large defcription of perfons to whom I have alluded (I mean thofe of our coafts), we fhall find them far, far indeed from following the example of the islanders of Pelew in the practice of the virtues of compaffion and hofpitality. It is certain that many laudable attempts have been made to reprefs the cruelty and rapacity of the lower orders of the inhabitants of the maritime counties by Gentlemen who are natives of, or refide in their vicinity: but, alas! for want of fufficient power to carry their benevolent defigns into effect, they have become odious to their neighbours; and, after having rifked their lives, and fuffered confiderable damage in their property, have been obliged to leave thofe barbarians until their crimes, call down the vengeance of Heaven upon their heads. In the mean time the fufferings of the diftreffed mariner, the mercantile loffes, and the depredations upon the revenue, demand the moft ferious confideration of Government; for it is unquestionably a reflection upon the general Police of the Empire, that the coafts of nations which are certainly entitled to hold the very first rank in the European fcale of learning and politeneís, are frequently difgraced by a fyfte matic kind of cruelty, which the moft ferocious favages, even when impelled by want, would hardly practise upon their enemies. It is true, we are, thank God! in the internal parts of this kingdom, uncontaminated by those rebellious, those murderous propenfities which have at tended the infamous career of the Gallic regicides from the hour that they drenched their facriligious hands in the blood of their excellent Monarch and his innocent family, and which have spread every fpecies of rapacity and devastation over a great part of Europe, Africa, and America; in fhort, wherefoever their arms have extended, or, what is ftill more to be dreaded, their principles have been introduced: thank God! that feveral of the heads of this infernal Hydra are ftruck off by the Herculean coalition, and are not likely to be reproduced: the

fnake is fcotched, and it is devoutly to be hoped near expiring; and it is also to be hoped that crimes unprecedented will meet with a punishment unprecedented in hiftory. But to return to the fubject more immediately before me: the repreffion of the enormities practised upon our coafts.

It will be probably faid, that the laws at prefent in exiftence are fully adequate to this task, if properly executed; but this propofition I must deny, except there was, what I fear in many districts there is not, a general concurrence of the inhabitants to fupport the Magiftrates and Officers of the Cuftoms, Excife, and Police, in the execution of their duty. That we have laws for the punishment of fmuggling, piracy, and murder, every one knows; and that the favages of Glamorganfhire very justly fuffered for deftroying the crew and plundering the veffel, as has been mentioned, is equally certain; but still there are many, very many cafes, where the arms of the civil power, however prompt and alert they may be, are not long enough to reach fome of the moft atrocious offenders in the zenith of their crimes; and the delay, occafioned by applying to diftant pofts for military affiftance, has been frequently fatal to the lives and property of many unhappy creatures, who, tempeftdriven upon our coafts, have rushed upon perdition, inftead of finding, what from our general character they must have expected, a happy afylum in the hour of their diftrefs.

But it is perhaps not entirely owing to the enervate itate of our Marine Police*, that crimes like those to which I have in the former part of this Treatife alluded, are fuffered to reign unchecked; nor is it, in my opinion, however serious and fevere the charge may be, entirely among the lower orders of the maritime inhabitants of these islands, that they originate. There is a nucleus or germ, from which most of thofe enormities fpring, which I fear has taken deep root in the minds of many, who from their

venue.

Situation

fituation in life ought to guard the public property with the fame care and attention that they do their own.

Inftead of which, I am forry from experience to obferve that much of the Coast Cruelty and rapacity arises from the encouragement given, even by perfons of large fortunes, to every attempt to defraud the revenue by illicit trade. The ready vent which fmugglers, nay even thofe that only affect to be fmugglers, find for their commodities, and the affiftance which the former must receive from perfons of property with refpect to purchafing, freighting their veffels, eluding the vigilance of the officers, and even in defperate cafes protecting them from the military, are well known.

We alfo know that there are inftances in our Fifcal records of the whole people of a town or village rifing in defence of a contraband cargo, and that the skirmish has ended in the defeat of even the foldiery, and the murder of the Cuftomhoufe officers, while the goods that had been the fubje&t of contention have been borne off triumphantly, attended by the houts and plaudits of the populace in every district through which they have paffed.

