7 tribes of Calmucks have poffeffed the art of making gunpowder 'They boil the efflorefcence of nitrat of potafs in a ftrong lye of poplar and birch afhes, and leave it to cryftallize; after which they pound the cryftals with two parts of fulphur, and as much charcoal then, wetting the mixture, they place it in a caldron over a charcoal fire, until the powder begins to granulate, The generality of Calmucks, when equipped for war, protect the head by a helmet of steel, with a gilded creft, to which is fixed a net work of iron rings, falling over the neck and fhoulders, and hanging as low as the eye-brows in front. They wear upon their body, after the Eaftern manner, a tiffue of fimilar work, formed of iron or fteel rings matted together, which adapts itself to the fhape, and yields readily to all pofitions of the body; and ought therefore rather to be called a fhirt, than a coat, of mail. The most beautiful of thefe are manufactured in Perfia, and are valued as equivalent to fifty horfes. The cheaper fort are made of fcales of tin, and fell only for fix or eight horfes each; but these are more common among the Chinese, and in the Mogul territory. Their other arms are lances, bows and arrows, poignards, and fabres. The richest only bear fire-arms, which are therefore always regarded as a mark of diftinction, and kept with the utmost care, in cafes made of badgers' fkins. Their most valuable bows are made of the wild goat's horn, or whalebone; the ordinary fort, of maple, or thin flips of elm or fir, faftened together, and bound with a covering of linden or birch bark. "Their amufements are, hunting, wrestling, archery, and horfe.racing. They are not addicted to drunkennefs; though they hold drinking parties, which continue for half a day at a time, without interruption. Upon fuch occafions, every one brings his hare of brandy and koumifs; and the whole ftock is placed upon the ground, in the open air, the guests forming a circle, feated around it. One of them, fquatted by the veffels which contain the liquor, performs the office of cup-bearer. The young women place themfelves by the inen, and begin fongs of love or war, of fabulous adventure, or heroic achievement. Thus the fête is kept up, the guests paffing the cup round, and finging the whole time, until the stock of liquor is expended. During all this ceremony, no one is feen to rife from the party, nor does any one interrupt the harmony of the affembly, by riot or intoxication. In the long nights of Winter, the young people of both fexes amufe themfelves with mufic, dancing, and finging. Their most common musical inftrument is the balalaika, or two-ftringed lute; which is often reprefented in their paintings. Thefe paintings preferve very interesting memorials of the antient fuperftition of Eaftern nations; inafmuch as they prefent us with objects of Pagan worship common to the earliest my tho logy of Egypt and of Greece. The arts of Painting and Mufic may be fuppofed to have continued little liable to alteration among them, from the remoteft periods of their history, As for their dances, dances, they confift more in movements of the hands and the arms, than of the feet. In Winter they alfo play at cards, draughts, backgammon, and chefs. Their love of gambling is fo great, that they will fpend entire nights at play; and lofe in a fingle fitting the whole of what they poffefs, even to the clothes on their body. In fact, it may be faid of Calmucks, that the greatest part of their life is fpent in amufement. Wretched and revolting as their appearance is to more civilized people, they would be indeed miferable, in their own eftimation, if compelled to change. their mode of living for ours. Both Gmelin and Pallas relate, that they deem a refidence in houfes fo infupportable, that to be fhut up in the confined air of a clofe apartment, when under the neceffity of going into towns, and making vifits of embaffy or commerce, was confidered by them with a degree of horror. Among the difeafes to which they are expofed by their diet and want of cleanlinefs, may be mentioned the itch, to which they are very subject, and malignant fevers, which are very fatal to them during the heat of fummer. The venereal difeafe caufes great ravages; but it is faid to prevail chiefly in thofe camps where their princes refide, and not to be often found among the lower orders. They give to this diforder a name very expreffivé of the estimation in which they hold their mode of life, fignifying "The house difeafe." Having occafion hereafter to notice this people again, I fhall only add the obfervations of one of the celebrated travellers before