the principle of his actions. His allegiance to the prince is founded upon the confideration, that royalty is an effential part of that conftitution which is the object of all his care and reverence. He confiders not the perfon, but the office of the king. The one is frequently not more refpectable than the meanest of his fubjects, while the other is immortal and unchangeable. The refpect, therefore, which he bears to the throne will never degenerate into any idolatry for the individual who is feated upon it. If he is ready to defend its juft rights and prerogatives, it is because those rights and prerogatives conftitute the English conftitution; and that conftitution, with all its defects, is more favourable to public happiness and liberty, than any other which could be adopted. In office, he will treat his fovereign with respect, and perform his orders with alacrity and zeal; fo long as thofe orders contribute to the public benefit, and are confiftent with public liberty. He will endeavour to preferve unfullied the nobleft of the royal prerogatives, the power of promoting merit and rewarding virtue. Far from him that abjec fpirit of monopolization, which feizes upon royal favour, as it would do a private patrimony, and prostitutes it to family connections and party leagues. Far from him that fervile fpirit of flattery, which confounds the office of minifter and laureate, and degrades the ruler of a powerful nation into the obfequioufnefs of a court buffoon. He will endeavour to make the fovereign worthy of the nobleft panegyrics; but he will teach him to expect them not from the corrupt echoes of a court, but from the unbiaffed acclamations of a grateful people. Alike undaunted amid the tempeft of popular clamour and factious oppofition, he will keep his eye fixed upon that facred mean which conftitutes the fecurity of fovereign and people. Should there be a measure which his fuperior genius points out as neceffary to the public fafety, he will boldly adopt it; defpifing alike the arts of defigning men, and the empty prejudices of a multitude. He will truft to the uniform integrity of his own conduct for a vindication; and to time, which as neceffarily establishes the folid fabrics of truth as it sweeps away the empty fyitems of falsehood. His fame, he knows, is not the tranfitory beam of either royal or popular favour; it is the refult of a whole feries of confiftent actions directed to one great end, and proceeding from one common principle. That principle may teach him to oppofe the encroachments of faction upon the royal prerogative; but it will teach him to oppofe, with ten-fold zeal, thofe temporary paroxyfms of delirium which tempt a deluded people to lay their privileges at a master's feet. In the first cafe, they may indeed endanger all, by grafping at too much; but in the fecond they give up all, even without the hope of an equivalent. Is the fovereign virtuous? He will be the laft either to perfuade or to accept the facrifice. Is he poffeffed with the common rage of encreafing his power? That day which yields the confiitution up to his difcretion, renders him a tyrant, and defroys the nation. In what language, therefore, would fuch a man address the first magiftrate of his country, were it neceffary to approach the throne With respect and modefty, but with firmness; with reverence, but 66 with truth. He would leave the interested profeffions of perfonal attachment and veneration to those who meant to betray the people by flattering the fovereign, or to expofe the fovereign himself by foothing the common prejudices of his ftation. Should he fee the nation almost undone by a disastrous war, in which a favourite and protected adminiftration had borne a principal fhare, he would not make his commiferation of injured royalty the capital figure of the piece. Well knowing that the fovereign and his family are always the laft to feel the weight of public mifery, he would reserve his pity for the thousand innocent objects which deferve it better. Could he weep tears more faft or precious than the Arabian tree", there would not be one to bestow on every victim of such a war as the American has produced. If he is feelingly alive to the temporary embarraffment of a royal bart held for a moment at bay, what mutt he feel for whole provinces that have been for feven years the prey of the bloodiest hunters that ever followed the chace of death? What muft he feel for a thousand gallant veterans that line our ftreets, deform our public ways, and present in vain their wounds, their poverty, their incurable diseases, to thofe in whofe pernicious cause they have contracted them? What must he feel for a nation like the English, which is, with all its faults, one of the most gallant, generous, and deferving in the univerfe, reduced to univerfal beggary by a conteft which never was national, in a difpute which never interested the public?' In the fixth letter, which is addreffed to the Earl of Shelburne, the reader will find a defence of the late