Were I to accufe my fair countrywomen of having, from inadvertence, been in fome degree the favourers of thefe outrages, they would perhaps revolt from the charge as unfounded in fact: yet it is nevertheless certain that their preferring the Parilian cut gloves to thofe of Worcester, Yeovil, or even thofe cut by a Parifian in London *; Bruffels or Mechlin lace to the fabrics of Buckinghain or Bedfordshires; ardently feeking for bargains of chintz, filks, coffee, tea, perfumes, and an endless catalogue of foreign luxuries; is certainly a ftimulus to the defperate adventurers in this illicit traffic though if my fair readers did but for a moment reflect that in the con

tention that probably arofe in endeavour ing to land fome of thofe commodities, innocent and valuable lives might have fallen a facrifice; that in purchafing these prohibited articles the laws are not only fet at defiance, but numbers of their ŸI fex, whofe livelihood depended upon the manufactories by them difcouraged, are driven to the utmost verge of distress, perhaps to feek their precarious bread in the streets, a prey to anguish, vice, infamy, and difeafe; I fay, when they reflect upon this, I fhould hope, from that liberality of fentiment and ardent benevolence which fo ftrongly marks the English female character, the rage for acquiring thofe tranfmarine fuperfluities and articles of drefs, &c. that in the opinion of their admirers rather eclipse than add to the brilliancy of their charms, would entirely ceafe.

The luxuries of our fex, upon which the fimugglers place their chief dependance, I mean brandy, geneva, tobacco, &c. &c. are perhaps fought for with still greater avidity than thofe I have already mentioned. Indeed the taxes upon them which perhaps Government meant, and in times of lefs commercial affluence and more economy would certainly have amounted to a prohibition, have rendered them peculiarly the objects of illicit traffic. For it is well known, that to the almost univerfal defire of inflaming their paffions with ardent fpirits, fo prevalent among the lower orders of fociety, many of the difeafes, much of the mifchief which we have to lament, and the immorality fo obvious in our streets, are owing †. It is well known that the daring and outrageous attempts of the fmuggler, the depredation of the midnight robber, the debauchery and immorality of the poor, and the barbarities practifed upon our Coafts, are ftreams from the fame fource. While thele intoxicating lures prefent themselves; while even fome

perfons

mentoufly the schemes of the libertine and the ftatefman, and the fairy expecta tions of felicity and grandeur, are blaited or deftroyed! How fome are circum vented by death, and fome by the treachery of man, while others refign the hopes of an intemperate imagination to the numbing power of decrepitude or age. He who is, in the prefent inftant, employing his intellectual powers to elucidate the understanding of others, in the next may be deprived of every capacity to inftruct, and want that reason himself, the ufe of which he before taught to his friends: "From Marlborough's eyes the ftreams of dotage flow,

"And Swift expired a driv'ler and a shew."

"I am now alive, and rejoicing in the vivacity of health; I am in the bloffom of youth, and in the summer of human life. Yet let me not prefume on fuch advantages, fince they are all dependent on the will of Heaven, and fubfervient to viciffitude and change; youth has no exemption from the invafions of mifery or the darts of death, and the fpirits which occafion my gaiety, may in a moment yield to the attack of innumerable natural diftempers, fink by depreffion, or languish by fickness: the health which now fluthes my cheek, and the tide which enriches my heart, are obedient to a capricious pulfe, which disease may alarm, pain enfever, and the extremities either of joy or frrow difcompofe. I am a being of complicated weakneffes : my paffions may counteract the deligns for which they were implanted; and my powers, by finking too meanly, or foaring too rafhly, may again mingle me with the earth.”

A man, fenfible of his own infufficiency, will not fuffer fuch arguments to be long abfent from his mind, they will recur to him as the falutary principles and exerciles of his duty; and, being improved into an habit, they will attend him to his pillow, and be called in to clofe the day.

In the moment of trial, when paffions enflame, defires felicit, and temptations

affail, the good man will refer to thefe for the power of refiftance, and gladly fhield his invaded virtues under their fanctuary.

In refpect of accident, however, that which we call fo is often the regular though myfterious defign of Heaven, and chance is the invifible order of Omni

potence: there is (in fact) no fuch thing as chance; it is an abfolute mifnomer in language; all is infinite contrivance, and immenfe direction. The Author of Nature has indeed concealed from the curiofity, or the impertinent defires of man, fuch myfteries of his Providence as his wifdom judged neceffary to fecure his felicity, to excite his industry, and awaken his apprehenfion; at the fame time he has bountifully revealed fo much of his plan as is requifite to evince the dignity and eternity of his nature, and fhew the importance of his creatures.