mentioned, who, after confidering the privations to which they are expofed, places their fituation in at point of view more favourable, perhaps, than I have done. "For the reft," fays he, "to whatever degree of wretchednefs the pooreft of the Calmucks may be reduced, it is very rare to behold them dejected by forrow, and they are never fubdued by defpair. The generality, notwithstanding a mode of life which appears fo ad. verfe to health, attain to a robuft and very advanced old age, Their diforders are neither very frequent, nor very dangerous. Few become grey-headed at forty or fifty. Perfons from eighty to a hundred years of age are by no means uncommon among them; and at that advanced period of life they ftill fuftain with great eafe the fatigue of horfemanfhip. A fimple and uniform diett; the free air which they uninterruptedly refpire; inured, vigorous, and healthy bodies; continual exercife, without care, without laborious employment; fuch are the natural causes of these felicitous 'effects." P. 241. [To be continued.] * Or rather, “ derived from those who live in houses.” "I am at a lofs to reconcile this ftatement with the real diet of the Calmucks. Can that properly be deemed fimple, which confifts of the groffeft animal food of all kinds, without admixture of vegetable diet, without bread, or any of the fruits of the earth? ART. 4 ART. VIII. The Works of the Reverend Thomas Townfon, D. D. late Archdeacon of Richmond; one of the Rectors of Malpas Chefhire; and fome Time Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford. In Two Volumes. To which is prefixed an Account of the Author, with an Introduction to the Dif courfes on the Gospels, and a Sermon on the Quotations in the Old Teftament, By Robert Churton, M. A. Archdeacon of St. David's, Rector of Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire, and Late Fellow of Brafen Nofe College, Oxford. 8vo. Two Volumes. 18s. Rivingtons and Payne. 1810. ART. IX. Points at Iffue between the Editor of Dr. Townson's Works, and the Author of Difcurfory Confiderations on the Hypothefis that St. Luke's Gofpel was firft written, difcurforily canvaffed, in Two Letters to the Rev. Ralph Churton, Archdeacon of St. David's, from a Country Clergymen. 8vo. 135 pp. 5s. Rivingtons and Payne. 1811. THE character of Dr. Townfon was fo eminently pure, gentle, and apoftolical; his faith was fo difcreet, his veneration for the fcriptures fo devoted and fo cautious, that they who had the happiness of converfing with him, and enjoying his friendship, were almoft led to look upon him as a faint, to rely upon his judgment as hardly fallible, and to regard with no favourable eye any oppofition to an opinion which he had efpoufed. Though few men have ever better deferved fuch a tribute to their merit, no one was ever less likely to claim it than Dr. Townfon. As his enquiries were patient, fo his conclufions were modeft; and as truth was his only object, there is little doubt that, could an opinion, oppofite to one which he had fuggefted, have been fhown to have greater probability and force of evidence, he would himself, very cheerfully, have acknowledged the fact, and adopted the opinion. Such, we are much inclined to think would have been his conduct refpecting that opinion, which he ef poused and defended, concerning the order in which the four Gofpels were written; though a friend, feeling for him as he would not have felt for himself, has thought it neceffary to defend it, with fome little degree of warmth. The feeling in itfelf is laudable, arifing from that very jaft admiration which we explained in the opening of this article; yet it is one which, not standing exactly in the fame circumstances, we do not entirely partake. At the fame time, let us not forget that the point in queftion is one, on which the beft men may be allowed to differ, without the fmallest breach of charity. It Dr. Townfon's Works, and Mr. Dunfter's Letters. 499 is nothing fundamental, nothing effential to the faith. It is merely a fpeculative opinion, drawn from the comparison of the Gofpels with each other. Dr. Townfon, following the general tradition of the church, has fuppofed the Gospels to have been produced in the fame order in which they ufually ftand; and examining and comparing them together, he colleted many apparent corroborations of that tradition. Mr. Dunfter, in his "Difcurfory Confideration," thought he faw fufficient reafon to depart from that opinion, and particularly to confider St. Luke as the first Evangelift in point of time. Mr. Churton, republifhing Dr. Townion's confiderations, has given, in his Introduction, additional reafons in