4 "Befides the fure tokens which are given by the spirit of their particular arrangements, there are some characteristic lineaments, in the general policy of your tumultuous defpotifm, which, in my opinion, indicate, beyond a doubt, that no revolution whatsoever, in their difpofition, is to be expected. I mean their scheme of educating the rifing generation, the principles which they intend to inftil, and the fympathies which they wish to form in the mind, at the feafon in which it is the most fufceptible. Inftead of forming their young minds to that docility, to that modefty, which are the grace and charm of youth, to an admiration of famous examples, and to an averfenefs to any thing which approaches to pride, petulance, and felf-conceit (diftempers to which that time of life is of itfelf fufficiently liable), they artificially foment thefe evil difpofitions, and even form them into fprings of action. Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books recommended by public authority. So recommended, they foon form the character of the age. Uncertain indeed is the efficacy, limited indeed is the extent, of a virtuous inftitution. But if education takes-in vice as any part of its fyftem, there is no doubt but that it will operate with abundant energy, and to an extent indefinite. The magiftrate, who, in favour of freedom, thinks himself obliged to fuffer all forts of publications, is under a stricter duty than any other, well to confider what fort of writers he fhall au. thorize, and shall recommend, by the strong eft of all sanctions, that is, by public honours and rewards. He ought to be cautious how be recommends authors of mixed and ambiguous morality. He ought to be fearful of putting into the hands of youth writers indulgent to the peculiarities of their own complexion, left they should teach the humours of the profeffor, rather than the pain ciples of the fcience. He ought, above all, to be cautious in recommending any writer who has carried marks of a deranged understanding; for where there is no found reafon there can be no real vittue; and madnefs is ever vitious and malignant." p. 29-31. Such is Mr. B's idea of the writings and opinions of Rouffeau, whofe leading principle, to influence his heart, or to guide his underftanding, was vanity. With this vice he was poffeffed to a degree little fhort of madness. It is "from the fame deranged eccentric va"nity that this, the infane Socrates of "the National Affembly, was impelled “to publish a mad Confeffion of his mad **faults, and to attempt a new fort of glory, from bringing hardily to light "the obfcure and vulgar vices which "we know may fometimes be blended "with eminent talents." p. 33, 34. GENT. MAG. July, 1791. 64 "Your Affembly, knowing how much more powerful example is found than precept, has chofen this man (by his own account without a fingle virtue) for a model. To him they erect their first ftatue. From him they commence their feries of honours and diftinctions. It is that new-invented virtue, which your mafters canonize, that led their moral hero conftanly to exhauft the ftores of his powerful rhetorick in the expreffion of univerfal benevolence; whilft his heart was incapable of harbouring one spark of common parental affection. Benevolence to the whole fpecies, and want of feeling for every individual with whom the profeffors come in contact, form the character of the new philofophy. Setting up for an unfocial independence, this their hero of vanity refufes the just price of common labour, as well as the tribute which opulence owes to genius, and which, when paid, honours the giver and the receiver; and then he pleads his beggary as an excufe for his crimes. He melts with tenderness for thofe only who touch him by the remotest relation, and then, without one natural pang, cafts away, as a fort of offal and excrement, the fpawn of his disgustful amours, and fends his children to the hofpital of foundlings. The bear loves, licks, and forms her young; but bears are not philofophers. Vanity, however, finds its account in reverfing the train of our natural feelings. Thoufands admire the fentimental writer; the affectionate father is hardly known in his parish.” p. 34, 35• "Through Rouffeau the National Affembly teach men to love after the fashion of philofophers; that is, they teach to men, to Frenchmen, a love without gallantry; aiove without any thing of that fine flower of youthfulness and gentility which places it, it not among the virtues, among the ornaments, of life. Instead of this paffion, naturally allied to grace and manners, they infufe into their youth an unfashioned, indelicate, four, gloomy, ferocious medley of pedantry and lewdness, of metaphyfical fpeculations, blended with the coarfeft fenfuality. Such is the general morality of the pallions to be found in their famous philofopher, in his famous work of philofophical gallantry, the Nouvelle Eloije." p. 39, 40. Thefe, and the obfervations on the fame fubject, in the two fubfequent pages, are, we fear, but too well founded. "Perhaps," continues Mr. B, "bold speculations are more acceptable, because more new to you than to us, who