time all thefe drafts were made, what remained for each foldier was hardly worth ftooping for!! Many refuted to take their fhares, and the whole, nearly, remained with Cortes. We were obliged to be filent, for to whom could we appeal for justice? Some at length took their shares at a hundred crowns, and then cried out for more; these men's mouths Cortes ftopped, giving privately a little to one, and a little to another, with promifes in abundance on condition that they kept themselves quiet. That which was allotted to the foldiers in Villa Rica went no better, as fhall be related in its place, and fuch was the refult of the divifion of Montezuma's treasure." P. 172.

(To be concluded in our next.)

ART. XI. Political Effays on Popular Subjects. 8vo. 142 pp. 2s. 6d. Chapple. 1800.

O numerous are the political writings which this eventful æra has produced, that fome, even of diftinguifhed merit and eminent utility, may efcape public notice; more efpecially when no name is prefixed to the publication. On fuch occafions it is the duty of a literary journalist to interpofe his influence, and by fetting the merit of fuch works in its juft light, to multiply the fafeguards of public order, and ftrengthen the defences of the conftitution. We have been led to thefe reflections, by the circumftance of our being ignorant who is the author of the work before us, and whether it has yet obtained any degree of celebrity. Yet we may fafely pronounce it to proceed from a writer of extenfive information and mafterly judgment; and fo excellent is the object of thefe Eflays, fo admirable is the chain of reafoning by which it is pursued, that they alone might fupply an antidote to the delufive and dangerous principles which have fo fatally fubverted many other states, and so reeently endangered our own.

In a well-written Introduction, the author states his motives

to be

"fimilar to thofe which have already given birth to many important productions of the prefs, and which, while the rest of Europe crouches beneath the dominion of a ferocious conqueror, or is overwhelmed by the torrent of his delufive principles, have, in this happy corner of the globe, aroufed the zeal, and animated the exertions of every friend to good government, focial happiness, and true religion."

To

To fhow that fuch exertions are still neceffary, he obferves,

that

"a large portion of difcontent, difaffection, and falfe opinion, still furks in the hearts of an active party in this kingdom, and that it is far from improbable that a numerous body of those who are warm in their oppofition to the politics of France, are actuated rather by a difguft at the evils which have attended the French revolution, than a full perfuafion of the infeparable connection between thofe evils and their prefent caufe, or a thorough conviction of the folly, the falfity, or the nefarioufnefs of the principles on which that Revolution was effected."

In this obfervation we perfectly coincide; and we confider every writer who endeavours to clear this milt from the eyes of his countrymen, as a benefactor to his country. The Effays themfelves are four in number. In the first are fome juft obfervations on first principles; in which the author, though he treats vifionary theories with contempt, recommends that ufeful part of metaphysical investigation, the ftudy of the human mind, and the human character, which forms the basis of all political knowledge." The science of Politics, he ob ferves, does not lie open to the obfervation of every fuper'ficial reafoner, nor fhould a set of difaffected adventurers be placed on a level with its ableft and moft venerable proficients." Here a very handfome and merited compliment is paid to the memory of Mr. Burke; whofe powers of genius, whofe depth of erudition, whofe luxuriance of fancy, whofe extent of knowledge, whose ardent and perfuafive eloquence, whose rich and fublime compofitions, whofe predictive fagacity, and whofe religious zeal, will live", fays this writer," in the remembrance of the wife and good, when all his failings and imperfections shall be buried in oblivion." But it is time to advert to the more important parts of this work; which are contained in the fecond and third Effays. In the former, he examines most of the popular doctrines on the fubject of Liberty; namely, "That the establishment of liberty alone is the proper end and defign of government."-"That the right of government depends, at all times, on the will of the governed." That it is the refult of a compact betwen the rulers and the people, in which the latter ftipulated for advantages as the price of independence, (with other correfponding princi ples)" and, in fhort," that no man is equitably governed, unlefs he be governed by his own confent." The arguments by which thefe doctrines are oppofed, are (in our opinion) fo juft in themselves, and fo well enforced by this writer, that we cannot give a better fpecimen of the work than by inferring a part of them in his own words:

What

"What doctrine, in troth, can be more abfurd than that which makes the right of government depend entirely on the will or opinion of the people? The affertion is abfolutely incompatible with the fubject of which it is predicated. Government means nothing, if it do not mean contfoul on the actions, and, confequently, on the wills, of men; and, without paufing in this place, to enquire how the will of the people is to be known, whether in a divifion of fentiment the opinion of the majority ought to be obeyed; whether the difapproving minority would not, by this principle, be juttly emancipated from all reftraint; and, in fhort, without putting more of thofe numerous queftions, whofe anlivers mult inevitably operate as a reduélio ad abfurdum, it is evident, as a general truth, that government could not fubfiit for a week, for a day, for an hour, if it were rendered fubfervient to the wills of thofe whom it is inftituted to direct. There could then be no fettled conftitution, no established laws, no accumulation of wifdom, no deductions of experience, no ftability of adminiftration, no fecurity of property, nor any of thofe various advantages which government ought to produce in human fociety.

