ART. III. Philofophical Papers: being a Collection of Me moirs, Differtations, and experimental Investigations, relating to various Branches of Natural Philofophy and Mechames. Together with Letters to feveral Perfons on Subjects connected with Science and ufeful Improvement. By Benjamin Count of Rumford, LL. D. F. R. S. &c. &c. Volume I. 8vo. 390 PP. 10s. 6d. Cadell and Davies.

1802.

THE HE contents of this volume are fuch as have already appeared before the public, moftly in the Philofophical Tranfactions; and of course due attention has been paid to the fame in our accounts of that valuable periodical publication.

Thofe papers are illuftrated by thirteen copper-plate engravings; and, in the prefent volume, a portrait of the author is prefixed to the title page.

It muft, however, be obferved, that in this volume several additional obfervations, experiments, &c. are annexed to the original papers; but as thofe additional remarks could not be rendered fufficiently intelligible without at least a fummary account of the papers to which they are annexed, we shall not attempt to defcribe them.

The fhort Preface, and the Table of Contents, which we fhall fubjoin, are fufficient to give our readers that idea which may be reasonably expected of us, relative to this first volume of Count Rumford's Philofophical Papers.

"Moft of the papers contained in this volume have already appeared in the Tranfactions of the Royal Society of London; and fome of them have been tranflated, into foreign languages; yet, as in this publication I have carefully revifed and corrected each of thofs papers; and as I have added notes and fupplements to feveral of them,

fatter my felf that the volume will not be altogether uninterefting, or unworthy a place in the libraries of thofe who collect books of this kind.

"The fecond volume, which will confift chiefly of original Letters, written on various fcientific fubjects, and on useful inventions and improvements, will, no doubt, be generally thought more interesting.

"I have it in contemplation to publish, at fome future period, a work (printed uniformly with this volume, and with my Elays) on Original Mechanical Inventions; which work, together with the continuation of my Eifays, and the Memoirs of my Life (which lalt, it is probable, will not be publifhed till after my death) will be all the publications I have at prelent any intention of giving to the world."

P. vii.

"1. An Account of fome Experiments on Gun-Powder, (from page 1 to page 114, with the Plates 1. 11, III, and IV.)

" 11. Ex

11. Experiments to determine the Force of fired Gun-Powder, (from page 115 to page 194, with the Plates v. and VI.

"111. Supplementary Obfervations to the foregoing Paper, (from page 194 to page 197.)

IV. A fhort Account of fome Experiments made with Cannon; and alfo of fome Attempts to improve Field Artillery, (from page 198 to page 217, with the Plates VII. VIII. and IX.)

v. Experiments on the Production of Air from Water, exposed with various Subftances to the Action of Light, (from page 218 to page 263.)

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VI. Experiments made to determine the relative Quantities of Moisture, abforbed from the Atmosphere by different Subitances used for Clothing, (from page 264 to page 269.)

"VII. Experiments made to determine the relative Intensities of the Light emitted by Luminous Bodies, (from page 270 to page 318, with the Plates x. XI. XII. and x111.)

"viti. An Account of fome Experiments on coloured Shadows, (from page 319 to page 332.)

"IX. Conjectures retpecting the Principles of the Harmony of Colours, (from page 333 to page 340.)

"x. An Enquiry concerning the Chemical Properties that have been attributed to Light, (from page 341 to page 362.)

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XI. Supplement to the above Paper, from page 363 to page 365. "XII. An Enquiry concerning the Weight or Ponderability which has been afcribed to Heat, (from page 366 to page 383.)

"XIII. Supplement to the above Paper, (from p. 384 to page 390.)" P. ix.

We do not feel it neceffary to add any remarks upon the contents of this volume, which is to be followed by another · of a more amusing nature.

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ART. IV. Card's Revolutions of Ruffia.

(Concluded from p. 306.)