have been long fince fatiated with them. We continue, as in the two laft ages, to read more generally, than I believe is now done on the continent, the authors of found antiquity. Thefe occupy our minds. They give us another taibe and turn; turn; and will not fuffer us to be more than tranfiently amufed with paradoxical morality." p. 42. "However, I lefs confider the author, than the fyftem of the Affembly in perverting morality, through his means. This, I confefs, makes me nearly defpair of my attempt upon the minds of their followers, through reason, honour, or confcience. The great object of your tyrants is, to destroy the gentlemen of France; and for that purpofe they deftroy, to the best of their power, all the effect of thofe relations which may render confiderable men powerful, or even fafe. To deftroy that order, they vitiate the whole community. That no means may exift of confederating against their tyranny, by the falfe fympathies of this Nouvelle Elsije, they endeavour to fubvert those principles of domeftic truft and fidelity which form the difcipline of focial life. They propagate principles by which every fervant may think it, if not his duty, at least his privilege, to betray his master. By thefe principles, every confiderable father of a family lofes the fanc tuary of his houfe. Dehet fua cuique demus Je perfugium tutiffimum, fays the law, which your legiflators have taken fo much pains first to decry, then to repeal. They deftroy all the tranquillity and fecurity of domestic life; turning the afylum of the house into a gloomy prifon, where the father of the family muft drag out a miferable existence, endan gered in proportion to the apparent means of his fafety; where he is worfe than folitary in a crowd of domefticks, and more apprehenfive from his fervants and inmates than from the hired blood-thirsty mob without doors, who are ready to pull him to the lanterne. "It is thus, and for the fame end, that they endeavour to deftroy that tribunal of confcience which exifts independently of edicts and decrees. Your defpots govern by terror. They know, that he who fears God fears nothing elfe; and therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their Voltaire, their Helvetius, and the reft of that infamous gang, that only fort of fear which generates true courage. Their object is, that their fellow-citizens may be under the dommon of no awe but that of their committee of refearch, and of their lanterne. "Having found the advantage of affaflination in the formation of their tyranny, it is the grand refource in which they truft for the fupport it. Whoever oppotes any of their proceedings, or is fufpected of a defign to oppofe them, is to anfwer it with his life, or the lives of his wife and children. This infamous, cruel, and cowardly practice of alfaffination they have the impudence to call merciful. They hoait that they have operated their ufurpation rather by terror than by force; and that a few feasonable murdas bave prevented the bloodshed of many battles. There is no doubt they will extend these acts of mercy whenever they fee an occafion. Dreadful, however, will be the confequences of their attempt to avoid the evils of war by the merciful policy of murder. If, by effectual punishment of the guilty, they do not wholly difavow that practice, and the threat of it too, as any part of their policy; if ever a foreign prince enters into France, he must enter it as into a country of atlaffins. The mode of civilized war will not be practifed: nor are the French who act on the prefent fyftem entitled to expect it. They, whofe known policy it is to affaffinate every citizen whom they fufpect to be difcontented by their tyranny, and to corrupt the foldiery of every open enenty, must look for no modified hoftility. All war, which is not battle, will be military execution. This will beget acts of retaliation from you; and every retaliation will beget a new revenge. The hell-hounds of war, on all fides, will be uncoupled and unmuzzled. The new fchool of murder and barbarism, fet up in Paris, having deftroyed (fo far as in it lies) all the other manners and principles which have hitherto civilized Europe, will deftroy alfo the mode of civilized war, which, more than any thing elfe, has diftinguished the Chriftian world. Such is the approaching golden age, which the Virgil of your Affembly* has fung to his Pollios !" p. 42-46. His comparison of Monk and his army with that of France is fo beautiful and juft, that we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of transcribing it: "I doubt whether you poffefs, in France, any perfons of a capacity to ferve the French monarchy in the fame manner in which Monk ferved the monarchy of England. The army which Monk commanded had been formed by Cromwell to a perfection of ceeded. That army was, befides, of an exdifcipline which perhaps has never been excellent compofition. The foldiers were men of extraordinary piety, after their mode; of the greateft regularity, and even ferenity of quiet, and orderly, in their quarters; men manners; brave in the field, but modeft, who abhorred the idea of aflaflinating their