vices, knowing his worth, I claffed him with the most faithful of my affociates; and refpected and valued his fidelity and attachment. That foldier who forgot his duty and his honour, and in the hour of action deferting his mafter, joined the ftandard of his adversary, I confidered as the most deteftable of men. In the war with Touktumish Khaun, his fuperior officers, forgetful of their duty to him who was their legal mafter and my confirmed foe, fent propofals and made applications unto me. I held their treachery in abhorrence; becaufe, unmindful of that which they owed to the hand that fed them, they had thrown afide their honour and their duty, and offered their fervices to the enemy of their prince. Thus I reflected with myfelf, What fidelity have they obferved to their liege Lord? What fidelity will they fhew unto me? By experience it was known unto me, that from every empire, which is not established in morality and religion, nor ftrengthened by regulations and laws, all order, grandeur, and power fhall pass away. It may be likened unto a naked man, who, when expofed to view, commands the eye of modesty to be covered: it is like unto a palace, which hath neither roof, nor gates, nor defences; into which, whoever willeth, may enter unmolefted.- Therefore, I eftablished the foundation of my empire in morality and religion; and by regulations and laws I gave it fability. By thofe laws and by thofe regulations, I executed every bufinefs that came before me in the courfe of my govern ment.' To the above Tranflation, Mr. White has added a specimen of Perfian poetry, from the beginning of faumi's Poem, entitled, Eufoof and Zoolleikha. From the whole, he takes occafion, very properly, to evince the utility of ftudying the Perfian language, which abounds with poets and hiftorians of very great merit; whofe works, if tranflated into the languages of Europe, would open new fources of information, as well as of amufement. FOREIGN LITERATURE. FRANCE. DISCOURS Politiques, Hiftoriques et Critiques fur quelques Gouvernemens de l'Europe, &c. i. e. Political, Hiftorical, and Critical Difcourfes concerning the Government of certain Countries in Europe. By the Count D'ALBON, Member of feveral French and German Academies [of which eleven are crowded into this Title, and conclude with three &c.'s], 8vo. Lyons. 1779. First Vol. p. 433. Though thefe difcourfes are not totally deftitute of merit, but contain feveral good things, yet the Author would have done well to have compofed fome of them with lefs precipitation, or at leaft to have published them in lefs hurry. When a man, or boy, writes concerning the genius, character, government, legiflation, and interefts of nations, and does not profeffedly copy the authors that have written, or fcribbled, before him, he muft proceed more in the piano way than this warm-headed young man has done; otherwife he will be deceived by falfe and fuperficial views of things; a kind of deception that is palpable in the work before us. The Count D'Albon's publication is to confift of three volumes. The first, which we here announce, contains two difcourfes concerning England; one concerning Holland; and the fubject of the fourth is Switzerland. The two fucceeding volumes are, to treat of Italy, Spain, and Portugal. us; We have called the Author a young man, not that we know any thing of his age, but what we learn from the volume before which in ftyle, manner, and often in matter, bears all the marks of the froth, petulance, temerity, and felf-fufficiency of a fmart, promifing ftudent, who has acquired fome knowledge, but speaks with equal affurance of what he knows, and of what he knows not. He, moreover, deals largely in verbal antithefes, which he would willingly pafs upon us for real ones; and, with all his pretenfions to reafon and humanity, is one of the warmeft and most fervile champions of abfolute monarchy that we have met with. As he is one of the fect in France, diftinguished by the name of Oeconomists, he feems to have given particular attention to agriculture and commerce; and if ever he speaks with the fagacity of an obferver, it is on the fubjects relative to these two practical sciences: but in political knowledge, in the fcience of government, he is beneath even the molt ordinary writers, and does not feem to be equal to any thing higher than a pamphlet upon the Gallico-American Alliance. His account of England is, unquestionably, the most exceptionable part of this firft volume. He labours, with no fmall pother, to refute the accurate and excellent remarks of Montesquieu on the British conftitution; and here he exhibits to us the afpect of a fly fcanning the flight of an eagle. His reflexions are, for the most part, trivial; his reafonings often abfurd; his accounts of the national state and character partial, exaggerated, and malignant; and his relations are fometimes directly and palpably falfe. When he speaks of the commerce, manufactures, and liberty of the English, one would think that he was defcribing the internal defolation, oppreffion, and mifery Gg 4 of of his own country. What must a candid and fenfible reader think of fuch periods as thefe: By a change as rapid as it is frightful, England no more refembles itfelf: instead of a contented and happy people, it exhibits only men languishing in poverty and dejection, and fuffering evils which they do not de serve.' We know not whether all the mistakes of this prejudiced Writer are wilful; but we cannot help thinking some of them fo. Rouffeau had faid, in his Social Contract, that the people of England are never free, except during the election of a new parliament Our Author denies that they are free even then. They fell their liberty, fays he, though it be but a fhadow, a phantom; and this the Author of the Conftitution of England, one of the most violent panegyrifts of that nation, is obliged to acknowledge.'