-the whole of his conduct but juftice and equity.-Such was the ambition of Henry and Philip, if we may judge of it by their conduct till they were in a condition to execute those grand projects they had formed in order to gratify it.

Philip's project was to deftroy the power of the kings of Perfia, who had been enemies to the Greeks, and in order to fucceed in it, he had taken the wifest and best concerted meafures. Like Henry, he begun with fecuring to himself the peaceable poffeffion of his own kingdom, by vanquishing those who invaded it. He put an end to civil diffenfions, and made his fubjects the best foldiers in Europe. When he had made trial of the bravery of his troops in several engagements wherein they were victorious, not thinking himself as yet powerful enough to attack the empire of Perfia, he falls upon the Greeks, and fubdues them, not so much with a view to make them his fubjects, but rather the companions of those victories which he propoled to gain over their inveterate enemies. He granted the republics their liberty, but obliged them to join their troops to his, by which means he formed an army capable of fubduing the whole world.

At a time when he might have flattered himself with seeing the accomplishment of his defigns, he was affaffinated, in the forty-eighth year of his age; but his meafures were taken with fo much skill and accuracy, and Alexander executed the designs of his father with fo much courage, that he pushed his conquefts as far as India. Death, however, put a stop to his career in the thirty-third year of his age, and he left nothing to his fubjects, or the nations which he conquered, but the feeds of wars and diffenfions, which they engaged in with great fury, till they became fubject to the Roman empire.

Such was the project of Philip; that of Henry was much more noble and moderate; he did not defire to invade the poffeffions of his neighbours, nor aim at the glory of conquest; fatisfied with gaining the affections of his subjects, and rendering them happy, he only wanted to make other nations enjoy the fame bleffing. He took for his model the council of the Amphyctions once fo famous in Greece. The glorious victories gained by the Greeks over Darius and his fon Xerxes, kings of Perfia, and the defeat of the powerful armies which were fent to invade their country, convinced all the states of Greece of the advantages which they derived from their union. Being firmly perfuaded that the prefervation of this union was the only means of defending their liberties against the ambition of their enemies, they formed a council, composed of the deputies of all the ftates of Greece. Whatever concerned the general intereft was brought before this council; it was the arbiter of peace and war; determined the difputes that arofe between the feveral ftates; regulated the quota of troops which

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each

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cach state was to send în cafe of a war; pronounced fentence of condemnation upon thofe who refused to submit to their decrees, and obliged them to yield by force of arms. This tribunal was of the greateft fervice to all the ftates of Greece; it rendered their power fo formidable, that the King of Persia, not daring any longer to attack them openly, endeavoured to make them quarrel with each other.

It was upon the model of this council that Henry intended to form a kind of republic of the different kingdoms of Europe. I fhall not enter here into a circumftantial detail of the meafures he defigned to take, in order to accomplish his fcheme; they may be feen in Sully's Memoirs. I thall only fpeak of .fome of the principle articles, which will fufficiently fhow the extent of this prince's genius, whofe thoughts were wholly employed in making the feveral kingdoms of Europe happy: he might perhaps have fucceeded, if Providence, the fecrets of which are impenetrable, had lengthened his days. If we reflect upon the events which followed his death, we shall see that all the powers of Europe acknowledged the advantages which would have arifen to each of them, from the accomplishment of fuch a scheme, which they have, in fome measure, adopted, by endeavouring to establish among themselves fuch a balance of power, as fhould be fufficient to preferve a lafting peace.

Our author now proceeds to give his readers a fhort view of -the principal articles of this famous project, and of the fentiments of fome celebrated writers in regard to it. Some have contidered it, he tells us, as abfurd and chimerical; but the general opinion is, that, if Henry had lived, it would have been carried into execution, at least, in a great measure. The princes of Europe, who were in the fecret, and who were capable of forming a better judgment of the defign than we are, at this distance of time, entertained no doubt of it. Henry's whole conduct after he came to the throne, had infpired them with fo high an idea of his valour, of his conduct in war, of his prudence and political wisdom, that they were convinced he was able to change the face of affairs in Europe, and to procurè them an advantageous and lafting peace; efpecially as he fhewed the greatest difinterestedness in the whole of his behaviour, and feemed to aim at nothing but the glory of contributing to the happiness of all the nations around him.