officers, or any other perfons; and who (they at least who ferved in this ifland) were firmly attached to thofe generals by whom they were well treated and ably commanded Such an army, once gained, might be depended on. I doubt much, if you could now find a Monk, whether a Monk could find, in France, fuch an aimy." p. 47, 48. Nor is there lefs propriety in his com parifon of the fate of England under and after the death, or his representation of Charles II. "Yet the restoration of our monarchy, even in the perfon of fuch a prince, was every thing to us; for without monarchy in England, most certainly we never can enjoy either peace or liberty. It was under this conviction that the very first regular step which we took on the Revolution of 1688, was to fill the throne with a real king; and even before it could be done in due form, the chiefs of the nation did not attempt themfelves to exercife authority fo much as by interim. They inftantly requested the Prince of Orange to take the government on himfelf. The throne was not effectively vacant for an hour." p. 49. Speaking of the Ariftocrats, who have braved every danger for their country, and remained in it, Mr. Burke' rifes above himself. "But when I am driven to comparifon, furely I cannot hesitate for a moment to prefer to fuch men as are common thofe heroes who, in the midst of despair, perform all the talks of hope; who fubdue their feelings to their duties; who, in the caufe of humanity, liberty, and honour, abandon all the fatisfactions of life, and every day incur a fresh risk of life itself. Do me the juftice to believe that I never can prefer any faftidious virtue (virtue ftill) to the unconquered perfeverance, to the affectionate patience, of thofe who watch day and night by the bed-fide of their delirious country, who, for their love to that dear and venerable name, bear all the difgufts and all the buffets they receive from their frantic mother. Sir, I do look on you as true martyrs; I regard you as-foldiers who act far more in the spirit of our Commander in Chief, and the Captain of our Salvation, than thofe who have left you; though I must first bolt myself very thoroughly, and know that I could do better, before I can cenfure them. I affure you, Sir, that, when I confider your unconquerable fidelity to your fovereign, and to your country, the courage, fortitude, magnanimity, and longfuffering of yourself and the Abbé Maury, and of Mr. Cazales, and of many worthy perfons of all orders, in your Affembly, I forget, in the luftre of these great qualities, that on your fide has been difplayed an eloquence fo rational, manly, and convincing, that no time or country, perhaps, has ever excelled. But your talents difappear in my admiration of your virtues." p. 51—53. As to a remedy for thefe fhocking evils, Mr. B. profeffes himself totally unable to offer a plan, fituated, as he is, at too great a distance to judge of men or of portunities. It is easier to fee that one great error was, that the Parliament of Paris fuffered the King's ministers to new-model the whole reprefenta"tion of the Tiers Etat, and, in a great measure, that of the clergy too, and "to deftroy the antient proportions of "the orders. These changes, unquef"tionably, the King had no right to "make; and here the Parliaments fail"ed in their duty, and, along with their country, have perifhed by this failure." P. 60. 61.-When Mr. B. praised the British conftitution to his correfpondent, he meant to recommend the principles from which it has grown, and the po licy on which it has been progreffively improved out of elements common to the French and us. "I do not advise an Houfe of Lords to you. Your antient courfe, by reprefentatives of the nobleffe (in your circumstances), appears to me rather a better inftitution. I know, that, with you, a set of men of rank have betrayed their conftituents, their honour, their truft, their king, and their country, and levelled themselves with their footmen, that, through this degradation, they might afterwards put themfelves above their entertained a project, that, in reward of this natural equals. Some of thefe perfons have their black perfidy and corruption, they may be chofen to give rife to a new order, and to eftablish themfelves into an Houle of Lords. Do you think that, under the name of a Bri tih conftitution, i mean to recommend you fuch lords, made of fuch kind of stuff? I do not, however, include in this defcription all of those who are fond of this fcheme. -lf you were now to form fuch an Houfe of Peers, it would bear, in my opinion, but little refemblance to our's in its origin, character, or the purposes which it might anfwer, at, the fame time that it would destroy your true natural nobility." p. 63, 64. "Still lefs are you capable, in my opinion, of framing any thing which virtually and fubftantially could be anfwerable (for the purposes of a stable, regular government) to our Houfe of Commons. That Houfe is, within itself, a much more fubtle and artificial combination of parts and powers than people are generally aware of. What knits it to the other members of the conftitution; what fits it to be