THE SCOTS M MAGAZINE. FEBRUARY, 1 7 8 0. CONTENT S. A CARAVAN barbarously used 57. Lady H. ACKLAND's fortitude and diftreffes 61. Fortis on the formation and diffolution of HILLS 63. HISTORY 1778. Germany: Difcuffions between the courts of Vienna and Berlin 65. Preparations for war 67. The campaign begun 68. RODNEY Complimented at K-L's expence 69. PARLIAMENT. Lords on public œconomy 70. Speech and motions of the Earl of Shelburne ib. Speeches by the Lords Stormont, Hillsborough, Richmond, Chancellor, Bathurst, &c. 71, 72. Divifion 72. -The subject resumed. Speeches by the Lords Shelburne, Stormont, Grafton, Temple, Carmarthen, Chesterfield, Sandwich, Rockingham, Hillsborough, Richmond, Mansfield, Camden, &c. 72-75. Divifion 75. Protest ib. The term PoYNINGS' LAW explained 77. AMERICA. Gen. Lincoln's account of the repulfe at Savannah 78. Reception of a new French minifter by congrefs 79. The property of Pennfylvania taken from the Penn family by the ftate 81. Forfeitures ib. Prifoners enlarged ib. BIRON's generofity to RODNEY 81. POETRY. Epistle, C. F. partridge-shooting, Effays on COUNTY-MEETINGS 103.-109. A Extract of a letter from Paris, Feb. 8. LL Europe rings with the miffortunes that befel a caravan of Europeans in the deferts of Egypt the 16th of June laft; but all the news-papers have mentioned it differently, and we could not learn the real truth, but by the arrival at Paris of M. de St Germain, who alone efcaped, by a good fortune hardly credible, the moft cruel catastrophe that ever befel a traveller. M. de St Germain, and his brother M. de Chilly, were, the one commandant at Daka, and the other at Caffimbazar, two very important factories in Bengal, when they were taken prifoners of war by the English. Having obtained VOL. XLII. leave, on their parole of honour, to return to France, and finding no fhip to bring them to Europe when they doubled the Cape of Good Hope, they fet out in a Danish veffel for Suez in the Red fea, in hopes of croffing over, with eafe, the ithmus that feparates that fea from the Mediterranean, and then embarking at Alexandria for Marseilles. After a perilous navigation they arrived at Suez the 24th of May 1779, with several French and English that were paffengers in the fame fhip. They were no fooner landed, than the Danish captain wrote to the French merchants at Cairo, to procure a caravan, that is, the camels neceffary to carry the merchandife of the veffel, which was eftimated at several millions. Egypt is governed, or rather oppreffed, H oppreffed, by fixteen Beys, or Lords. The Porte preferves there nothing but a fhadow of authority, that refides in the hands of a Bafhaw, whom the Beys keep, as a kind of prisoner, in the castle of Cairo. In the abfence of Murat Bey, the moft powerful of thefe fixteen tyrants, who was gone to fight Haflem Bey, one of his brethren, application was made to Ibrahim Bey. He promifed the moft ftriking protection, and even offered his own people and camels to carry the goods. This propofal was accepted with out hesitation: but, unhappily, the wealth of the caravan, which his avidity prompted him to exaggerate, made him with to carry it off; and he concerted for that purpose with the Arabs of Tort, (famous for their ferocity and plundering), the blackest and most cowardly of all perfidies. The camels filed off from Suez the 15th of June. The travellers fet out at fix o'clock in the evening; the night paffed without accident: but at break of day, in the middle of a defile, formed by two chains of hills, the caravan was befet by about 1200 Arabs. They first made three difcharges of their mufquetry, and then fell fabre in-hand on the ten Europeans that compofed the caravan; who being difperfed, were hacked, taken, and stripped even of their fhirts, and driven naked into the defert. On the other hand, the real conductors of the camels, on the firft fhot being fired, which was undoubtedly the fignal agreed on, turned the camels about, and drove them themselves, not without fome refiftance, but with eagerness, into the town of Tort, belonging to the Arabs, after having palled four days under the walls of Suez. The Europeans, maimed, ftripped, and ftill purfued by that banditti, divided themfelves by chance into two parties. One took the road to Suez, which was but eight leagues off; and the other, confifting of the perfons who had marched foremost, as they could not make their way through the body of the Arabs, to gain Suez, ran towards Cairo, which was twenty-two leagues off; but, in or der to efcape the ferocity of the Arabs, were obliged to take by-roads, which increafed prodigiously the diftance. Unfortunately Meff. de St Germain and de Chilly were in that troop: it confifted, with them, of a black, who belonged to them, (the other having taken the road Suez); of Meff. Barrington and Jen kins, Englishmen; of Mr Vendelwelden, captain of the Danish fhip; of an Arme. nian, named Paul, who was interpreter to the ship; and two Mendicant Arabs : in all nine perfons. It is impoffible to defcribe the dreadful torments and mortal anguifh that overpowered eight of these unhappy fugitives, and which M. de St Germain