- Our author goes on to obferve, that Henry's plan was executed in part; that there are evident traces of it in the whole of Richelieu's conduct; that Mazarin never departed from it; that it contributed more than any of the plenipotentiaries to the perfection of thofe famous treaties in 1648, which have been looked upon ever fince, as the political code of Europe, and which have ferved as a bafis to all thofe treaties, which have been made fince, between the fame powers.

Thofe,

Thofe, continues he, who are converfant in hiftory, and who have reflected upon what has happened, fince the reign of Louis the eleventh will readily allow, that it was Henry the fourth who changed the political fyftem of Europe. He deftroyed that falfe policy, founded upon chicane and treachery, which was introduced by the Italians, and the deteftable doctrines of which, had been taught by Machiavel. Louis the eleventh, inftructed by his friend the Duke of Milan, had put thefe doctrines in practice, during the whole of his life. Ferdinand the Catholic, King of Spain, had made them the principal rule of his conduct, during a reign of forty-two years, falfifying his faith (faussant sa foi), according to the language of thofe times, as often as he found his intereft in fo doing. Charles the fifth, his grandfon, made no fcruple of doing the Jame, Catherine of Medicis, brought up in the fame maxims, occafioned the greatest calamities to France, and brought it to the brink of ruin. Philip the fecond, King of Spain, paffed the whole of his life in refining upon this fcience, from which he derived no other advantage than the lofs of the Low Countries, the ruin of his kingdom, and a difadvantageous peace, which he was obliged to make with France.

Henry, who had made serious reflections upon the false policy of thefe princes, upon the equivocal conduct of Catherine of Medicis, upon the great number of captious treaties fhe made, and which were no fooner concluded than they were broken, upon her conftant violations of faith, which had greate ly alienated the affections of both Catholics and Huguenots, was convinced, when he came to the throne, that juftice alone could remedy the diforders, which Catherine had occafioned in the kingdom. He defpifed all the little artifices of this policy. He took good faith for the rule of his conduct, and never departed from it in any of his treaties, always executing them with the utmoft fidelity. This good faith made him triumph over the policy of Philip the fecond, in the treaty of Vervines; difconcerted all the Italian tricks, on the accommodation between Pope Paul the fifth, and the Venetians, of which he was the arbiter; furmounted all the oppofition made by the Spaniards and Dutch, when he forced them to accept of that famous truce of twelve years, by which the United Provinces were ac➡ knowledged as a fovereign ftate; and procured him the friendfhip and alliance of the greatest part of the electors of the Empire, together with the kings of England, Denmark, and Sweden: fuch is the power of juftice over the hearts of men, when it is fupported by wifdom and prudence!

We have now given a full view of the comparifon, which our author draws between Philip of Macedon, and Henry the fourth how far the comparison is a just one, our learned readers must determine,

R.

Hilaire

Hiloire naturelle des Fraifiers, contenant les vues d'Economie reunies a la Botanique, & fuives de Remarques particulieres fur plufieurs Points qui ont rapport a l'Histoire naturelle generale. 12mo. Paris. 1766.

The natural Hiftory of Strawberries; in which the subject is economically as well as botanically confidered, together with particular Remarks on various Points relative to natural Hiftory in general. By M. Duchefne, junior.

É learn by the advertisement prefixed to this ingenious performance, that the curiofity of raifing from feed a plant which hath been fo feldom cultivated in that manner, proved the accidental means of producing an entire new race of ftrawberries, at Verfailles, in the year 1761. This unexpected phenomenon excited the Author's attention to a particular examination of this plant; and the treatife before us is the refult of his enquiries.

Naturalifts are far from agreeing in the application of the terms genera, fpecies, varieties, S. The moderns, however, feem generally fatisfied with the definition and ufe of thefe words as adopted by the celebrated Linnæus; who divides the vegetable kingdom into as many fpecies as he fuppofes were originally created distinct by the great Author of nature; fignifying by the term Variety, fuch as are produced by the ac cidental mixture of one fpecies with another. But Monfieur Duchesne, finding that the new, ftrawberry at Versailles continued to propagate without variation, calls it new race, introducing the term as intermediate between fpecies and variety.