at once the great fupport and the great controul of Government; what makes it of fuch admirable service to that monarchy which, if it limits, it fecures and strengthens; would require a long difcourfe, helonging to the leisure of a contemplative man, not to one whofe duty it is to join in communicating practically to the people the bleifings of fuch a conftitution. "Your Tiers Erat was not, in effect and fubftance, an Houfe of Commons. You food in abfolute need of fomething else to fupply the manifeft defects in fuch a body as your Tiers Etat. On a fober and difpaliionate view of your old conftitution, as connected with all the prefent circumftances, I was fully perfuaded, that the crown, standing as things have stood (and are likely to stand, if you are to have any monarchy at all), was and is incapable, alone and by itself, of holding a juft balance between the two orders, and, at the fame time, of effecting the interior and exterior purposes of a protecting government. I, whofe leading principle it is, in a reformation of the state, to make ufe of exifting materials, am of opinion, that the representation of the clergy, as a feparate order, was an inftitution which touched all the orders more nearly than any of them touched the other; that it was well fitted to connect them, and to hold a place in any wife monarchical commonwealth. If I refer you to your original conftitution, and think it, as I do, fubftantially a good one, I do not amufe you in this, more than in other things, with any inventions of mine. A certain intemperance of intellect is the difeafe of the time, and the fource of all its other difeafes. I will keep myself as untainted by it as I can. Your architects build without a foundation. I would readily lend an helping hand to any fuperftructure, when once this is effectually fecured but first I would fay do; we sw." p. 64, 65. "I believe, Sir, that many on the continent altogether mistake the condition of a King of Great Britain. He is a real King, and not an executive officer. If he will not trouble himself with contemptible details, nor wish to degrade himself by becoming a party in little fquabbles, I am far from fure, that a King of Great Britain, in whatever concerns him as a king, or indeed as a rational man, who combines his public intereft with his perfonal fatisfaction, does not poffefs a more real, folid, extenfive power than the King of France was poffeffed of before this miferable Revolution. The direct power of the King of England is confiderable. His indirect, and far more certain power, is great indeed. He ftands in need of nothing towards dignity; of nothing towards fplendour; of nothing to wards authority; of nothing at all towards confideration abroad. When was it that a King of England wanted wherewithal to make him refpected, courted, or perhaps even feared, in every state of Europe?" p. 67. "I am conftantly of opinion, that your states, in three orders, on the footing on which they stood in 1614, were capable of being brought into a proper and harmonious combination with royal authority. This conftitution by eftates was the natural and only just reprefentation of France. It grew out of the habitual conditions, relations, and reciprocal claims of men. It grew out of the circumstances of the country, and out of the ftate of property. The wretched fcheme of your prefent mafters is, not to fit the conftitution to the people, but wholly to destroy conditions, to diffolve relations, to change the fate of the nation, and to fubvert pro perty, in order to fit their country to their theory of a constitution. "Until you could make out practically that great work, a combination of opposing forces, a work of labour long, and endless 'praife,' the utmost caution ought to have been used in the reduction of the royal power, which alone was capable of holding together the comparatively heterogeneous mass of your states. But, at this day, all these confiderations are unfeasonable. To what end fhould we difcufs the limitations of royal power? Your king is in prifon. Why fpeculate on the meafure and standard of liberty? I doubt much, very much indeed, whether France is at all ripe for liberty on any standard. Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their difpofition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their foundnefs and fobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption; in proportion as they are more difpofed to liften to the counfels of the wife and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exift unless a controuling power upon will and appetite be placed fomewhere; and the lefs of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained, in the eternal conftitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free; their paffions forge their fetters." p. 67-69. Mr. B. proceeds to paint the characters of the prefent reformers, those who have effected the Reformation by every act of violence, bold and wicked enterfelves moderate, are only the inferior prizes, and thofe who, calling theminftruments of the other, the Fairfaxes of the Cromwells; and his colouring here is as all fuch occafion. "You