could not have efcaped without a miracle. There is not a more burning climate on the face of the globe than the deferts of Egypt: the wind that blows there is a confuming fire; there no rain ever falls; there is not a drop of water to be got, nor does a fhrub grow within a space of thirty leagues; and the fand, almost turned red by the fcorching heat of the fun, is compofed of little angular pebbles that tear the skin, and enter it like glafs. By a ftrange contraft, the nights, in that frightful climate, are almost as cold as the days are hot; and when a man efcapes the fuffocating vapours of the day, it is almoft impoffible to withstand, without cloathing, the freezing air of the night. It was in this murdering defert that M. de St Germain, with his unfortunate companions, had to fruggle against all the horrors of death during three days and four nights, without eating or drinking, parched with a confuining thirst, fcorched by the fun, expofed naked, stark naked, to clouds of infects and fiies, the torment of which is more cruel than can be imagined; falling down twenty times in an hour with fatigue, and rifing again by the excefs of pain occafioned by the pebbles tearing every part of his body; walking oftentimes on his hands; and at laft, overcome with fatigue, covered with an univerfal ulcer, reduced to skin and bone, having drank up all his urine, his lips and tongue dried to a powder, his fight dim, his hearing gone, no longer able to fpeak, and feized at frequent intervals with a violent fever and the delirium of death, having had several fits of a kind of apoplexy and lethargy, he ar rived, by a fpecies of miracle, at the country-houfe of the Bey, near Cairo. But the greateft of his misfortunes, the moft cruel of all his torments, which made him twenty times over to wish for the death he was ftruggling againft, was to have beheld the fucceffive exit of all his companions. Mr Barrington was the first victim that fell; Meff. Jenkins and Vendelwelden followed next; the black, the the Armenian interpreter, and one of the Mendicant Arabs, although robuft, and inured to the rigour of the climate, perihed like the reft. But the most terrible of all fights for M. de St Germain, that which a feeling heart cannot figure toitfelf without being feized with horrer, was to fee his brother overwhelmed with fatigue, heat, and thirft, with twenty-two wounds of a fabre, conjuring him to abandon him, and provide for his own fafety; and to be reduced to the alternatire of feeing him perith before his eyes, or leave him in the defert, in order to employ the poor remains of ftrength he had left, to procure him fome affiftance. He chofe the latter. The excefs of their faferings made them hope they were drawing near the end of their miferies. His ftrength redoubled at the fight of his brother's danger: but all his care proved fruitless. They were still at too great a ditance from Cairo; and the Bey's people, whom he had engaged to run to the defert in queft of his unfortunate brother, and the black that accompanied him, could not difcover either of them: they found only the bodies of the other Europeans; and M. de Chilly either fell a Tactim to the many torments he endured, or he was dragged away into flavery, if he has been fo fortunate as to have his life faved by any of the Arabs. M. de St Germain having thus feen all his companions fall, at laft arrived, naked, alone, and in a dying condition, at the country-house of the Bey. The aftance he received there ftopped the progrefs of the diforder; and after he was carried to Cairo, to the quarter of the Franks, he owed his life to the fkill of M.Graffe, a French phyfician; and to the praiseworthy care of Meff. Magallon and Olive, merchants of Marfeilles, who took him into their house. The French were not the only perfons that gave him tokens of the part they took in his misfortunes. Several Engkimen that failed with him from Bengal to Suez, particularly Mr Rofs, who Commanded the English factory at Daka, ilft himself was at the head of the French factory, gave him the moft feel ing proofs of their fenfibility. It was with the greatest difficulty that he decliaccepting the offers of every kind that were made him, chufing rather to Eve the preference to the French mer chants at Cairo. red M. de St Germain being happily reco vered, tried every means, but in vain, to obtain reftitution of about 300,000 livres in effects and merchandise that belonged to him in the caravan; but, in abandoning his fortune, he must confort himfelf with the thoughts, that he had the happiness to escape, all at once, every poffible kind of death, hunger, thirst, fuffocating heat by day, mortal cold by night, exceflive fatigue, the deflructive fting of the infects, the fire and fword of the Arabs, the grief or feeing his companions perifh, and his inability to fuccour his brother; and, finally, a long and dangerous illness, the confequences of fuch horrors and miferies! The history of this dreadful event, worthy in every respect to be laid before the public, in exhibiting a picture of the greatest dangers that any traveller ever encountered, proves, that in attempting