Our ancient countryman Parkinfon has four fpecies of ftrawberry, viz. fragaria minor hifpido folio, fmall ftrawberry with hard leaves; fragaria alpina fructu compreso, fat frawberry; fragaria helvetiana, dwarf ftrawberry, and fragaria minime vejca, barren ftrawberry, Ray makes but three fpecies, viz. vulgaris, common ftrawberry; fructu hifpide, rough ftrawberry, and Berilis, barren. Tournefort fplits this genus into no less than 23 fpecies. Boerhaave makes two genera, viz. fragaria vul garis, and fterilis; dividing the first into fix fpecies, viz. vul garis, fructu albo, fructu parvi pruni magnitudine, fructu rotunds, virginiana, craffes flore femine carens. Linnæus has but three fpecies, viz. vefca, muricata, and fterilis. Miller counts five fpecies, viz. wood ftrawberry, white ftrawberry, hautboy, fcarlet, and Chili; naturally, as a gardener, taking his fpecific characters from the fruit. Scopoli, in his Flora Carniolica, denies the fragaria the honour of conftituting a genus, confidering it only as a fpecies of the potentilla, or cinquefoil. Linnæus had indeed before observed in his Flora Laponica, quid fraz geria, comarum, potentilla, tormentilla fere nullas alias caracte rifticas notas pro diftinctione admittant, præterquam gradu differunt.

The

The Author of this book, according to the arrangement of Monf. Juffieu, in the botanical garden at Trianon, fixes the ftrawberry as a fpecies of the first fection of the family of the rofaceous: that is, of thofe plants whofe flowers refémblé a rofe. Of this fpecies he diftinguishes ten races, viz. fragaria femperflorens, fylveftris, hortenfis, eflagellis, monophylla, viridis, mofchata, chloenfis, ananaffa, & virginiana; all which, together with feveral varieties, particularly of the wood ftrawberry, are minutely defcribed in this volume. Among the varieties of the fragaria fylveftris, we find le fraifier de Plimouth, a ftrawberry mentioned by most of the botanifts of the last century, and from them copied into the works of the moderns, though it feems at prefent not to exift. Linnæus makes it a diftinct species, Hudson only a variety. Ray, after Gerard, calls it fragaria fructu hifpido, rough ftrawberry, and adds, found by Jo. Tradefcant the elder in a woman's garden at Plymouth, whofe daughter gathered it abroad, and planted it there: pro lufu patius natura hanc habeo, quam pro fpecie diftincta. Gerard feems to have been the firft who mentioned this fpecies or variety but the most minute defcription of it is that of Zanoni, publifhed in 1675. Our countryman Parkinfon, in his Paradifus Terreftris, tells us, that this ftrawberry differs principally from the common fort in bearing a green flower, and its fruit being covered with prickles, which do not however wound the tongue; that its tafte is not agreeable, but that it is pleafant to look upon; and that a handfome woman may very well, out of caprice, carry it in her hand inftead of a flower.' An ordinary lady, we fuppofe, would not look well with it.

We shall now tranflate from our Author's remarques particulières, the hiftory of the birth of the ftrawberry of Versailles, above mentioned. In a little garden, fays he, which my father had bought, for the fake of experiments, having in the years 1760, and 1761, fowed fome feeds of the fragaria me chata, we alfo fowed feeds of the common wood ftrawberry, which had, for feveral years together, been cultivated in that garden. Our only intention was to try whether red ftrawberries often produce white. But thefe having been tranfplanted too early, and afterwards neglected, moft of them died. Having failed in our experiment, the few that escaped continued unregarded till 1763, about their time of flowering, which in most of them was retarded till the year following. It was not till the 7th of July 1763, that we obferved, among these strawberries, one, of which all the leaves were fingle, inftead of being palmated in three divifions. From that inftant we preferved, with the utmost care, all the offsets it produced, and in the fpring of the next year we were poffelled of no less than fixty roots.'

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