son who published it. The earliest census of Peru was made in 1575, when the population of the present viceroyalty amounted only to 1,500,000 souls; which is certainly not greater, and probably less, than the present number of its inhabitants. It is consolatory to find, by such conclusive evidence, that the havoc made by Europeans in the new world is so much less than has been represented.

The Mexican Indian is grave, melancholy, and silent, unless when he is under the influence of spirituous liquors. He affects an air of mystery in the most unimportant transactions; and no expression is to be seen in his countenance, of the most violent passions that agitate him. He has more energy of character, but less mildness of disposition, than the Indian of Peru. Like all enslaved nations, he is obstinately attached to his antient customs, manners and opinions; and, though converted to Christianity, his change of religion is more apparent than real. He seems to be destitute of imagination, and to have little feeling; but, when properly educated, he shows an aptitude for learning, a clear head, a logical and acute understanding. He has a particular turn for painting, and carving in wood and stone; but, even in these arts, he displays rather a talent for imitation, than genius for invention. His national music is mournful and melancholy; and in his national dances, the men are the only performers, while the women stand by, and help them with pulque. This gravity of character is remarkable even in Indian children of four or five years old.

The Indians are, in general, excessively poor; and none of them are to be found in possession of moderate fortunes. But there are some who, under the appearance of great wretchedness, conceal very considerable wealth. M. Humboldt enumerates several families worth, each, from 800,000 to 1,000,000 francs. Whenever they live in separate communities, and are governed by magistrates of their own nation, they suffer grievously from oppression. In every Indian village, there are eight or ten individuals who live in idlenesss at the expense of the others, and, on pretence of the nobility of their birth, assume an authority, which serves merely to keep the rest of the village immersed in ignorance and prejudice. These caciques are often the only Indians of the village who understand Spanish.

The Indians and other casts are too much in the power of the inferior Spanish magistracy. During the system of repartimiento, the Alcaldes Mayores used to reckon on gaining from 30,000 to 200,000 dollars during the five years of their government, by the usurious bargains which they forced upon the Indians. The Subdelegados, who have succeeded to the Alcaldes Mayores, are pro

G 3

hibited

hibited from engaging in any species of commerce; but, having no salaries, and subsisting by the fees which they derive from the casualties of justice, they employ their ingenuity and authority in exciting lawsuits among those who live under their jurisdiction, and give, for money, the most iniquitous judgments. The proper remedy for this abuse would be, to give salaries to the Subdelegados, and take from them their present fees. The Indians have no remedy against the injustice of these magistrates, except the interference of the priests, who are therefore in a state of constant enmity with the Subdelegados.

Another abuse from which the Indians are without protection, is the misapplication of their public funds. Every Indian village has a piece of common land, which is cultivated by the labour of the community, and the produce paid into a public fund. Out of this fund, and not out of the tribute, as represented by Robertson, advances ought to be made for the relief of individuals, or of the whole community, when they have suffered from bad seasons, or other calamities. But, in consequence of an order from the government, which prohibits such advances from being made, without permission obtained from the high court of treasury at Mexico, these funds have ceased, in fact, to be any longer applied to the uses for which they are destined. When an application is made for relief to the Subdelegado, a report must first be made to the treasury; and an inquiry follows, which, after much expense and trouble, is seldom, if ever, brought to a termination. So completely have these public funds ceased to be considered as applicable to their original destination, that in 1798, the intendant of Valladolid collected from them a sum of one million of livres, and transmitted it to Madrid as a patriotic donation from the Indians to their Sovereign.

We have extended these extracts to a greater length than we originally intended, on account of the rarity as well as expensiveness of the work from which they are taken. We should be glad to see a translation of M. Humboldt's book into English; and we are persuaded it might be published for one fifth of the price of the original, which has been made most unnecessarily splendid, and most exorbitantly dear.

ART. V. The Speeches of the Honourable Thomas Erskine (now Lord Erskine), when at the Bar, on Subjects connected with the Liberty of the Press, and against Constructive Treasons. Collected by James Ridgeway. 2 vol. 8vo. pp. 854. Ridge

way, London.

WE

1810.

E regard the publication of this collection as an event of great importance, both in a literary and political view.

The

The orations which have been given to the world in modern times, under the sanction of the person who delivered them, or in such a manner as to secure a tolerable share of correctness, are lamentably few. Perhaps Mr Burke's are the only speeches of note which have been printed in an authentic shape, in an age teeming with orators, and, though prolific of much bad eloquence, adorned by some of the greatest geniuses that ever practised this divine art. When we consider how great the difference is between antient and modern eloquence,-how much of that which peculiarly marks the latter was utterly unknown to the antientswe mean, the extemporaneous reasoning and declamation known by the name of debating,-and when we reflect how much more adapted this talent is to the business of real life than the elaborate and ornate compositions of antiquity,—we cannot fail to lament, that almost all our great masters of the art have died, without leaving a trace of their genius behind them; and that if, unhappily, the free constitution of England were destroyed, the speeches of Mr Burke alone would leave to posterity any means of conjecturing what powers had been exerted to avert its fate. To those immortal specimens of modern popular eloquence, must now be added the most perfect examples of the eloquence of the Bar which are to be found in any age; for the volumes before us both collect and preserve the fugitive publications of Mr Erskine's speeches formerly in circulation, and add, in a correct and authentic form, several which had been most scantily and inaccurately reported.