HE Hiftory briefly difclofes the arts and crimes by which Boris, after the deftruction of Feder, his lawful fovereign, and his family, fecured poffeffion of the crown; and the mixture of found judgment and abfurd fuperftition which dif tinguifhed his reign till the beginning of the feventeenth century; when, to ufe the words of Mr. Card,

The heavy arm of adverfity was raised against the Ruffian monarch; and each fucceffive attack was made with fuch an increase of vigour, that his firmnefs tottered, and at laft bowed beneath their mighty weight. Soon after the premature end of the Danish prince, вь

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXII. OCT. 1803.

that

that most hideous and invincible enemy, famine, fcourged the capital. of Ruffia. During the fummer of the first year of the century, rain fell in great abundance; and the ears of the corn, fwelled by the moifture which nourished them, gave to the labourer the pleafing profpect of a rich harveft; but an unexpected froft checked the increafing ripenefs of the grain. This portentous evil was flightly regarded by the giddy people, who faw the public granaries well filled with provifion for the following winter; but, when the froft-ftruck grain, which they fo abfurdly employed to fow the lands, yielded no produce, and the oats, which they had fown in the fpring to remedy this inconvenience, rotted in the ground; then the scarcity became infupportable; then reigned the most dire mortality; then outrages were committed that cannot be related without paralyzing the mind with horror. In the madness of their hunger and defpair, mothers plunged their poignards into the breasts of infants. In the face of day, one woman, to appease the cravings of hunger, tore, with her own teeth, the flesh of her babe, which the held in her arms; and this fruit of her womb would have been inevitably devoured, had not the people plucked it from her inhuman bofom. Four women who lodged together, for the nourishment of their starved carcafes, enticed a man into their room, who was paffing with a load of wood to fell. The moment their doors were clofed, they maffacred him, killed the horfe who carried the wood, and dragged the two bodies into their ice cellar. Thefe furies being brought to juftice, on the difcovery of their barbarities, declared, that this peafant was the third man who had been facrificed to their phrenfied appetites. This unforeseen calamity, the humanity of Boris laboured to remedy, by daily diftributing feveral thousand rubles from his coffers, for the fubfiftence of the poor of Moscow; and by compelling the nobles and bishops, who had a fuperfluity of corn, to difpofe of it to him, in this time of want, for half its value, that he might circulate it gratuitoufly, to relieve the diftrefs of his people: while, to prolong this fcene of mifery and diftrefs, were daily feen old men, women, and children, ftretching out their hands in fpeechlefs agony for fuftenance, and expiring in the act; where nothing wa heard but fhrieks, groans, and lamentations: where the rights of fepulture were neglected, from the multitude of dead bodies which covered the streets; a prowling band of robbers, with minds envenomed, defperate, and unrelenting, infefted openly, and with impunity, the highways to Mofcow. Stationed at different quarters, they cut off all communications with the different parts of the ftate; they spread a general panic through the city. Their courage was effectually fignalized by a victory over the troops that were fent to extirpate them. Powerful only by coalition, they rushed forwards to the battle, with the full determination either to conquer or to die; for it is the nature of profligate minds to be at variance in peace, and only united in fedition. When the court received the intelligence of their humiliating lofs, a Voyovede immediately advanced, at the head of a numerous and veteran army. The incendiaries, flushed with fuccefs, and strong in retources, viewed their ftrength, and laughed at the ideas of defeat. Their chief, named Khlopko, was well fitted to lead on a fet of defperate ruffians. The field of action was his pride; ftern,

I

Stern, active, and unforgiving, free from all reftraints of humanity and justice, and never fo much pleafed as when employed in acts of rapine and cruelty. After arranging his men in military order, with impetuous violence he charged the enemy; and killed, in the first attack, the Lieutenant of the Czar. Stung with fhame, grief, and indignation at the death of their general, the foldiers of Boris renewed the fight, with hearts burning for revenge. Roufed by this laft difgrace, they added rage to bravery, and bore down all before them. The freebooters fought like men who had been enured to enterprize and trained to war. The fuccefs of the royal arms was not decifive, until the greateft part of their antagonists were flaughtered. Khlopko alone was found lying among heaps of flain, overpowed by the lofs of blood, and by the fatigue of his uncommon exertions. The fcanty remnants of his accomplices, in their retreat to Little Ruffia, were, in the end, taken and punished for their atrocious crimes. Such was the fate of this furious banditti, and fo favourable is the reign of an ufurper to the career of plunder and rebellion. The provifions to the capital being no longer intercepted by this bold adventure of Khlopko, the injuries of this long and general famine were gradually repaired; and it was evident, the policy of Boris wifhed to avoid the renewal of fuch a terrible fcarcity, by his fubfequent and earnest endeavours to revive the commercial intercourfe which had formerly exifted between the Hanfeatic towns and Ruffia. But the plentiful state of the empire was not reftored without the deplorable calculation of upwards of fix hundred thousand lives having been fwept away in the city of Mofcow alone, its population perhaps being to confiderably augmented by the immenfe influx of wretches who poured in from all parts to the capital, under full expectation of finding immediate relief; nor were his measures lefs judicious to prevent a band of ruffians against crouding to the ftandard of rapine, to fpread mifery and deftruction in the heart of the empire." P. 319.

