The National Register.
London, England, 1817-05-19 00:00:00

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Our /ging, ConiStitution anb /MC

MONDAY, MAY, 19, 1817.

In the summer of 1815 a wiLled secret plot was
formed against the Princess, the origin of which it is
not difficult to guess. The Princess was narrowly
watched, and attempts were made to seduce her peo-
ple ; bat only one, the Piqueur Crede, was so weak
as to yield, and to promise Batten to conduct
him into the apartment of the .Princess by means of
fidse keys. The plot was, however, discovered, and
the Piqucur turned away. This man wrote to the
Chevalier Toinasaia, confessed that he had let himself
be seduced by Baron —, to.betray his mistress, and
begged tier mercy. The Princess thought it proper to
acquaint the governor, Count Salm, with this event,
and Baron was three(' ur leave the dominions of
his Majesty the Emperor. Hantaum, the Princess's
private secretary, challenged the Baron, but the latter
has hitherto put it off: Since this affair the Princess
is very cautious, particularly towards Englishmen
whom she does not know, but she conceals herself
from nobody ; only she will not be the object of calum-
ny and of a shameful espionage,, of which she has 'al-
ready been the victim. What has already happened
gives ground to Kttir still greater enormities.
An event which took place at Genoa, has more the
appearance of an attempt at assassination than robbery.
Some armed men penetrated during the night into the
house of the Princess, am) ahnost into her bed-chamber.
Au alarm bein,, given, one of her servants fired upon
these people, and pursued thefts, but in vain. It is not
yet discovered what were their intentions : hut let a
veil cover all this ! Her first Mister of the Horse,
Schiavini, has kept a circumstantial journal of her jour-
ney to the Holy Land. The Princvm went from Genoa
to the Island of Elba, thence to Sicily and Barbary.
then to Palestine. She visited Jerusalem, Athens, &c.
and was every where received with the honours due to
her rank.

By the assistance of several lit,rati, she obtained a
collection of valuable antiquities, tor which object she
spared no expence.
Wherever the Princess appeared, leleft *behind her
grcatful recollections by her benefewce. At Tunis she
obtained the freedom of several slsc.." The Princess is
now employed in writing the histor,: of her life, which
she will make public when the time comes. By this she
will throw a great light on many facts, which are now
involved in obscurity.

LITER.ITME.

PH ICE 94d•

14}:411:W.-THE ST:llt IN THE W EST.

HY DA. HOUDInOT, OF FAIOADELPHIA.

1
Tots curious work has found its way through pli-
cate hands to England ; and we believe. a single copy
has Leen read by several persons with that attention
due to the importance of' the Enquiry, and a re-publi-
cation is now in contemplation. The author has de-
voted many years of laborious research, of personal
inspection, in journies, anti don ;cgs, and expenee., to
ascertain with accuracy the object of his gnat ques-
tion, Whether the North-American Indians are not the
regular descendants of the lost ten tribes of IsraeL He
traces them from their separation under Rehobdam to
the borders of the Caspian Sea, where their temporary
dwellings are also traced by their having left there the
names of many places similar to those of their deserted
country ; such as Mount Tabor, Palestine, &e.—wben:
they left the Caspian, he follows their journey over
the north of Asia to Behmen's Straits; crosses thence
to North America, where th 4 settled in a land unin-
habited and uncultivated, and where they conceived
that as first occupants they should have remained for
ever undisturbed ! Their similarity to the ancient
Israelites is next proved by their countenances, their
names, language, words in use, and allusive tense;
yet in this chain of evidence it no where appears dust
they have any traditions of descending from these sup-
posed ancestors, or that they are impressed with the
least idea that they are or were Israelites, or that they
are suffering any dispersion front an original nation,
to which they expect that either themselves or their
posterity shall ever return. Neither does the learned
author produce any evidence of their being acquainted
with, though he ohms some trace of the remains of
the Mosaic worship of the Temple.; or that they had
brought with theta from Palestine any copy of the
Penteteuch or of. the Laws. On the contrary, they
I appear to be an unlettered nation even at this period s
bat the similarity of some of their customs to those of
Israel is practised without their being conscious of de•
riving any origin from them. Dr. B. remarks, that as
these people were absent from Jerusalem at the time
of the crucifixion, they are happily free from the guilt
consequent to that act, and will be finally spared from
any ultimate punishment; but that in the mean time
they must suffer the previous fate of dispersion. Al-
though they may resemble the Jews in their counte-
nances, yet it is not stated that they either call them-
selves so, or are so understood by others, or seem to be
themselves conscious of this origin.—This is almost suf-
ficient to prevent our yielding to this learned writer
the palm of complete success in his researches ; tor cons
sciousness is the criterion of punishment ; and if' the
generations of Israelites were to suffer captivity and
exile for their chief sin of idolatry, these people being
now ignorant and unconscious of their sentence, still
want this most essential claim to their title. How-
ever, it appears that their traditions were sufficient to
encourage Dr 13. in his enquiries, for they state their
ancestors of old times to have been destroyed by a flood,
except a few, who built a large carnoc in which they
were preserved. Still we conceive it requires many
more characters to render ther proofs complete ; when
they arrived at the straits, they found sea, but they dug
to the depth of a man's height and found a bed of cop-
per, over which they passed dryshod to the American
continent.—Now we find here, a correspondence of
facts, in Capt. Cook's measurement of these straits, at
thirty nine miles in breadth, filled with small islands,
easily passed from one to the other, and the copper
islands within sight. They believe in the great spirit—
and in a gout and an evil spirit—this latter would pre-
vent oar credence of their being Jews, for it is scarcely
possible they should have so forgotten the Penteteuch,
however it might have been obscured by their long
march. Dr. 13. describes their worships to be a rude
copy of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, with the
Ark, the Priests Ephod, the Holy of Holies, into
which the people never enter, and the priests only once
a year. A Sin offering, a Peace offering, &c.—they
have no Image or Deity—and never offer any hunian
Victims—they pronounce the great Name JAH, only
once a year, thus; 0-wO-hee-yaw ! This is the retns-
grannuation :—they maintain the theocracy, anti be.
liege a future state. and a Messiah, a world, ot' spirits
who have received judgment, they use sacred feasts
and dances, bury the bones of their victims offered, suf-
fering none to be broken, use the words Hallelujah, •
Shilo, &c.—yet they seem to have thrgotten or to be i -
ignorant of their meaning, tr.a have no knowledge of /
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