when the injured retired from business to a county far from his native one. The impeacher had adopted a sea-faring life; and, at length being shipwrecked, was taken, apparently lifeless, to the house of an aged man, who was bedridden; he did not see his guest, who lay in the next room to him. While the sailor was recovering, he recounted to the maidservant several incidents of his life, which were heard by the bedridden man in the next apartment, and, convinced he was the object of his ancient pique, in the dead of night he roused himself sufficiently to crawl on his hands and knees to the sailor's apartment, and struck him to the heart with a deadly weapon. The maid-servant was tried for this murder, convicted, and had nearly suffered, when the feeling of gratified revenge became too powerful for the hoary sinner, and he confessed, with delight, that he alone was the murderer.

MALHERBE'S SON, a young man, who promised to be as celebrated as his father,having fallen in a duel,nothing could assuage the despair of his afflicted parent,who actually challenged the murderer of his son, and was with great difficulty prevented from fighting him. On being reminded that his adversary was not half his age, "so much the better, (replied the old man,) I am but half as valuable now as I was at his time of life: the risk is therefore less, and the glory will be greater."

THE GREEKS AND TURKS RELATIVELY CONSIDERED. BY AN ENGLISH RESİDENT AT SMYRNA.

(Month. Mag.)

A SINGLE statement, made some

time ago by a late minister at the head of foreign affairs, has induced me to lay before you those plain facts which have come within my own knowledge and observation. It was stated, with the most unaccountable ignorance, in the House of commons, that the Turkish population of Europe exceeds ten millions; but every man, at all conversant with the history of Turkey, must be aware, that when the Turkish empire was in the zenith of its greatness and power, in the reign of Solyman the Magnificent and his immediate successors, never was the Mahometan population in Europe tantamount to half of his lordship's estimate. The aggregate of souls may be nine millions, of which number the Greek constitute more than three-fifths. Commerce, industry, and more temperate habits, have tended to aggrandize the numerical strength of the Greeks, though groaning beneath the rod of oppression; while, in the same ratio, civil wars, plague, and the bow-string, have unceasingly carried on the work of depopulation among the slaves of this abhorred despotism.

The formidable invaders of Europe, who, under the conduct of Mahomet the Second, in 1453, poured like a torrent over the finest regions of Europe, and took the fairest city in the world, have been enervated by luxury and idleness, and have degenerated from the warlike spirit and hardihood of their ancestors. The Ottoman empire is the shadow of its former greatness, destitute of all real strength; its name alone inspires terror by the cruelties exercised on its ill-fated victims; and the mighty fabric of its power would be shaken by the first conflict with a foreign invader.

These remarks are not speculative, but are undeniably certain, and may be confirmed by indisputable facts. The victorious Ottomans, whose course the arms of the German emperors were un

able to arrest, who twice laid siege to

Vienna, and even advanced into Hungary, have within the last two years proved themselves unable to hold the provinces on the Danube. They have been compelled to evacuate Moldavia and Wallachia; Servia and Bosnia have proved that they can repel all the armies which Mahometan enthusiasm could send against them; and, a few years ago, a Russian army, insignificant in numbers, after a successful campaign, made an advantageous peace, and acquired an extent of country on her frontier.

The Morea no longer bends her neck to the barbarian Bassas ; no sooner did the Greeks begin their glorious struggles for freedom, than the strong holds of this peninsula fell into their hands; while Ali Pacha alone set defiance to all the puissance of the Sublime Porte. Though the Greeks have been galled by the yoke of slavery, and cramped in their mental energies, for four centuries, they have evinced lately a high sense of patriotism, and a desire of honour and independence; and may not every man hope, when we consider their superior skill by sea, and the martial spirit and magnanimity by which they are animated, that the islands may be redeemed from the grasp of tyranny; and Greece may once more claim her just rank among the nations of civilized Europe! Nor is this notion chimerical; it becomes a moral certainty, when we consider that the Turkish fleets have been almost wholly manned by Greek sailors; in consequence of which, ever since the battle of Lepanto, when the Turkish navy was destroyed by the combined forces of Christendom, the naval power of the Mussulmans (had it not been for Greek sailors,) would have been absolutely annihilated: for the former, almost to a man, are averse to the sea-service. Nor can their available force by land be formidable, if we exclude the Jannissaries, who will fight for any master

who can pay them; and, like the Prætorian guards of imperial Rome, they dispose of the empire as their interest or inclination may lead them. Added to this, the continual revolts of the Pachas, by whose extortion the wretched people are crushed to the dust, renders this unhappy country the theatre of rapine, tumult, and injustice.

