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JOHN E. HALL, Esq. of Baltimore, has completed, and will speedily publish a Translation of " PRAXIS SUPREME CURIE ADMIRALITATIS," written by Francis Clerke, who was Register of the Court of Arches, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This is almost the only work on the practice of the Admiralty Court, and is esteemed as unquestionable authority at the bar. A translation of the third edition was published, about the commencement of the last century; but the fifth edition, which Mr. Hall has used, possess. es the advantage of much additional mat ter, both in the text and the notes. The present work will contain notes on the practice in this country, and a variety of such precedents as have been established in our own courts of maritime jurisdic

tion.

The accuracy, learning and talents of MR. HALL powerfully recommend his work; and as its subject is not confined to the law and the practice of this state, there can be no doubt of its being considered as a valuable gift to the American Bar generally.

The price of The Port Folio is Six Dollars per annum, to be paid in advance.

Printed and Published, for the Editor, by SMITH & MAXWELL, NO. 28, NORTH SECOND-STREET.

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Various, that the mind of desultory man, studious of change and pleased with novelty, may be indulged-Cowp

Vol. V.

Philadelphia, Saturday, April 2, 1808.

For The Port Folio. TRAVELS.

ORIGINAL PAPERS.

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No. 14.

phical dictionary, or common book of travels will give you an ample account of this well known city, of its academy, its Floral games, of its capitols, and of the Calas family. It is situa ted in a fertile country, and in the vicinity of the canal; neither its trade, however, nor its population have been ever such, as might have been expec ted, and are both much declined, since the revolution: it is, in a few words, a large, old-fashioned gloomy place, with several ancient and vene rable churches, with a handsome theatre, and with a choice of beautiful publick walks. Of the canal, which terminates within a short distance of the city, on forming a junction with the Garonne, you may easily conceive the importance by placing a map of Europe before you, and by observing that it connects the navigation of the Mediterranean with that of the Atlan tick. See what a length of stormy sea is avoided from Cette, through the straits of Gibraltar, along the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and across the bay of Biscay; see and admire the never-ceasing glory of Louis the XIV in having effected that which is honourable to the Romans even to have B b

thought of. From the waters of the Mediterranean to those of the Garonne, near Thoulouse, the distance is near two hundred and ten miles along which space, and notwithstanding the intervening obstacles, of rivers, of mountains and of an inequality of six hundred feet, an uninterrupted in tercourse is kept up by boats, some of which draw five feet water, and are of the burthen of four hundred tons. This required, as you may suppose. a great number of locks, with all the contrivances in use to guard against too much water, and to provide enough, and had I been differently situated, I could very well have employed a month in examining them.

This magnificent work was planned and in a great measure executed by a gentleman of the name of Riquet;* such services are surely the best sources of distinction in society, and they found in Louis XIV, who upon some occasions knew how to act the monarch to perfection, the reward which they deserved; the family of Riquet was ennobled, they were exclusively intrusted with the manage

* It appears, by the memoirs of Besenval, that after Riquet had made some experiments which convinced the most incredulous that his plan was practicable, and had obtained the consent and approbation of the government, it was still impossible to be. gin the undertaking for want of money; Colbert with every good wish for the sucsess of so noble an enterprise, could advance nothing, and the monied men of the times were too well satisfied with the interest they received to venture their fund, upon a scheme in any degree uncertain. It occured at length to Riquet that it might promote his views to be thought intimate with the superintendant of the treasury, and he prevailed upon Colbert to consent, that he should enter his cabinet, without knocking at the door at a time when he should be known to be in conference with the former general of the revenue-it might have appeared an accidental thing the first time, and the experiment was therefore repeated. Riquet found afterwards nodifficulty in getting as many subscriptions as he wanted; every body was now desirous of being concerned with a person who was so much in the confidence of Col. Morriew Colbert, as to be in the habit of entering his cabinet without knocking.

ment of the canal in perpetuity, and were authorized to apply the profits arising from the tolls to their own use: but, in the late unhappy period of the revolution, the family having remained faithful to the descendant of their benefactor, became liable to the penalties of emigration, and lost their estate by confiscation.

The number of men employed in digging the channel, and construct ing the works, was never less than eight thousand for fourteen years, and they were sometimes increased to twelve thousand, and the expense incurred was about a million sterling: the present annual expense for repairs and attendance is about seventeen thousand ponds sterling, but the government derives an income of nearly twenty five thousand pounds from the tolls, clear of all deductions, and the saving to the community at large is not less than two hundred thousand pounds a year.

If the sum appear a large one, you must look at what Adam Smith says in his Wealth of Nations, on the comparative advantages of land and water carriage: a vessel of two hundred tons, and navigated by six men, plying between Leith and London is shown to be equal in effect to fifty waggons, drawn by four hundred horses, and conducted by one hundred men: and Michaux, a very well-informed traveller, says that the inhabitants of our upper country, at the distance of fifty miles from Pittsburg find it easier and cheaper to send their produce for sale to New-Orleans by Pittsburg, along a stream of 2100 miles, than to have it conveyed to Baltimore, at the distance of little more than 100.

