more memorable, as more characteristic of the reign of Ca tharine. Ismaïl still held out. Prince Potemkin had been besieging this place for seven months, and now began to grow impatient that he had not yet reduced it. Living in his camp like one of those ancient satraps, whom he alone in our days has equalled, perhaps surpassed, in luxury, he was surrounded by a crowd of courtiers and women, who employed every effort to amuse him. One of these women pretending to read the decrees of fate in the arrangement of a pack of cards, predicted that he would take the town at the end of three weeks. Prince Potemkin answered, smiling, that he had a method of divination far more infallible. At that instant he sent his orders to Suvaroff to take Ismail within three days. Suvaroff made himself ready. The third day he drew up his soldiers, and said to them; "My brothers, no quarter! Provisions are dear!" and immediately began the assault. The Russians were twice repulsed with great loss. But at last they scaled the ramparts, forced their way Into the town, and put all that opposed them to the sword. Fifteen thousand Russians purchased with their lives the bloody laurels of Suvaroff. That General then wrote to the empress these words alone: The haughty Ismail is at your fect." The famous Hassan, who, from the post of capudan-pasha, had been raised to that of grand vizir, was unable to bear up against so many disasters, and died of vexation in his camp. His successor was decapitated at Shumla; and pasha Youssouf succeeded him; but this change was not attended by a return of good fortune to the Turks. Several French officers were at the taking of Ismail; among whom Roger Damas, Langeron, and the younger Fronsac, distinguished themselves in the attack of that place, and were not the more noticed for it by prince Potemkin. Some days afterwards, this latter, discoursing of the French revolution, and treating it as a crime for a people to use any efforts for regaining their liberty, said to Langeron: Colonel †, your countrymen are a pack of madmen. I would require only my grooms to stand by me; and we should soon bring them to their senses." Langeron, who, though an emigrant, could not patiently hear his nation thus spoken of, answered boldly: "Prince, I do not think you would be able to do it with all your army." At these words the prince rose up in great fury, and threatened Langeron to send him to Siberia . Langeron instantly * Madame de Witt.' Langeron had been formerly colonel in the regiment of Ar magnac.' Potemkin was on some occasions extremely irascible, and would sometimes be so transported with passion as to beat even Generalofficers: he one day gave a box on the ear to a foreigner, who was a Major in the Russian service, for having praised, in some verses he had composed, the mistress of his secretary Popoff in the same stanza with that of the prince.' went away; and, crossing the Seret, which divides Moldavia from Valachia, he entered himself in the Austrian camp. Catharine, elated on hearing of these successive victories, when Sir Charles Whitworth appeared the next time at court, said to him, with an ironical smile, "Sir, since the king your master is determined to drive me out of Petersburg, I hope he will permit me to retire to Constantinople." Prince Potemkin, having made the necessary dispositions for permitting him with safety to leave the army, hastened his return to Petersburg, to enjoy his triumph in the approbation of his sovereign. The empress received him with transports of joy. Festivities and presents now resumed their alternate course. She gave him another palace contiguous to her own, which had formerly belonged to baron Wolff, and which had now been fitted up for his reception at the expence of 600,000 rubles, and a coat laced with diamonds, which cost 200,000. He himself displayed a pomp which would have appeared excessive in the most splendid court of Europe. The expence of his table alone, on ordinary days, was regularly about 800 rubles; it was furnished with the most exquisite dainties and the rarest fruits. In the depth of winter he has bespoke long beforehand all the cherries of a tree in a green house, at a ruble the cherry. He possessed an immense quantity of jewels, some of which he had scarcely seen, and never cared about, since the moment they were first brought him. He one day took a dislike to his diamonds, and they were all sold: some time afterwards the desire returned of having them; and he ordered them to be bought on all hands and at any price.' The result of this war, deemed so glorious for Russia, was the acquirement for the Empress of new deserts, and the destruction of innumerable lives. Austria lost 130,000 soldiers, and expended three hundred millions of florins. Russia lost 200,000 men, and expended two hundred millions of rubles. The Turks lost 330,000 men, and expended two hundred and fifty millions of piastres. Prince Potemkin had not the good fortune of signing the treaty of peace, concluded at Yassy in 1791. He had repaired to the congress there, but was soon afterward attacked with a fever. The Empress sent to him two of her most experienced physicians. He disdained their advice, and would follow no regimen. He carried even his intemperance to an uncommon height, his ordinary breakfast was the greater part of a smoke-dried goose from Hamburgh, slices of hung beef or ham, drinking with it a prodigious quantity of wine and Dantzick-liqueurs, and afterwards dined with equal voracity. He never controlled his appetites in any kind of gratification. He frequently had his favourite sterlet-soup, at seasons when that fish is so enormously dear, that this soup alone, which might be considered only as the overture to his dinner, stood him in 300 rubles. Having mentioned his sterlet-soup, it is impossible to refrain from relating an anecdote on that subject here. Being at Yassy, Yassy, the prince had promised some of the women that went about with him every where, and formed his court, a soup of this kind, or perhaps, in one of those whims which were so common with him, he had a mind to it himself; but as the capital maker of it was at Petersburg, he dispatched a Major to travel post, with orders to have a large turreen of it made; which he did accordingly, and brought it with him, well luted. Now let the reader judge of the expence this fancy put him to: the cook, as we may imagine, made a greater quantity of it than was wanted for the prince, and ate the remainder with his friends *; nay, we