The chapter begins with the character of the late 'Emperor, and as it is fhort, pointed, and comprehenfive, we fhall transcribe it.

During a certain period he was regarded, at leaft by the generality of obfervers, as a prince of fplendid talents and a virtuous propenfity. He had the appearance of comprehending and imbibing ideas of no common magnitude, and his heart, feemed alive to generous and liberal feelings. But it was not long that he put a deception upon mankind. The verfatility and inconftancy of his character foon found an opportunity to dif play itself. He prefents us with a copy of the emperor Caligula, without his atrocious cruelties. Reflefs, perturbed, and impatient, active to no end, mutable from a pure avertion to regularity, he was ever engaged in a thousand projects, each of which in its turn was destructive of its predeceffor, each of them deferted for fome new idea of a more fplendid and captivating fi gure, and not one through the whole courfe of his reign carried into complete execution.'

In the conduct of adminiftration refpecting Holland we begin to differ from our hiftorian, who is at no pains to conceal his bias. He fpeaks early of our forwardnefs to trample upon and deftroy the immunities and liberties of every country but our own.'-To the allied powers, Europe and Human Nature feem,' it is faid, to be indebted, not only for the deftruction and liberties of a celebrated and venerable republic, but for precipitating, at least as a fubordinate ftep in this tranfaction, a war' (between the Turks and Ruffians) which has already raged for three years, and cut off thoufands in its progrefs. To this work history will in future have recourse; at this fire the may light her torch; and the historian should have weighed with more accuracy what he faid. If the United Provinces had been erected into a monarchy; if their fields had been depopulated; if civil liberty had been crushed by the most odious defpotifm, this reprefentation would not have been more than the tranfaction deferved. In no inftance has this happened. The popular party had trenched on the executive power; the ftadtholder was virtually depofed; a foreign faction reigned, and let us afk Poland if, in fuch a fituation, internal peace, or external profperity, can enfue? In no material inflance is the conftitution of the United Provinces now different from that defcribed by fir William Temple, and which is one of the best examples of a limited commonwealth. If we look to the political part of the plan, let us ask what would be at this moment the fate of Britain, if fhe had not the alliance of Hol land; if the Turkish war had not been precipitated? Spain was to attack us in Nootka Sound; Tippoo Saib, in the fame VOL. LXX. Nov. 1790. Nn

moment,

moment, under the influence of France in India; the American fates* were to attempt to seize thofe forts which we still keep, because they have not fulfilled the conditions of the peace; France ftill affifting Spain, and the reftlefs Czarina, equally jealous of our establishments in the Pacific Ocean, and refentful at our refufing to grant her ambitious demands, might have joined her fleet to the enemy, or more infidiously wounded us by another armed. neutrality. That we are not now at the verge of a precipice more dangerous than in the most unsuccessful period of last war, is owing to the meafare which our hiftorian so keenly reprobates, and we may add to the minifter, whofe merits he is so anxious to obfcure. We can praise the spirit which dictated the following paragraph, without adding a word in commendation of the patriotifm of the hiftorian.

Impartial fpectators of this memorable event could not refrain from comparing, and the comparison was as painful as it was unexpected, the juftice and dignity of the cause of the republicans, with the feeblenefs of their efforts to refift an infolent and arbitrary conqueror. The committee of the armed burghers of Utrecht came to a refolution in the commencement of the civil war, importing their determination never to furrender their city, declaring that they would defend it till it was reduced to one undiftinguifhed ruin, rather than fuffer the enemy to find any thing in it upon which to glut his cruel vengeance, and that, when they could no longer refift, those who furvived the carnage would, if reduced to that extremity, fet fire to the four corners of the town before they abandoned their walls. In this declaration we acknowledge the genuine language of patriotifm. Had the Batavian partifans of freedom adhered to this glorious refolution, they would at the very wort have read a leffon of magnanimity to mankind, the impreffion of which in the prefent ftate of the European conflitution would have been indelible. But they would have done more than this. There is a folemn terror in the undaunted efforts of expiring virtue, from which the hireling minifters of arbitrary power would have fhrunk back confounded. We might have seen a fecond Leonidas arrefting the millions of Xerxes at the pass of Thermopyle. Other powers, France in particular, if that had been neceflary, could not long have witneffed the generous ftruggle in filence and inaction, and in fuch a caufe the ally, however embarraffed in finances and inaufpicious in its period of exertion, would questionlefs have been victorious.'

The account of the Turkish expedition againft Egypt, and the different events of the Ruffian contests with the Swedes and

We fpeak from pretty good authority; but the fituation of France has checked those who were in time to be informed of it; and perhaps ultimately brought on the peace.

the

the Turks, feem to be related with clearness, and as much accuracy as can be expected in narratives of events fo diftant, and, in general, fo irregularly detailed. The following character of the king of Sweden is accurately difcriminated: we believe it to be perfectly juft.

We fee, in the miscellaneous tranfactions of the Swedish campaign, the various and mixed character of Guftavus exhibited upon an interefting theatre. The defire of annihilating, by one spirited and adventurous blow the odious ufurpation of Ruffia was laudable and juft. But the king did not nicely calculate the different parts of his fyftem, and there is hardly one of his measures that might not have been better timed or more judicioufly executed. He had a great and animating caufe to plead against the czarina; but in his papers upon the fubject he mixes right and wrong, truth and falfehood together, and plainly imagines that fpecious fiction might be of as much fervice to him as ingenuous truth. His talents, his eloquence, his mild and amiable manners prepoffefs us in his favour. We cannot refufe our compaffion to a prince of a proud and independent fpirit, intrigued against by a foreign minifter, dictated to by a neighbour, betrayed by his fubjects, deferted by his friends, invaded without hoftility; unappalled by all these calamities, flying from one end of the kingdom to the cther, roufing the poorest of his fubjects to arms, penetrating through the midst. of the enemy, and appearing as it were by enchantment to arreft his infulting progrefs. But we feel the bitterest regret to find fuch a character full of error and imperfection, oppofing aristocracy, but grafping at defpotifm; tull of luminous conceptions, but ignorant of the value of truth and integrity; and, in all things guided, not by fevere and inflexible juftice, but by the precarious ebullition of a tranfitory feeling.'