This despotism which has shaken its dreadful scourge of tyranny over the most delightful regions of Europe, is not supported, like other governments, by the discipline of its armies, the abundance of its revenues, and the number of its subjects devoted to their country. The Jannissaries are the most ferocious and turbulent militia in the world; the revenues are compulsory tributes; and the people gradually diminish and emigrate to those provinces where they can live under a more tolerant government. Thus this empire preys upon its vitals; and, without any foreign enemy, must fall by its own destroying hand. Sir W. Jones, a sagacious politician as well as eminent scholar, declared the downfall of this unwieldy despotism above thirty years ago, when the political hemisphere of Europe had a far different aspect from the present; "the Turkish sultans (says he), whose crescent is fast approaching to its wane."

The gigantic plans of Catharine of Russia would have founded an eastern kingdom, of which Constantinople was destined to be the capital: the brother of the reigning emperor, Constantine, was designated to this exaltation, and was so named for that purpose. How far this bold project was practicable, is left to the consideration of more acute politicians; but the conduct of Alexander has already shown, that he has not lost sight of the prospects of this ambitious and enterprising woman; and, whatever may be the results of negociations now on foot, it does not want much political sagacity to declare, that the colossal arms of Russian domination will stretch from the north-west to the south-eastern extremity of Europe. For Greece cannot remain long (if she ever regain her freedom,) an independent state her local position, between two most powerful empires, will expose her

as an easy conquest to her neighbours She must live under the shadow and protection of a greater power and Russia,* by her situation, her interests, and her religion, is better suited than any other nation to guarantee to this enslaved people the blessings common to the rest of Europe. The intolerable rigour and extortion, systematic among these barbarians, has driven out many cultivators into the south-eastern provinces of Russia, to the manifest detriment of the Ottoman empire: and where they have found a safe asylum from the arm of pillage, under the sway of a more enlightened and more politic prince. Hence it is evident, that the operations of the Porte are paralyzed, its resources dried up, its trade in a state of stagnation, and the whole country a scene of misery and barrenness.

In the future dismemberment of these delectable regions, Austria, for her acquiescence in the designs of Russia, may demand some of the provinces on the Danube; while England must be satisfied with her present possessions, the Ionian Isles, ceded by Russia; and assent, however unwilling, to that which she cannot prevent.

With regard to the commerce of England with the Levant, it will be in a few years an absolute nullity; and, indeed, it is now insignificant, when compared with that of the last century. Russia seems to engross almost all the advantages: she derives more gain from the trade with the Turks than all Europe together. The mode of policy of the English ministers seems most unaccountable, by the covert favour towards the Sublime Porte in the present contest now at issue between the Greeks

The city of Odessa, constituted into

a free port by the Emperor Alexander, at master-stroke of political economy. From its geographical position, and its easy communication with Constantinople, it has a considerable trade, chiefly in corn, with the capital, and other parts of the empire. brated by the ancient Greek poets for its Thus, it appears that this country, so celeproductive soil and genial climate, is dependent on foreigners for the necessaries of life. Vast tracts of land, in consequence uncultivated, not only in Europe, but along of the rapacity of the Turkish bassas, lie the extensive coast of Asia Minor.

the instance of the Duc de Richelieu, is a

and their inhuman persecutors the Mahometans. From Turkey this country can derive but little advantage, either commercial or political; with Greece she may be able to carry on a considerable trade, for England would there find a good market for her colonial produce, as well as for her home manufactures. A commercial people are more prone to calculate the chances of profit and loss, than to consider the claims of humanity and Christian fellowship; yet let us dwell for a while on the claim which Greece has upon the whole European family.

The Turks, being heterogeneous in their laws and politics, as well as in religion, from the rest of Europe, who do not even acknowledge the law of nations, can never be looked upon as

rightful dwellers on European soil; they are interlopers upon the conquered, whom their barbarities have never been able to destroy; and ought therefore to be swept from the face of Europe, and driven back to the mountains and deserts of Asia, whence their ancestors spread like a torrent over the finest parts of the world, and fixed the seat of their government in the noblest and most delightful city at that time in the universe. The Greek nation became a non-entity; the good, the learned, and the wise, fled from the Goths of the east, and sought a refuge in Italy, whither they carried the fine arts, and rekindled the flame of learning and genius, which had so long laid smothered in the embers of barbarism and Gothic darkness.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

(Lond. Lit. Gaz.)

THE SMUGGLER'S CHAUNT.

When Sprites unholy vigils keep,
Allur'd by thirst of gain

We break the heavy bonds of sleep
To prowl across the main:
We value not the bounding spray,
Nor heed the surge's roar;

But, while our cutter stems her way,
Impel the sweeping oar.

'Tis not for us the Queen of night
Gives lavishly her beams;
'Tis not for us the silver light
Around her orbit streams;
But if the skies be pitchy dark,
If clouds their beauty veil,

We haste to launch our stealthy bark,
And bend the scudding sail.

Our disport lies in coming storms,
No fears our souls appal;
We see them in a thousand forms,
And madly dare them all:

And many a proudly swelling breast-
Aye, many an Outlaw brave,
Shall find a couch of lasting rest
Beneath the briny wave.