-This daring affertion made us fufpect that we had loft our memory; and when we opened again Mr. De Lelme's excellent book, we began to fufpect the rectitude of our eyefight:-but on fecond thoughts, finding no reason to prefume that our eyes are to view objects as they are exhibited by the magic lanthorn of M. D'ALBON, we are obliged to expose him to the Public as guilty of mifreprefentation and falfehood. The judicious Author of the Conftitution of England, instead of acknowledging what Rouffeau aflerts, refutes it, with warmth, and even with afperity. He fhews, with the greateft perfpicuity and ftrength of reafoning, the fignal advantages which the people derive from acting by reprefentatives in the great council of the nation; and drawing the proper line of distinction between popular liberty and a part in the adminiftration of government, he accufes Rouffeau of ignorance and precipitation in the judgment he formed. If M. D'ALBON had read M. De Lolme's book with an ordinary degree of attention and candour (for we do not charge him with incapacity), he would have found all his imputations and objections answered before-hand: this might have prevented him from looking upon bribery and corruption as a part of the English conftitution; from confounding the vices of the administration with those of the government; and from attributing to the laws, and the political fyftem, effects which have their origin and causes in the corrupt morals of individuals, and the increase of that luxury and opulence which fpring from the bofom of liberty. He might also have seen that the diforders, which he rails at with a malignant pleasure, may one day produce their own remedy,-and that no abufes have affected the fources of legiflation and liberty, of which the redrefs is not practicable, and which the nation has not ftill the power of redreffing: he might have seen that a great part of what the British nation fuffers at this day, proceeds from a concurrence of accidental circumftances, which it was was extremely difficult to forefee or prevent, and from the bad faith of his own country, which feems difpofed rather to perish itself, than to fee another profper. In a word, he might have feen many things, had he been at the pains of opening his eyes, and laying afide his national pocket-glass. The Difcourfe concerning Holland is fomewhat lefs defective in point of inaccuracy; though the author's accounts of the Stadtholder (a name that founds painfully in a French ear!) and of the States General, are erroneous in various refpects, and, at beft, are trivial and fuperficial. Among other marks of difingenuity, which caft a juft reproach upon the character of this Count D'Albon, we might mention his account of the elevation of William III. to the Stadtholdership. He disguises the infamy of that lawless and unprovoked invasion, in the year 1672, which will be an eternal ftain on the annals of Lewis XIV. and Charles II.; and tells us that a fedition was the cause of the fudden elevation of William III. This is fpeaking the language of a flave, who hugs and careffes his chain. So then the generous voice of a whole people, who called upon the defcendant of the immortal founder of their ftate to conduct the army of the Republic against a lawless invader, and to invigorate the public counfels by a reftoration of the ancient conftitution-this, forfooth, was a fedition!-No! Monfieur D'Albon,- this was one of thofe events which, in times of trouble and faction, often produce unhappy acts of violence, that are painful to humanity, but which that humanity, which embraces the happiness of a whole community preferably to that of a few individuals, muft applaud as an act of patriotism, and not of fedition. Our Author's account of the elevation of William IV. is ftill lefs ingenuous: he does not even mention the flagrant iniquity of the French eruption into Dutch Flanders in the year 1746, without any other object or pretext than their mere good pleasure, and their defire that the Republic fhould facrifice its independence, and follow their nod. He only tells us, in a few words, that William IV. was raifed by a fedition, by a tumult in the city of Veere, which rendered the other provinces fo delirious, that they followed the firft emotion, and confented to the restoration of the Stadtholdership. Our Author condemns this ftep; and the whole ftrain of his reflexions on this fubject resembles that of the French pamphleteers, who seem to have given each other the word, to rail againft It must never be forgotten that this infamous conduct of Charles II. (inftead of being applauded by his people, as that of Lewis was) excited the indignation of all orders of men, and drew upon him the unanimous and bitter reproaches of his parliament and fubjects, who at length forced him to quit his bafe alliance with the French invader, the the Stadtholdership, and to unhinge (were it in their power) that happy union which conftitutes the ftrength of the Belgic provinces. Having spoken of the ftate of the Republic, after the death of William III. which he calls a period of felicity and glory which lafted thirty years (fays he in his chronology t) without a Stadtholder, he expreffes himself thus: After fuch a happy experience, why did the Republic, regretting the Stadtholderian government, reftore it again, and render it perpetual? Never was any refolution more fingular and more imprudent; and if the United Provinces had not been blinded, they would have foreseen the fatal confequences which could not but arife from this ftep.'- The interefts of the Stadtholder' (continues this wonderful Politician) are in almost a perpetual oppofition to those of the Republic, and there is no reason to think that the latter will ever gain the ascendant, -I fee nothing in all the extent of the provinces, but the Stadtholder and his dependants: nowhere do I perceive the members of the ftate, the pillars of the country, the defenders of the Republic. To obtain an exact list of the creatures or flaves of the Prince of Orange, you have only to caft an eye on the deputies that form the affembly of the States General; then draw up a lift of all those that compofe the provincial affemblies; and then enumerate the magiftrates, fenators, burgomafters, &c. in the feveral cities: nay, to exprefs what I mean more fully and ftill more briefly, you have only to number the inhabitants of the Republic, and then you will have an exact lift of the inftruments which the Stadtholder can fet in motion, and manage according to his good pleasure.'-Pray, Sir, have you ever been in Holland?- Have you feen any one that has been there? or have you read any decent author who has written about the country and its government? We have never met with fuch a blundering and difingenuous Difcourfer about governments as this Writer. He tells us, that the Roman Catholics in the United Provinces cannot fill any pofts, nor enter into commercial partnerships: focietés de commerce, is his term.-Now, if by pofts he means all employments, civil or military, he is miftaken; for Roman Catholics may fill military employments, and do fo in fact; and as to the latter article, it is one of the most glaring untruths imaginable, unless by focietés de commerce, he means the Eaft and West India, companies. The bitter reproaches he cafts upon the Dutch government for its treatment of the Roman Catholics, are unjust in themselves, and peculiarly indecent in the mouth of a Frenchman. The Roman Catholics (whofe religious principles are †The Republic, after King William's death, was 46 years without a Stadtholder. much |