the paffages of the isthmus of Suez, one must be aware, both of the ferocity of the Arabs, and the perfidy of the Beys that tyranaife over Egypt. MEMOIRS of the Lord Viscount STOR MONT, Secretary of State for the Northern department. DAVID MURRAY, the present Vif count Stormont, Baron of Scoon and Balvaird, Heritable Keeper of the Palace of Scoon in Scotland, fucceeded his father in 1748. His Lordihip, after receiving a finished education at home, made the tour of Europe; and while he was on his travels, he was appointed Refident at the court of Drefden. In that capacity he was fo highly efteemed by the Elector of Saxony and the nobility, that a marriage was accomplithed between his Lordihip and a daughter of Count Bunan. This lady died at Vienna in 1766, leaving him one daughter, Lady Elifabeth Mary. In 1755, his Lordship was appointed Ambaflador to the King of Poland; in which fituation, we believe, he remained till the peace; and immediately after, viz. in May 1763, his Lordhip was appointed AmbaffadorExtraordinary and Minifter-Plenipotentiary to the Emperor and the Emprefsdowager of Germany. It was of the utmoft importance, in order to prefave the tranquillity of Europe, to have an able minister at the court of Vienna at this period; and it is faid to be owing to the exertion of his Lordship's minifterial talents and addrefs, that the Emperor has been kept fteady in his alliance and friendship friendship for Great Britain, in oppofition to the undermining influence of France. His Lordship also had a confiderable share in promoting the peace be tween the Ruffians and the Turks, and in cementing that close, commercial, and political alliance between the courts of Petersburg and London, which may prove highly beneficial to Great Britain, by the affiftance to be obtained from the formidable power of the Emprefs of Ruffia. It is not meant to affert, that Lord Stormont was a principal in the negociations between the courts of Petersburg and Conftantinople, nor between the former and our court; the abilities of the minifters of the refpective powers immediately concerned were equal to their important functions; but the ftrict intimacy in which his Lordship lived with the minifters from every power in Europe to the courts where he refided, enabled him to become a powerful friendly medi ator. His Lordship lived upon terms of great amily with the late Lord Cathcart, the British Ambaffador at the court of Pe terfburg while his Lordship was at Vienna; and upon the appointment of other minifters to thofe departments, their friendship was cemented by the ties of affinity, Lord Stormont marrying, in 1776, the Lady Louifa Cathcart, his Lordfhip's third daughter. His Lordfhip's laft embaffy was to the court of Versailles, upon the recal of Lord Rochford, who was appointed Secretary of State; and in this ftation he continued till the rupture with France obliged him to quit that perfidious court. So many years refidence abroad has made Lord Stormont almoft a ftranger at home; and though he may have performed very effential fervices for his country, yet they have been in fuch a line as from their very nature cannot be known to the public at large. Great expectations, however, may be formed in his prefent ftation of Secretary of State for The Northern department, if the prejudices entertained against him merely as a North Briton do not occafion his removal. In the humble opinion of the writer of thefe imperfect memoirs, it should be an invariable rule, to appoint thofe perions who have been long employed in embaffies abroad to the office of Secretary of State; the very title and the principal functions of this officer pointing out the propriety of fuch a choice. Lord Stormont's firft fpeech in the House of Lords, on the 7th of De ber 1778 [19.], when administration accufed of deficiency in not procu early intelligence, was heard with a ration by the crowd of strangers be the bar: and most affuredly his Lord upon that occafion, and upon fevera thers fince, has fet an example of po nefs, cool temper, and moderation wards his adverfaries, highly becom the dignity of the Houfe of Peers. To a graceful perfon and genteel dress, his Lordship adds an eleganc diction rarely to be met with, and nat has fupplied him with an harmoni voice. Is it neceffary to add, that account is penned by an Englishman native of London, and one who no connection whatever with administ tion? SIR, City-road, Jan. 21. 178 Some time ago a pamphlet was f me, intitled, An appeal from the P teftant affociation to the people of G. Brit [89.]