These volumes, which we rejoice to learn will be followed by another, embrace the most celebrated speeches, from the case of Captain Baillie in 1779, when Mr Erskine, in the very outset of his brilliant career, astonished the legal world with a display of talents, which was outshone, indeed, but not obscured by his own. riper efforts, down to his celebrated defence of Mr Perry in 1793, when, having long stood unrivalled among English lawyers for eloquence, for skill and conduct, for knowledge of the constitutional law of the realm, and for dauntless love of liberty, he put forth his matured genius with a power that carried every thing before it, and bore down the utmost efforts of the court against the independence of the British press. The speeches are twelve in number; and they are prefaced with such explanations of the subjects, extracts from the pleadings, and reports of the speeches of the Crown lawyers to whom Mr Erskine replied, as serve to render the matter of them perfectly intelligible to every reader. Where it is of importance, the address of the judge to the jury is likewise inserted; and many anecdotes which occurred at the trials are added, with the verdict,-motions in arrest of judgment,

and conversations at delivering the verdict,-where any thing of this kind took place. The prefatory statements are very well, and, as far as we happen to know, very faithfully executed. We have understood, that the public is indebted for them, and indeed for this publication, to a gentleman of the profession. Mr Erskine himself, we believe, revised many of his speeches at the time of their original publication-at least we have heard so, and, from the character of accuracy which they here bear, we are inclined to believe the report. By rather a singular omission in so careful a compilation, no tåble of contents is given to these volumes. We shall therefore give a list of the speeches contained in them. The first is that in Captain Baillie's case, in the Court of King's Bench. Then follows the speech for Carnan, at the Bar of the House of Commons, against the monopoly of the two Universities in printing almanacks. Next come-the famous speech for Lord George Gordon at the Old Bailey-the speeches for the Dean of St Asaph, at Shrewsbury assizes, at the motion in the King's Bench for a new trial, and afterwards in support of the rule, with a note of his speech in arrest of judgment, in the same noted case. These close the first volume. The second begins with the speech for Paine; after which comes the speech, rather more popular at the time, against the publisher of the Age of Reafon-and which finds a place here fomewhat ftrangely, as it was not delivered for years after the period where these volumes end, and fhould have come into a fubfequent part of the publication. The fpeech in Stockdale's cafe follows; and then those for Meffrs Froft and Perry; with which the fecond volume concludes.

In thefe volumes, we have a complete body of the law of libel, and a most perfect hiftory of its progrefs, down to the libel bill of Mr Fox, which owed its origin, indeed, to the doubts and difficulties that arofe during the profecution (is there not an error in the first fyllable?) of the Dean of St Afaph. The argument on the rights of juries, as connected with that cafe, affords the clearest expofition of the subject, and is, in itself, by far the most learned commentary on the nature of that inestimable mode of trial, which is any where to be found. Mr Fox's bill is merely declaratory of the principles, which were laid down in this argument with unrivalled clearness, and enforced with a power of reasoning which none. ever denied to this great advocate, except in the moment when, dazzled by the aftonishing powers of his language, they were tempted to fancy, that fo rare a union of different qualities was not in nature; and to doubt whether such eloquence and fire-so lively an imagination, and fo great warmth of paffions, were com

patible

patible with the faculties of clofe reasoning and nice difcrimination. As connected, then, with the hiftory of jury trial-as laying down its principles-as furnishing the groundwork of Mr Fox's famous bill and as having, in point of fact, given occafion to that bill, we view the fpeeches for Dean Shipley, which contain a most complete hiftory of that cafe, as the most important part of this collection. We need fcarcely add, that the trial by jury is here only viewed in its relation to the law of libel; but, to adminifter this law, is, beyond all comparison, the most important office of juries,-the one in which the excellence of that inftitution is moft confpicuous and indifputable, and, independent of which, the objections to it would be neither few nor light. Of the fpeeches now defcribed, we purpofe to fay nothing more at prefent: they are fo well known, and fo often referred to, that we need not dwell upon them in this place.

In the importance of the occasion, and of its consequences to the liberties of Englishmen, we cannot hesitate in placing the defence of Lord George Gordon in the next rank. This great speech, and the acquittal which it secured to the object of it, were the deathblow of the tremendous doctrine of constructive treason. Lord George Gordon's, indeed, may be called the Case of Constructive Treasons; and, after its decision, that engine of oppression lay at rest for a series of years; till the season of alarm, which, with all other monstrous and unutterable things, arose out of the French revolution, seemed to furnish a fit opportunity for reviving the times of legal oppression, and injustice under colour of law. In that inauspicious era, this most perilous doctrine once more found, in the same consummate advocate, an enemy so irresistible, that again it utterly failed, though brought forward with every chance in its favour, from the temper of the timesthe power of the Crown-the madness of the country-the folly of the mob, and the talents of Mr Erskine's political enemies and professional rivals. We shall have an opportunity of contemplating this, the greatest of all his victories, with more advantage, when the speeches in 1794 are added to the collection. At present, our attention is confined to the defence of Lord George Gordon.

From this we are unable to extract any passages which can give a just notion of its character and high merits; for these consist, not in dazzling sentences, nor in particular bursts of eloquence, but in the close texture of the whole argument, both where Mr Erskine lays down the principles of treason-law,-skilfully adapting them to his purpose, by bringing forward such parts chiefly as suit his case, and illustrating them by a reference to circumstances like those he had himself to deal with, and where he more particularly