peace, which our Author seems to think the only action of that noble Lord's administration, which he can commend. We must refer thofe to the letters, who wish to enter more minutely into the fubject. The feventh and eighth letters are addreffed to Mr. Burke. The leading fubject of them is the late India Bill. Marius, however, particularly infifts on the inconfiftency and injustice of attempting to feize upon the rights of the India Company, after a renewal of their charter had been granted in 1781, fince the allegations against them were for maleadminiftration prior to that period. The remarks on a variety of fubjects interfperfed through thefe letters, as is the cafe in moft of Mr. Day's publications, are generally ingenious and pertinent; though ftill there is an unfinished appearance in these compofitions, and fometimes a want of perfpicuity, which has originated from his having once intended to prefent these letters to the public, in a detached form. This alteration of his defign has prevented his giving a full scope to his abilities, and feems to have curbed the natural ardour of his genius. ART, ART. X. Obfervations on the prefent State of Denmark, Ruffia, and Switzerland. In a series of Letters. 8vo. 6s. Cadell. 1784. HOUGH the travels of Meffrs. Wraxal and Cox into the fame countries which this gentleman hath vifited, and hath here undertaken to defcribe, have in a great measure gratified public curiofity, yet the prefent work is by no means a fuperfluous or uninteresting performance. The Author acknowledges, that, in preparing his Letters for the prefs, he hath curtailed many paffages in deference to their prior obfervations, and hath fcarcely hazarded himself in the fame track, unless where the objects happened to appear in a different point of view. A declaration, which, from the perufal of this volume, we have had no reason to controvert. The ftyle in which these letters are written, is not always correct, or claffically chafte; but it is in general eafy, flowing, and fpirited. The reflections and fentiments, though feldom deep, or remarkably acute, are liberal and candid. We perceive in them more of the gentleman writing at his eafe, than the scholar or the philofopher; though a vein of good fenfe and judicious obfervation runs through all of them. We will present the Reader with a general catalogue of their contents, and a few extracts, by which he may form fome idea of the entertainment he is likely to meet with in the perufal of the whole. Description of Copenhagen.-A sketch of the hiftory of the famous Revolution, with an account of the present military and naval establishments in Denmark.-An account of Danish finances-Taxes-Modes of levying them:-population, agriculture, and manufactures of Denmark.-The nature and extent of its trade; its foreign fettlements, &c.-Character and difpofition of the Danish nation.~[Afterwards follow eight letters on the genius and spirit of the nation, in a correspondence from a young ftudent at Copenhagen to his friend at St. Thomas's.] -The Author's arrival at Petersburgh:-The natural history of the country:-The commerce of the Ruffians; ftate of population, and revenues of the country:-Naval and military force:The legislation of Peter the Firft; its effects on the nation;his character.-Defcription of Petersburgh; inftitutions and improvements of the prefent Emprefs; comparison between her and Peter:-The national character of the Ruffians.-The Author's arrival in Switzerland; defcription of Bafle.-A tour through various parts of the country; defcription of Soleure and Bade.-Defcription of Zurich; of Einfidlen, or Notre Dame des Hermites.-The falls of the Rhine; defcription of REV. June, 1784. Gg Schaff Schaffhoufe; of Conftance; the Lake, &c. &c.; paffage of the Lac de Thun by moon-light; an account of the Glaciers; arrival at Rougemont.-Defcription of Sanenland, and the shepherd's life.-Reflections on the utility and abuse of foreign travelling.-Defcription of Bienne :-Anecdotes and letters of the famous Rouffeau; verfes [in French] on his death.-Journey from Bienne, through the famous Pierre Pertuis, to Pore tru, through the Munfterthal to Neuchatel.-Journey continued along the western track of the Jura.-Defcriptions of Laufanne and Geneva.-A fhort fketch of the Petit Cantons.-The various forms of the Swifs governments, particularly that of Berne, confidered. A general view of Switzerland.-The Alps.Agriculture and commerce of the Swifs.