Yet would we not our birthright yield
For landsmen's life of ease-
Let them securely range the field,
We boldly sweep the seas.

A restless, lawless course is ours,
A desperate part to play;

Nor reck we how the morrow lowers,
If fortune smile to-day.

And Woman (lamp of loveliness!

Where kindlier passions burn)

The Outlaw's fortunes deigns to bless,
And o'er his fate to mourn.

No prayer, no tomb, perchance have we→
No flow'ret decks our bier;
But Love our fading memory
Will hallow with a tear.

REFLECTIONS ON A MOONLIGHT NIGHT.

"Tis night-the beams of parting day
ilave long since shed their latest ray
Among the clouds of even;

Yet still a gleam of western light,
Defrauds the lovely queen of night
Of half her rightful heaven.

Yet, as unconscious of the sight,
She sheds a mild unchanging light

Upon this chequer'd scene;

Though clouds obscure her radiant crest, And roll their billows o'er her breast, Her orb is still serene.

So may I smile on others' joy Nor let their happiness alloy

My share of earthly bliss ;

Rd. Sparkle.

But may sweet friendship's smile serene

Shed its mild sunshine o'er each scene

Of earthly happiness.

And, when clouds flit o'er life's rough main,

May I as soon emerge again

To calm serenity:

The passing storms we meet below

Will lend that breast a brighter glow,
Whose rest is in the sky!

Here I am again.

(Lond. Lit. Gaz.)

GREENWICH HOSPITAL.

-FOL-de-rol de-rol-lol, fol-de-rol

de-ray. Ha! how are you, Mr. Editor?-here I am again, as staunch an old blade as ever knock'd a cock-maggot out of a king's biscuit, or shook a mosquito by the ears. Aye, aye, you may talk of your Penny-rammers and your Mar-maids in Chance ry, your Mix-i-can scenes and Crackeracts of the Ganges; but what are they to the sights I've seed in my life? This is a comical out-o'-the-way world 1 must needs own, for a man no sooner dowses his coat than somebody else is ready to put it on, and swear pointblank they have had it ever since it was a jacket. Howsomever that says nothing;-here I am again, and if you wants a few more tough yarns from the same winch, I'm your boy. What! did you think I was going to desert? Lord love you, old Jack never was the lad to flinch from his gun or forsake his colours. Let but Humanity beat to quarters and Benevolence take command, I'm on deck in a minute, and clear for action. So you see here I am again-none of your Tom-Coxes-traverse gentry, up one hatchway, down t'other-in every body's mess and nobody's watch. No, no, all fair and square by the lifts and braces, that's poor Jack's plan. None of your teafor-two and toast-for-six without a friend to share it. Give me the feel ing heart and the helping hand adorned with the richest of all earthly gems, the sparkling tear of gratitude; and this puts me in mind of a circumstance that happened the other day

There, don't be in a hurry; you gemmen of the press are so impatient. "Let me gang my ain gait," as old Hameish says; that is, hobble along as well as I can. You forget I've got one leg in the grave, and the other is longing to be with his mate; but wait a wee, wait a wee, Mr. Editor, and you shall have it as clear as ink can make it. Why, d'ye see, an old messmate

of mine got married some years ago,

and what then?-why, he'd a whole

troop of children before he could look round him, and that's poor work upon three farthings a year, and receive it quarterly-it made him calculate his vulgar fractions. Howsomever he struggled with his difficulties, kiss'd his wife, nursed the bairns, and turned a penny when he could get it. Well, d'ye see, about six weeks ago he was sitting on the bench a-top of One-treehill in the Park, in a lack-a-day-sighcal manner, swinging one leg for pastime, and beating a tattoo upon the other, occasionally picking his teeth to clear them of the remains of a chesnut dinner. His last shilling was confounded restless, and had been driven from pocket to pocket undergoing fifty examinations to ascertain whether it was a good-un. He was giving it another twirl in the air, when a poor ragged Tar ran up alongside, and dowsing his truck, supplicated charity. He had not been accustomed to beg, for his head hung down with shame, without raising his eyes to the person he implored; and he was actually wearing round to sheer off without having his petition answered, when my messmate sprung up, grasp'd his hand

"What, Johnson, my worthy old soul, come to this !"—"Aye, aye, Mr. T, (said the veteran,) needs must when the old-un drives; and I'm sure, of all the foul fiends hunger's the worst. But what's the use of distressing you with my complaints? I know you've a generous heart, and 'twill only make you more unhappy, 'cause you can't relieve them. Heaven knows halfpay's little enough for a wife and family, for I hears you're married.'"Why, aye, Johnson, I have a family, and they are so dear to my heart that I wouldn't part with one of them to be made Lord High Admiral, though I confess I'm often obliged to sail closehaul'd to get 'em a meal. However, they will dine hearty to-day, God bless

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