ask me too, whether we have a committee of research. No, Sir,-God forbid! It is the neceffary inftrument of tyranny and ufurpation; and therefore I do not wonder that it has had an early establishment under your prefent Lords. We do not want it." P. 72. The conclufion is admirable: "In England we cannot work fo hard as Frenchmen. Frequent relaxation is neceffary to us. You are naturally more intenfe in your application. I did not know this. part of your national character until I went to France in 1773 At prefent, this your difpofition to labour is rather increased than leffened. In your Affembly you do not allow yourfelves a recefs even on Sundays. We have two days in the week, befides the feftivals; and befides five or fix months of the Summer and Autumn. This continual, unremitted effort of the members of your Aifembly I take to be one among the caufes of the mifchief they have done. They who always always labour can have no true judgement. You never give yourselves time to cool. You can never furvey, from its proper point of fight, the work you have finished, before you decree its final execution. You can never plan the future by the past. You can never go into the country, foberly and difpaffionately, to obferve the effect of your measures on their objects. You cannot feel diftinctly how far the people are rendered better and improved, or more miferable and depraved, by what you have done. You cannot fee, with your own eyes, the fufferings and afflictions you caufe. You know them but at a distance, on the statements of those who always flatter the reigning power, and who, amidft their reprefentations of the grievances, inflame your minds against those who are oppreffed. These are amongst the effects of unremitted labour, when men exhaust their attention, burn out their candles, and are left in the dark.-Malo meorum ne negli gentiam, quam iflorum obfcuram diligentiam." p. 92. An Answer to Mr. George Dixon, late Commander of the Queen Charlotte, &c. By John Meares, Efq. In which bis Remarks on the Voyage to the North-wift Craft of America, &c. are fully confidered and refuted. the bare mention, by Capt. Dixon, in his narrative of his voyage, that Capt. Meares's crew fuffered the exceffes of the fcurvy, by the too free use of spirits, has involved them in a difpute, into which Capt. Duncan has been drawn, by Capt. Meares making him fay, that Capt. Dixon refufed him relief at fea; which "affertion Capt. Duncan avows "to be without foundation." On this statement of facts, by Mr. Meares's opponents, we, as far as our limited knowledge of the difputed points in queftion goes, cannot help being of opinion that Mr. M. has gone too far. 94. Speeches in the House of Commons upon the Equalization of the Weights and Meijures of Great Britain; with Notes, Objervations, &c. &c. Alo, a general Standard propofed for the Weights and Meafures of Europe: with brief Abracs of the most material As of the British Legislature, and orber Ordinances and Regulations, for the Equalization of our Weights and Meafures, from Magna Charta to the prefent Time, &c. &c. By Sir John Riggs Miller, Bar. Together with Two Letters from the Bishop of Autun to the Author, upon tb Uniformity of Weights and Mealures; that Prelate's Propofition, refpecting the fame, to the National Ambly; and the Decree of that Body, of be 8th of May, conform ble to the Bifh p's Propofition: with English Translations. 8vo. THE first obje&t of this curious inveftigator, whom we are forry not to fee profecuting his researches and plans in his place in St. Stephen's chapel, is, to fatisfy the Houfe, that much uncertainty and perplexity prevail now, and have at all times prevailed, both in this and in every other country, in refpect to weights and meafures. His fecond object was to lay open to them the cause of this uncertainty and perplexity; and to prove that, under the prefent circumftances, it is permanent and inevitable. WE announced this Answer in P. 64; and, as we then conjectured, the His third object is to fhew the mifchievcontroverfy has not ended here. 93. Further Remarks on the Voyage of John Meares, Efq.; in which jeveral important Facts, mifreprefented in th faid Voyage, relative to Geography and Commerce, are fully fubftantiated. To which is added, a Letter from Capt. Duncan, containing a decifive Refutation of feveral unfounded Ajertions of Mr. Meares, and a final Reply to his Anfwer. By George Dixon, &c. SORRY are we to obferve that any expedition, undertaken by fea or land, for the fake of useful difcovery, fhould be defeated by private refentment. But ous influence which the inequality of our weights and measures has on fcience, on commerce, and on the comforts and morals both of individuals and of the community at large. His fourth would be to offer fome immediate corrections of the abufes now prevailing from fuch inequality; and his fifth object would be to fuggeft fome general Itandard, from which all weights and meafures may be in future railed; being itfelt derived from fomething in nature that is invariable and immutable; and which must neceffarily be at all times, and in all places, equal, and the fame. |