The Domestic Tranfactions follow, and this period includes the important debates refpecting the regency. Our historian. feems to us the determined enemy of Mr. Pitt; and, as he differs from us, in the opinion we have offered on the conduct of parliament, at this time, we cannot be expected to praise him without referve. This was the part which we particularly alfuded to, when we faid, that paffion and prejudice feem not yet to have loft their influence on our hiftorian. He may perhaps retort, and we own that, in fuch an intereking scene, the paffions must be awakened; and, though we have with the utmost care guarded against prejudice, we mean not to fay that our author is wrong because he differs from us. Yet, from a decided advocate for liberty, for the powers of the people, we should scarcely have expected that an appeal to the reprefentatives of the people would have been condemned, in a cafe for which the conflitution had not provided, Our hiftorian blames Mr. Pitt allo

Nnz

a little

a little unfairly; for he argues on the effects of the limitations of the regency, as if they were to have been continued, though they were confeffedly and defignedly temporary.The history conclades with the prorogation of parliament; and it is executed with fingular ability, with perfpicuity and accuracy. We have followed it more clofely than ufual on this account; and, for the fame reason, we have reprehended what we thought erroneous; for the errors of an able hiftorian will be diffufely propagated, and received perhaps with undiftinguishing attention.

The different State Papers are collected with care, and the Occurrences, a circumftance which we believe we formerly omitted to mention, arranged with more precifion and accuracy than in any fimilar publication.

The selections are in general judicious; yet we must make one obfervation, by which we may probably incur the charge of inconfiftency and caprice. In the Poetical department, we formerly read with great pleasure fome original communications, and regretted that no compofitions of this kind occurred in the läft volume. At prefent thefe original pieces are very numerous. They conftitute more than one half of the Poetry; and, though we allow them to be truly beautiful, and in many inftances highly poetical, we would fuggeft to the editor, whether this department is not defigned to give a general view of the poetical works of the year, and of the merits of the different poems which have appeared in that period. If this be true, the plan is very imperfectly followed in this volume: the best fpecimens are not taken from the works published, and many excellent poems are paffed over without being honoured by a fingle felection. We are pleafed with the original communications, and could wish them to be occafionally continued: we object only to their being fo numerous as to prevent the Poetical department from containing those extracts, for which it was defigned.

The following fonnet to Melancholy, is in many respects admirable.

SONNET to MELANCHOLY.

Come, Melancholy, for I court thee ftill!
As erft come mutt'ring with a downcast eye!
Regardless of yon fplendid vernal sky!
Come and of anguifh let me take my fill,
Seize my whole bofom, there in fecret kill!
Far from the haunts of men with thee I'd fly,
Mature my grief, and when refolv'd to die,
Fell Suicide, obfequious to thy will,

Shall

Shall hafte with ftagg'ring step, and haggard look,
Her bowl well drugg'd, her dagger drench'd in blood;
She all in petuous no delay can brook,

But hurries on the deed in defp'rate mood;

To horrid acts woe-haunted minds are driv'n,

A wounded spirit needs the care of heav'n.'

The Domestic and Foreign Literature is conducted with the ufual ability, on the former valuable and comprehensive plan': indeed we hefitate not to fay, that as the period which this volume comprehends is more important than any other, fo the execution is, on the whole, preferable to that of the former volumes. To examine with care is a proof of our attention, for trifling works we pafs over with a lefs particular regard.

Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in certain Societies in London relative to that Event. In a Letter intended to have been fent to a Gentleman in Paris. By the ·Right Honourable Edmund Burke. 8vo. 55. Dodfley.

IF

F the late revolution in France affords a splendid and fascinating profpect to the idolater of liberty, the exceffes with which it has been attended, the hafty, varied, and indecisive conduct of the national affembly, and the contempt with which they have treated inflitutions ufually held refpectable, have pained the feeling mind, and difgufted thofe in whom the experience of near a thousand years had connected a monarchy and an established religion with every idea of dignity, reípect, and veneration. On this ground we may account for the difference in opinion which occurred in a parliamentary difcuffion, between two chiefs of oppofition, and feems to have occafioned the work before us. Liberty, it may be faid, cannot be bought too dear; and the fermentation excited in the struggle may defecate and meliorate the whole mafs. If exceffes of this kind were the neceffary and infeparable attendants on a revolution, we might perhaps be reluctantly led to join in this opinion; but our neighbours have shown that a revolution may be effected by the coolest, the wifeft, and best-conducted plans, and afterwards followed by the wildeft, the cruelleft, and most inconfiderate. Whatever, therefore, may be the refult of the calculation, after comparing the pofitive evil with the contingent good, we cannot hesitate a moment, indeed we fhould be groisly inconfiftent if we did fo, in joining with our very eloquent and able author. We mean not, however, to condemn the conduct of the French in every inftance, with him, or always to applaud inflitutions which he applauds. His tenderness, his humanity, his gallant, as in former inftances, hurry him away