-A defcription of the Fête in honour of the Grand Duke and Duchess of Ruffia. The following exhibits a ftriking picture of an amiable and ufeful character, found among the fimple walks of mankind in Switzerland: My first day's journey ended at Langenaw, a fmall village about five leagues fouth-eaft of Berne; the road to it through a beautiful country, but which, probably, I fhould have taken upon credit, had not a more forcible attraction excited my curiofity. Near to it refides the famous Swifs Mountain Doctor, whom you have frequently heard mentioned under this title, and as frequently, I believe, ranked him in your list of quacks and impoftors. Poffibly you may fmile at my eafy faith, when I dare affert an opinion frongly in his favour. That he has the talent of difcovering all complaints, no one will be ridicu lous enough to affert; but that his fkill is useful in many cafes, those that have feen him ought, at least, to have the candour to allow. I have received the atteftations of many people, who have been relieved from their diforders; and the fifters of your friend, who are at this moment under his roof, will give you every fatisfaction with regard to his fagacity. But if we confider him as a friend to human kind, and allow that phyfic, like popery, has a great need of faith to fup. port its dignity, few of the faculty will be found more worthy of their profeffion. And if the most benevolent heart, the most difinterefted practice, and the bleffings of thoufands and ten thousands of peasants, who owe their health to his penetration, or their fortunes to his goodnefs, proclaim not the friend of humanity; where fhall we find that able physician, who, by virtue of his diploma, can.plead a better title, or that honeft one who follows the profeffion with fo much reat zeal for the welfare of his fellow-creatures? From a practice of fifty years, and an inconceivable flock of frangers that have conftantly reforted thither; his generofity has never fuffered him to amafs more than fufficient to leave his family independent. The whole of his fortune, except that which has portioned the eldest of three lovely daughters, is parcelled out in fmall fums to the neighbouring farmers, at a very low intereft; and though repeatedly offered, I am told, more advantageous terms, by the young heirs of Berne, he has conftantly refufed all their offers, and adhered to his first principle of promoting promoting industry, and encouraging the happiness of his peafants." brother The 22d letter contains an account of Zurich. As it is one of the fhorteft in the collection, and as full of entertainment and information (at leaf for the generality of readers) as thofe in which the Author hath been more copious, we will present it entire. If you are inclined to confult old mufty records, few towns will reward your researches fo well as that of Zurich. It prefents the history of mankind from the cottage to the council, and the efforts of perfonal freedom gradually extending the basis of public fecurity. As an Imperial city, it formerly enjoyed many privileges, till a quarrel between the magiftrates and people produced a civil war, that had nearly ended in its total extinction. After a ruggle of two years, however, in 1337 the magiftrates were banished, and a government was new-modelled under the fanction of the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria. By intrigues, and a pretended fubmiffion, the exiles were recalled; till, being again proved guilty of a confpiracy against the flate, most of them fell a facrifice to their treasonable attempts. This maffacre (which the jealoufy of freedom carried to too violent an excels) brought on them the refentment of the neighbouring nobles; and the Emperor Charles the Fourth, by a bad firoke of policy, refusing to affilt them, drove them into an alliance with the four cantons, Lucerne, Uri, Schwitz, and Underwald, on the principles of mutual defence. Albert, duke of Austria, foon found the difference between a brotherly attachment, and an alliance cemented on paper. The marching of troops met with no delays, and the fubfiftence of them no difficulties. The frequent fucceffes of their arms against him, infenfibly formed the grand Helvetic union: *This truly worthy character exifts no more. He died about two years after this Letter was written, and the honours that were paid to his memory are a proof of the truth of its contents. + The Reader will only find a few neceffary allufions to ancient points of history in the courfe of thefe Letters. Thofe who wish to be thoroughly acquainted with the interefting events of this extraordinary people, will be fully gratified in the perufal of their history, that Mr. Muller is now preparing for the prefs. The first volume, I find, is already tranflated into English, and will acquit me of the partiality of friendship, in pronouncing it to be one of the most elegant and interesting works Germany has yet produced. The few weeks spent in travelling with the Author, through various parts of his country, I fhall ever confider as one of the happiett periods of my life; and the greatest pleasure I fhall receive from the good reception of my trifling production, will be that of announcing the merit of this young man to more of my countrymen. 1 One Rudolph Brun was the principal leader of the popular party, and the letter he drew up with regard to the election and rights of magiftrates and people, the obfervance of which was fworn to, and authorised by his fellow-citizens, may be called the magna charta of their conftitution. Ggz Glaris |