. A day or two fince, a kind of a fwer to this was put into my hand, whi pronounces "its ftyle contemptible, reafoning futile, and its object malicio [89]." On the contrary, I think t tyle of it is clear, eafy, and natural; t reafoning (in general) ftrong and concl five; the object or defign, kind and b nevolent. And in purfuance of the fan kind and benevolent defign, namely, preferve our happy constitution, I fh. endeavour to confirm the fubftance that tract, by a few plain arguments. With perfecution I have nothing do. I perfecute no man for his religio lefs a freedom in religion" as any ma principles. Let there be as "boun can conceive. But this does not tou the point: I will fet religion, true falfe, utterly out of the queftion. Su pofe the Bible, if you please, to be fable, and the Koran to be the word God. I confider not, whether the Re mith religion be true or falfe; I buil nothing on one or the other fuppofition Therefore away with all your common place declamation about intolerance an perfecution for religion! Suppofe ever word of Pope Pius's creed to be true fuppofe the council of Trent to have bee infallible: yet I infift upon it, that n government, not Roman-Catholic, ough to tolerate men of the Roman-Catholi perfuafion. I prove this by a plain argument, (lef Roman-Catholic does or can give fecul him anfwer it that can). That ne rity for his allegiance or peaceable behaviour, I prove thus. It is a RomanCatholic maxim, established, not by private men, but by a public council, That "no faith is to be kept with heretics." This has been openly avowed by the council of Conftance: but it never was openly disclaimed (whether private perfons avow or difavow it). It is a fixed maxim of the church of Rome. But as long as it is fo, nothing can be more plain, than that the members of that church can give no reasonable security to any government of their allegiance, or peaceable behaviour. Therefore they ought not to be tolerated by any government, Proteftant, Mahometan, or Pagan. You may fay," Nay, but you will take an oath of allegiance." True, five hundred oaths; but the maxim, "No fath is to be kept with heretics," fweeps them all away as a fpider's web. So that, fill, no governors that are not RomanCatholics, can have any fecurity of their allegiance. Again. Thofe who acknowledged the fpiritual power of the Pope, can give no fecurity of their allegiance to any government; but all Roman-Catholics ac. knowledge this: therefore they can give no fecurity for their allegiance. The power of granting pardons for all fins, paft, prefent, and to come, is, and has been for many centuries one branch of his fpiritual power. But thofe who acknowledge him to have this fpiritual power, can give no fecurity for their allegiance; fince they believe the Pope can pardon rebellions, high treafon, and all other fins whatfo ever. The power of difpenfing with any promile, oath, or vow, is another branch of the fpiritual power of the Pope. And all who acknowledge his fpiritual power, maft acknowledge this. But whoever acknowledges the difpenfing power of the Pope, can give no fecurity of his allegiance to any government. Oaths and promifes are none: they are light as air; a difpenfation makes them all null and void. Nay, not only the Pope, but even a prieft, has power to pardon fins! This is an effential doctrine of the church of Rome. But they that acknowledge this, cannot poffibly give any fecurity for their allegiance to any government. Oaths are no fecurity at all; for the prieft can pardon both perjury and high treason. Setting then religion afide, it is plain, that upon principles of reason, no government ought to tolerate men who cannot give any fecurity to that government for their allegiance and peaceable behaviour. But this no Romanist can do, not only while he holds, That "no faith is to be kept with heretics," but fo long as he acknowledges either priestly abfolution, or the spiritual power of the Pope. But the late act, you fay, does not either tolerate or encourage Roman-Catholics." I appeal to matter of fact. Do not the Romanifts themselves understand it as a toleration? You know they do. And does it not already (let alone what it may do by and by) encourage them to preach openly, to build chapels (at Bath and elsewhere), to raise feminaries, and to make numerous converts, day by day, to their intolerant perfecuting principles? I can point out, if need be, feveral of the perfons. And they are increafing daily. But nothing dangerous to English liberty is to be apprehended from them." I am not certain of that. Some time fince a Romish priest came to one I knew; and after talking with her largely, broke out, "You are no Heretic! You have the experience of a real Christian?” "And would you, (fhe asked), burn me alive?" He faid," God forbid !-unlefs it were for the good of the church." Now what fecurity could fhe have had for her life, if it had depended on that' man? The good of the church would have burft all the ties of truth, juftice, and mercy: efpecially when feconded by the abfolution of a prieft; or, if need were, a Papal pardon. If any one please to answer this, and to fet his name, I fhall probably reply.But the productions of anonymous writers I do not promife to take any notice of. I am, &c. [Lond. Chron.] JOHN WESLEY, The chafle and fober principles of rational love and connubial duty, exemplified in Lady Harriet Ackland, in her paffage through Canada to attend her husband. From A ftate of the expedition from Canada, laid before the House of Commons by Gen. Burgoyne. T His lady had accompanied her hufband to Canada in the beginning of the year 1776. In the courfe of that campaign fhe had traverfed a vast space of country, in different extremities of feafon, |