The luftre of the exertions of Boris in this crifis, and of feveral fubfequent meafures, was dimmed by the exceffes into which he was betrayed by fear and suspicion.

"Thofe families who were odious from their virtues, or formida ble from their power, were embroiled by his bafe contrivances in difputes, which generally led to their mutual deftruction. When his artifices failed to involve them in difcord, he had recourfe to means, which fix an indelible ftamp of difgrace on his memory; means, by which fufpicion was confidered equivalen to proo, and condemnation was fubititured for trial. A hive of informers, fupported by his criminal bounty, were indefatigable in their accufations against every order of men. When once thefe harpies had ruade their treacherous report, vain were all ideas of acquittal, though the proofs of innocence appeared in the most unquestiona le fhape. A fervant of the Prince of Chettownonf gave the firft example of thefe infamous denunciations. Promotion to the rank of Infant Boyar, and a confiderable eftate, were the rewards of this mifcreant. When guilt can plunder with impunity, and walk the streets adorned with marks of regal fa

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your,

vour, her profelytes are innumerable. So rapid and baleful was the contagion of this disease, that it became at last the custom for the fervants of houfes to meet at appointed places, and there to fettle the wages of their iniquity, and the next victim of their accufation, with as much method and compofure as if it had conftituted a part only of their domestic duty. Never were thefe accufations rejected; never did mercy fuggeft a doubt to ranfom the groans of despair; and, if the wronged mafter had the infulting audacity to demand the evidence of his other domeftics, like criminals they were put to the torture, until they confirmed the flanderous declaration, or their fidelity breathed out its laft pang in all the agony of torment. Now tyranny expofed its fhamelefs front, whilft fubtilty paffed for wifdom, impu nity for virtue. Now came the time when it was dangerous to be honeft, and only profitable to be vicious. In this calamitous period, it feemed as if the Ruffians had entered into a fort of confederacy against all bonds of nature, fince wives denounced their husbands, children their parents." P. 325.

While Boris was extending thefe infamous projects on every fide; and, by fubornation, involving, as he hoped, the houfe of Romanof in utter ruin, his attention was roufed by the unexpected appearance of a competitor for the throne, in the perfon of a youth, pretended to be Demetrius, the son of Fedor, whom the ufurper thought he had deftroyed. The progrefs of this adventurer, the death of Boris, and the clevation and fall of Demetrius, are admirably related; and Mr. Card, after laborious inveftigation, feems to adopt the opinion of Mr. Coxe, "that he was not an impoftor, but the real perfon whofe name he affumed." The account of the fubfequent pretenders to the name of Demetrius, and of the calamitous period of feven years which preceded the establishment of the houfe of Romanof on the throne, is fuccinctly given, but is far lefs interefting than the portion of hiftory immediately preceding. This divifion of the fubject concludes with "a Review of the Manners and Cuftoms of the fixteenth and seventeenth Centuries;" in which the author has difplayed uncommon refearch, found judgment, and no inconfiderable portion of political knowledge.

The laft Revolution, comprized in the eighth fection of this work, is "the Acceffion of Peter," whom the gratitude of his country, and the admiration of the world, have fo juftly entitled "the Great."

"The martial achievements of Peter," Mr. Card properly obferves, have been celebrated by fuch a variety of hiftorical pens, that they may aloft be paralleled in notoriety, an! doubtlefs in utility, to thofe accomplished by the daring genius and wild ambition of Julius Cæfar. It may be deemed, then, no arduous task, to fubmit to the approbation of the public, a volume of fterile abundance, com

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