A

It is true he has denied us prescience, his own peculiar and facred prerogative, and in the refufal of this pre-eminence his benevolence is ftrongly seen. power of prophecy in man would perhaps be the most aggravated curfe of poffible perdition. What in nature (however pious our conduct or uniform our rectitude) could equal the terror of forefeeing the manner and the moment of our diffolution? to prognofticate the chance, by which the limb of a friend fhall be fhivered away; or to foresee the day when our babes fhall writhe in convul fions, or ourselves parch with an inflammatory fever; and when every dearer relative fhall fink under the fhocks of fome fatal distemper.

Let us for a moment inveft an human being with this diftrefsful fuperiority; and let us fuppofe him the father of a family; with what unutterable agonies does he groan? He can with certainty look forward to the fate and destruction of all his race: he forcees the time when his daughter fhall fall a facrifice to the delufions of the rake; his tender partner be confined for a feries of years to the chamber of difeafe; his fons plunge in diffipation, if not in debauchery; and himself expire, without leisure for a groan, in apoplectic anguish.

But, to prevent the horror of a scene like this, Providence has kindly thrown an impenetrable veil over all but the page prefcribed, our préfent ftate.

An univerfal uncertainty of human concerns is therefore entirely neceffary to remind us of our frailty, to alarm our attention to that folemn hour when every

work

work of this world fhall " be done away," and to limit the excurfions of our fancy, that, as we are ignorant how or when we fhall die, we may learn early to live a life of preparation.

Since then we are convinced, by more than the experience of a thousand years, that a moment may render ufelefs the toils of an age, and that the wing of fate may bruth every infignificance away, fuch convictions may point out to us the duty of exerting ourfelves, with refolute induftry, to perpetuate our memory, and leave for the ufe of pofterity fome laudable teftimonials of our genius, benevolence, or application. The fame certainty will alfo whifper humility to prefumption, and hope to diftrefs; for it perhaps often happens that infolent profperity is facrificed to fupply the deficiencies of modest

want.

There is no contemplation, at the fame time, fo foothing and ftupendous, as on the fecret and fupernatural means by which we are preferved from the crufh of furrounding difafters; efpecially, as from the exquifite mechanifm of our bodies, and the ftill finer formation of our fouls, it seems almost a miracle that

every ungentler motion does not relax fome organ of fenfe or spring of life, or that fome wheel in the natural machine is not trained into diforder. Yet, fuch is the nicety of our contexture, that we fee multitudes of thofe, who from their infancy have bathed their brows in drudgery, and encountered the storm and hurricanes of life, wearing out their ftrength in flow and gradual decay, till they fink at last, with the weight of years, in perfect fanity to the grave.

I do not know any thing which fo ftrongly marks the Divine character; for, as he has laid us open to the power of what muft of confequence appear to us under the difguife of accident, he has with equal beneficence fhielded us from them when it was confiftent with his plan to fpare.-It ought not therefore to be a means to frighten any man either from the pleasure or the business of life, because his being is held upon a precarious tenure, fince every circumftance paffes under the infpection of a Power that will not ftamp it with his facred fan&tion, unless his authority is fome way conducive to the general felicity of human nature.

DYONISIUS.

B'

EFORE the hand of Republican Power had levelled all diftinctions in France, and sunk the proudest families to the humiliating condition of the meanest peasant, in the gay neighbourhood of Versailles, the Marquis D'Embleville owned a fumptuous hotel, where he lived in epicurean luxury and princely fplendour. His mind poffeffed all the imperious vanity of the ancient regime and, placed by fortune at an awful diftance, he looked down upon the canaille as unworthy to hold with him a rank in the fame fcale of being.

His only fon Lewis, in the prime of youth, had made the tour of Switzerland: he had vifited every part of thofe wondrous regions, where Nature reigns in all her grandeur, and difplays to the enthufiaftic mind that fublime and majestic fcenery which attracts and gratifies the most unbounded curiofity.

So remote from the haunts of courtly pleasure so distant from the giddy circle 3

of high life he felt the impreffion of that tender passion, beneath whose controuling power mortals of all degrees are indifcriminately doomed to bow.

The object of his admiration was a lovely Swifs, fresh from the hand of Nature, in all the bloom of youth and beauty, like the mother of mankind, in the ftate of primeval innocence: honefty was the only wealth her friends poffeffed ;her charms and virtues were her only portion.

With this lovely maid Lewis had fought and cultivated an acquaintance. He weighed her mental graces against the frippery of Parifian belles, and with pleasure faw them greatly preponderate.

She felt the congenial paffion; but, from difparity of circumftances, fuppreffed the kindling hope. The shaft was fixed too deep in his bofom to be eradicated without lacerating his vitals! Although defpairing of fuccefs, he returned to his father, and on his knee befought him

Da