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her hair was dressed precisely in the modern fashion. In my walks over the town, I could never get the better of the impression which had been made upon my mind on entering it; but the environs are beautiful; on one side, a stately bridge connects them with the city, and from that bridge we had a much nearer prospect of the Pyrenees than before, and could perceive the snow already fallen in several places. We here remedied the defects of our carriage for a trifle more than seven Louis, and after two day's residence in what seemed then, and still seems the worst inn we ever stopt at, we again set forward. I was sorry to leave a place so renowned in history as Thoulouse and so much spoken of by travellers, after so short a stay; but your brother was before us, the expense was great, and more of our senses were in continual sufferance than I would wish to enumerate: from such a place the transition into well cultivated fields and loaded vineyards amidst carts and baskets filled with grapes, and all the hurry, plenty and jovialness of the vintage, was really delightful.

seemed about twenty, had her first child in a cradle by her in the neat little parlour she conducted us into, was rather handsome, had brilliant eyes, and all that politeness and that unaffected grace, which nature seems sometimes to go out of her way, in order to bestow on her favourites the lady's husband, who shortly after joined us from his vintage, was a well behaved, well looking man of thirty, who had gone out a private soldier to Egypt, had served the whole of the war there, and had returned a non-commissioned officer of dragoons: there could be no want of conversation with such a person and I passed a couple of hours with him very agreeably. It was very customary he told me during the siege of Alexandria for the advanced sentinels to approach each other amicably, after a signal given and returned, and to exchange their rations, the British giving pork and sometimes brandy, and the French bread; it was allowed in their army that the descent of General Abercrombie was a very gallant exploit: a body of boats was seen at a distance laying on their oars, as a bird of prey is seen floating in the air over the spot it is about to dart upon; until at length they began to move, and three distinct lines were observed approach

Our course, if you will allow me a sea term, was generally in the direction of the canal, and we frequently saw and sometimes crossed it; the banks were everywhere planted with Lombardy Poplars, and the locks ap-ing, protected by gunboats at their peared in perfect order.

We were soon at the little town of Bazieges, and were on the point of setting off with fresh horses, and as usual at a full gallop from the posthouse, when it was perceived and pointed out to us by an idle by-stander, that the nut which ought to contain one of the hind wheels had worked off and been lost; detention in such a place was disagreeable, but nothing when compared to the evil we had escaped; we submitted, therefore, with a good grace, had the carriage dragged opposite to the blacksmith's and were looking about us where there was nothing to be seen, when a lady stept out of a neighbouring house, and invited us to take shelter there she

extremeties, preserving the most exact order, and rowing, as if by clock work: not a soldier appeared, but the seamen were erect, and seemed insensible to the French artillery, which thundered upon them from the batteries among the sand hills, and from the fort of Aboukir : the action commenced at the water side and even in the boats, but the French were soon overpowered: though liberal in his praises of the British seamen, he would not allow their soldiers any great degree of merit: on my asking him, however, if they did not deserve some credit for their march in order of battle a day or two after the descent and for repulsing the attack of Menou, I would not say for defeating

him, he paused a moment, and then, as if recollecting himself and recovering from a dilemma, he begged of me to observe, that they had added by that time in all probability several French deserters to their army. If I were writing a novel, or an imaginary tour through Europe, what a fine episode might this simple adven, ture be worked up into with a little embellishment and exaggeration !— You have only to suppose these young people crossed in love by their parents and that, with the suit of some wealthy admirer, and her being locked up, and his being sent to Egypt and the war in that strange country, which might give occasion for so many interesting descriptions, and his return. home with the spoils of a Mameluke whom he had slain in battle, and their meeting at a dance in their native village, and their parents relenting at so much true loye, would be sufficient not only for an episode but for a novel of as many volumes, as Sir Charles Grandison.

For The Port Folio.

EDUCATION.

The trustees of Union College, having in the year 1804, prescribed a course of reading and adopted a system of government which were thought by many, at that time, to be more extensive and rigid than the publick sentiment would bear, have hitherto forborne to make any statement of the situation of the institu

tion, or to furnish any vindication of the system they had adopted, other than that contained in the effects it produced. They were content to abide the issue; preferring to num, ber a few diligent and exemplary students to the crowding of their walls with idle and dissipated youth.

Of late, however, the applications for admission, and the inquiries concerning the expense, the studies, and the government and laws of the se

minary, have become so frequent as to render it inconvenient to communicate by private letters, the necessary information to all who request it. To remove this inconvenience, they submit to the publick the following brief and simple statement.

They begin with the grammar school, in which candidates are prepared for admission into college.This school is subject to the direc tion of the President; and is under the immediate government of a principal, who is one of the professours of the college. The officers of instruction are, a professour of the French language, seven tutors, and two writing masters, The school is divided into seven forms, and goes through the following course of reading:

In the first form-The English and Latin Grammars, Corderius and Esop.

Second form-Erasmus, Eutropius, Nepos, Latin Primer.

Third form-Cicero's Epistles, Livy, Cæsar, Greek Grammar.

Fourth form-Ovid's Metamorphoses, Prosody, Esop's Fables in Greek, Sallust, French Grammar.

Fifth form-Cicero's Orations, Epictetus, Anacreon, Greek Prosody, Telemaque, Juvenal, Terence.

Sixth form-Virgil, Greek Testament, Lucian's Dialogues.

Seventh form-Xenophon, Cicero de Officiis, Horace, Arithmetick. English and Latin compositions in the three highest forms.

The seventh form constitutes the Freshman class in college. It is subject to the same government as the

rest of the school, and the members of it pursue their studies in a large room with a professour.

No student is admitted into the

grammar school under eight, nor into college under fourteen years of age.

The foregoing statement shows the manner in which the pupils in the grammar school are fitted for entrance into college. With respect to the

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