may be very sure that he ate it better than the prince, to whom it must have come somewhat less fresh, after having travelled near 2000 versts. This anecdote may likewise serve as a specimen of the business in which Majors were sometimes employed by him, and consequently of the consideration in which they must have been held. He has frequently sent his officers from the Krimea or from Krementschuk, to Petersburg and even to Riga, for oysters or china-oranges, on their first arrival at those ports. With this sort of diet it is no wonder that he perceived his distemper to be daily gaining ground, but he thought to get well by removing from Yassy. Accordingly he resolved to set out for Nicolayeff, a town which he had built at the confluence of the Ingoul with the Bogh. Scarcely had he gone three leagues of his journey when he found himself much worse. He alighted from his carriage in the midst of the highway, threw himself on the grass, and died t under a tree, in the arms of the countess Branicka, his favourite niece.' Did our limited space permit, we could transcribe with pleasure many other extraordinary passages from this curious work. The editor's style indicates an early and long residence on the continent. We have remarked a few errors in the * It was by one of those friends that the st ry got abroad.' + Prince Potemkin died the 15th of October 1791, at the age of 52. From Yassy his remains were transported to Kerson, where they were inhumed, and the empress allotted a hundred thousand rubles for the erection of a mausoleum over them.-Having often had occasion to speak of the dignities and the titles of this extraor dinary personage, we insert an abridgment of them here:-Knight of the principal orders of Prussia, of Sweden, of Poland, and of all the orders of Russia; field-marshal, commander in chief of all the armies of Russia; chief general of the cavalry; grand admiral of the fleets of the Euxine, of the sea of Azoff and of the Caspian; senator, and president of the college of war; governor-general of Ekatarinoslauf and of Taurida; adjutant-general and actual chamberlain to the empress; inspector-general of the armies; colonel of the preobajenski guards; chief of the corps of horse guards; colonel of the regiment of cuirassiers of his name, of the dragoons of Petersburg, and the grenadiers of Ekatarinoslauf; chief of all the manufactories of arms and the founderies of cannon; grand hetman of the kosaks, &c.' translation, and some mistakes in other matters. Thus, we apprehend, p. 411. vol. iii. It is a curious fact, that, when the son of Count Esterhazy appeared at court, the Empress caused the patriotic songs of the French to be sung to the boy.' The original, p. 415, runs "L'Imperatrice faisoit chanter à cet enfant," &c. The Empress made the boy sing the patriotic songs" the French preposition à being often employed in the sense of par. In p. 331, vol. iii. Mr. Hugh Elliot, the English Minister at Denmark, is confounded with his brother Gilbert, now Lord Minto. The French original, indeed, ascribes the spirited behaviour of the English Minister at Copenhagen to the same gentleman who was afterward at Corsica. This circumstance the English editor very properly omits. Each of the three volumes is accompani with an Appendix, containing public documents respecting Russia, state papers, and a few private letters. With respect to the entertainment derived from the perusal of this Life of Catharine, the French original has doubtless its full share of merit: but for the information which we have received from it, we think ourselves principally indebted to the English writer. ART. IV. Elements of Algebra, by Leonard Euler. Translated In the preface, the performance of Euler is stated to be, next to Euclid's Geometry, the most perfect model of elementary writing of which the literary world is in possession;' and indeed we cannot name any treatise that seems at all comparable to it, when we consider the value of a luminous order, judicious arrangement, felicity of illustration, and fullness of proof; yet we cannot pronounce the work perfect and without blemish some parts, beyond all doubt, should have been more completely Gil...s ! completely unfolded, and some demand a greater rigour of demonstration. We feel, however, but little disposed to make minute criticisms on a production which genius has stamped with its true character. The few defects which occur may be discovered by moderate perspicacity, and corrected without a tiresome exertion of intellect. In the first volume are contained the Elements of Arithmetic and Algebra. We intend not to particularize the several subjects treated, but to state, generally, that the admirable simplicity and clearness of the author's manner, and his style, entitle him to a perusal even from the most consummate mathematician. We give an extract rather as a specimen of the writer's manner, than as containing novel matter: Of the Logarithmic Tables that are now in use. = < 232. In those tables, as we have already mentioned, we set out with the supposition, that the root a is 10. So that the logarithm of any number is the exponent to which we must raise the number 10, in order that the power resulting from it may be equal to the number c. Or, if we denote the logarithm of c by L.c, we shall always have 10 =c. L.c C 233. We have already observed, that the logarithm of the number 1 is always o; and we have also 10=1; consequently, L.10; L.10=1; L.100=2; L.1000=3; L.100004; L.100000=5; L.1000000=6. Farther, 234. The logarithms of the principal numbers, therefore, are easily determined: it is much more difficult to find the logarithms of all the other numbers, but yet they must be inserted in the tables. This is not the place to lay down all the rules that are necessary for such an enquiry; and we shall at present therefore content ourselves with a general view only of the subject. 235. First, since L.to and L.101, it is evident that the logarithms of all the numbers between 1 and to must be included between 0 and 1, and consequently be greater than o, and less than 1. We have only to consider the single number 2; its logarithm is certainly greater than o, and yet less than unity; and if we represent this logarithm by the letter x, so that L.2x, the value of that letter must be such as to give exactly 10%=2. We easily perceive, also, that x must be considerably less than, or, which amounts to the same thing, that 10 is greater than 2. For if we square both sides, the square of 10=10' and that of |