On the fuppofition of a compact between the people and their rulers, it is neceffary that the terms, on each fide, fhould be nicely balanced and defined, and that the independence, or favage powers, to be furrendered by the one, fhould be accurately bartered for the advantages to be enfured by the other. Such an agreement is more connected with fiction than with reality: it is more fuited to the poet than the historian. Where an actual compact, preferibing the mode of govern. ment, and the limits of obedience, can be proved to exift from the aċknowledged principles of a conftitution, and the exprefs letter of its laws, it may, indeed, be confidered as an admirable guardian of the freedom and happiness of a people; but in an abftract cafe, fuch as is here fuppofed, and fuch as is always affumed by metaphyfical writers, the sompact is not quoted from the preamble, nor the fection, of a statute; it is not brought forward in an embodied form; it is left to be inferred only from the fuggeftions of theory; and the terms of fuch an imaginary contract cannot poffibly be understood and explained, without a refe rence to fone common and predominant principle, of fuch as the general good of the community. But where the laws are filent, opinions will vary refpecting this general good, and every one deprived of that liberty which he has been taught to confider as original in himfelf, will neceffarily complain that, in his own cafe, the terms of the compact have not been fulfilled. If a difference of fentiment then arife between the people and the government, which is to decide, or who is to be the umpire between them?

"Suppofing, however, merely for argument's fake, we admit the exiftence of an implied compact in the infant ftate of a political fociety, fuch a covenant would be geed and binding enly between the parties who contracted at the time, tha is, between the individuals who firft formed the affociation, and the governors who were appointed over it. But as thefe individuals are perpetually changing in cumber, and varying in perfon, the neceiflity for new compacts will be perpetually arifing; for, according to another doctrine of the fpeculative philofophers, the -progenitors could claim no right to impofe an obligation on their fuc

ceffors:

ceffors: and, even on the hypothefis that both parties continue the fame, a difagreement may fpring up among the people: a part may be perfuaded that the original contract has been broken, while another part is fatisfied that it is ftill preferved. On this fuppofition, fhall the difcontented portion be deprived of their liberties, merely because the reft of the people do not agree with them in fentiment; or, fhall a part of the contracting body have a power of annulling the compact which was entered into by the whole "P.

After proving that these tenets are net merely abfurd in theory" but falfe in fact," he alfo fhows how pernicious they are in their confequences. "While they lie dormant as the ories, they inflate the mind with pride, and flatter the paffions which require. controul; they excite difaffection to established government, loofen the ties of allegiance, and degrade the vie tues of loyalty and fubmiffion; and when attempted to be re duced to practice," they "break down the barriers of restraint," and. involve the world in bloodthed, confufion, and anarchy."

The writer, having thus fhown that liberty is not to be confidered as "the chief object of government," proceeds to point out the principle to which it ought to be fubordinate, and the extent to which it should be incorporated into every political fyftem:"

This principle he states to be "the public good, or the ge neral happiness of the community," and from many just obfervations which follow, on the nature and condition of man, he deduces these confequences; that "reftraint is the firft and most effential quality of government," and that " the freedom which conduces to happiness, regards restraint as her parent and friend," provided that reftraint be directed to its proper object, the public good."-"Freedom" therefore, he concludes,

is one of the qualities of government, admitted as a mode of accomplishing its ultimate object, the general happiness of the community; but it must ever be fubordinate to the firt principle of all government, exterior rettraint; it must be founded on law as its only folid bafis, and must be confiftent with virtue, as the fole means by which it can be truly relished, and ufefully employed." P. 51.

Having given fo full an account of the fecond Effay as, we truft, may imprefs our readers with a juft idea of the book in general, we fhall be more brief as to the two remaining branches of this work; although they will be found equally, worthy of attention. The object of the third is to prove, that both species of democratic government (namely, the direct, when the whole nation are fuppofed to enact laws, and the indirect, when they are reprefented by delegates) are founded on a falfe principle; that Both are impracticable with a clofe adherence to that principle on which they profefs to be founded; and that, if either could

be

be carried into execution, it would be productive of the very evils which government is defigned to prevent." The author's arguments as to both thefe forms of democracy are, we think, conclufive; but we especially recommend his remarks on the representative fyftem; fince, to the best of our judgment, they completely overthrow the doctrine, which Paine and others have maintained, that reprefentation is a cure for all the evils of a popular government. The principle enforced in this part of the work is, "that almoft all the evils attributed both to fimple and reprefentative democracy, apply to it only as an original and independent power; whereas all its advantages, like thofe of liberty, are to be afcribed to its fubordinate itation in the fyftem of government." This doctrine is admirably illuftrated and applied, fo as to demonstrate the excellence of the British Conftitution.

In the fourth and laft Eflay, the oppofite tenets maintaine ed by Whigs and Tories, at different periods of our hiftory, are clearly and fairly ftated, and the degree of danger refulting from the extreme of either opinion pointed out. Among other errors, that which afferts" the fovereignty of the people," is expofed by reafonings, which it would, in our apprehenfion, be difficult for the ableft champion of that doctrine to anfwer. Little difagreement, he thinks, can remain on this subject,

between thofe virtuous characters who are equally attached to the component parts of our government." An animated exhortation to fupport the king, religion, and constitution of the kingdom, concludes.

From the view we have taken of thefe Effays, we truft they will appear to merit not only the attention of those readers who feek to gratify tafte by the perufal of ingenious and elegant compofitions, but the diligent ftudy of all who with to acquire the foundeft principles of government in general, or to maintain unimpaired in their minds a veneration for our happy eftablishment; that establishment, which has long been our pride, and has, on fo many occafions, proved our fafeguard against the oppofite evils of abfolute power, and ftill more fatal anarchy.

ART. XII. Sotheby's Tranflation of the Georgics.

(Concluded from vol. xv, p. 670.)

IN proceeding with a comparative criticifm on Mr. Sotheby, and the tranflators who have gone before him, the next paffage which we fhall felect, as the fubject of comparison

fhall