favour of his opinion; and laftly, Mr. Dunker, replying to thefe arguments, in the pamphlet above announced, has fhown, to our apprehenfion, that they are infufficient; and has more fully than before replied to the arguments of Dr. Townfon. We truft, that in fuch a matter, it is perfectly fafe to take one fide or other of the queftion, as the reafons may feem-tous to prevail, without being thought wasting in refpect to either party. The memory of Dr Townfon we revere, as we have above exprelfed: his friend and Editor we efteem as he is well known to deferve; his opponent alfo we believe to be truly and highly eflimable. But it is not to the character of the one or the other that we are to look, but to the force of the arguments; and on that account only we have vielded, and ftill yield to the confiderations of Mr. Dunfter. The preface of St. Luke feems, to our apprehenfion, entirely to de clare, that no other competent perfon had then undertaken to do what he was preparing to perform. The λ, "the many," who had attempted fomething of the kind, could not include any infpired Evangelifts; for they are men. tioned as a reason why his undertaking was neceffary; whereas, had any of thofe been fo qualified, they would rather have made it quite unneceffary. Either therefore no other Evangelifts had then written, or St. Luke did not know that they had. We agree alfo with Mr. Dunfter in oppofing the opinion that any one Evangelift copied from another, or from any written document. We have lately feen the utmost that learning and the most confummate ingenuity could do, in fayour of the copying hypothefis t; and the refult was' to our apprehenfion, fo entirely inconfiftent with the character of the writers, and fo deftructive of the real evidence of the Gof See Brit. Crit. Vol. xxxiv, p. 36. + Dr. Marth's. pels, 3 500 Dr. Tawnfon's Works, and Mr. Dunfter's Letters. pels, by removing it back from inspired writers, to unknown and unattested documents, that we cannot but wish to escape altogether from the trammels of fuch fuppofitions. We accede therefore with pleasure to the opinion of the very learned and able author of the "Remarks on Dr. Marth's Hypothefis," that the only COMMON DOCUMENT was the preaching" [and actions]" of our Saviour himself." This opinion, which it seems is nearly that alfo of Herder and Mr. Dunster, we thus take the liberty to ftate in our own words. "That all they who had been chofen witneffes of our Saviour's difcourfes and actions, were enabled by infpiration, to remember and repeat the former, with little or no variation of words, and to relate the latter without any material difference of circumftances. That in their preaching they did fo; and judging very fimilarly of the importance of what they had feen and heard, repeated nearly the fame things and the fame words, to their various converts. These were the original documents; but when these were attempted to be collected by the many, (oi mono) not qualifi ed by infpiration for the task, they fucceeded fo ill in it, that St, Luke confidered their attempts as fufficient reafon for his undertaking it, who had qualifications fo much fuperior. This therefore he did, by putting into order all thofe facts, and difcourfes, which he had received from the first relators, or had himself witneffed. This we have from St. Luke himself in his introduction. The particular circumstances which gave occafion to the other three Gofpels not being told by the writers themfelves are more conjectural; but the probability is, that their ftriking resem. blances arofe, not from any copying, but from their exact recollection of the fame words and events; and their differences, from fome minor caufe, fuch as their particular object at the time of writing, and others, which, perhaps, cannot now be traced." Thefe ideas, which are more diffufely given in Mr. Dunfter's pamphlet, p. 84, et feq. we have compreffed into as fmall a compafs as we could; to make them, if poffible, more generally ufeful. Having difpofed of this previous queftion, in the way which our unbiaffed conviction directs, we fhall briefly give an account of the principal publication, Dr. Townfon's works. Every faithful fon of our Church will doubtlefs.rejoice with us to receive the collected works of one, who was fo diftinguished and exemplary a member of it. The account of the author prefixed, is almoft literally the fame as was published before in the edition of the author's " Difcourfe on our Saviour's Interment," &c. which appeared in 1793; with the addition of a few dates, and the two infcriptions to the memory of Dr. Townfon, at Malpas, and at Blithfield, This |