ENERGY AND EXCESS-NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 33

ENERGY AND EXCESS.

THE governed soon learn to distinguish between sys tematic energy and the excesses of casual and capricious cruelty; the one awes them into submission, the other rouses them to revenge. — [E. R. 1803.]

TURKISH REFORMS.

WHAT is become of all the reforms of the famous Grazi Hassan? The blaze of partial talents is soon extinguished. Never was there so great a prospect of improvement as that afforded by the exertions of this celebrated man, who, in spite of the ridicule thrown upon him by Baron de Tott, was such a man as the Turks cannot expect to see again once in a century. He had the whole power of the Turkish empire at his disposal for fifteen years; and, after repeated efforts to improve the army, abandoned the scheme as totally impracticable. The celebrated Bonneval, in his time, and De Tott since, made the same attempt with the same success. They are not to be taught; and six months after his death, everything the present Capitan Pacha has done will be immediately pulled to pieces.-[E. R. 1803.]

NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS.

THERE are goîtres out of the Valais, extortioners who do not worship Moses, oat cakes south of the Tweed, and balm beyond the precincts of Gilead. If nothing can be said to exist pre-eminently and emphatically in one country, which exists at all in another, then Frenchmen are not gay, nor Spaniards grave, nor are gentlemen of the Milesian race remarkable for their disinterested contempt of wealth in their connubial relations. -[E. R. 1803.]

D

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TENACITY OF IGNORANCE. THE AFRICANS.

TENACITY OF IGNORANCE.

Ir must be a general fact, at all times, that gross ignorance more tenaciously adheres to a custom once adopted, because it respects that custom as an ultimate rule, and does not discern cases of exception by appealing to any higher rule upon which the first is found.[E. R. 1803.]

PROVIDENTIAL INTERFERENCE.

THERE is something so natural, and so closely derived from human governments, in the notion of the immediate interference of Providence, that mankind are only weaned from it by centuries of contradiction and discussion.-[E. R. 1803.]

AFRICAN SUPERSTITIONS.

THE desire of penetrating into futurity, and the belief that some persons are capable of doing it, is as difficult to eradicate from the human mind, as is the belief in an immediate Providence; and consequently, the Africans not only have their ordeal, but their conjurors and magicians, who are appealed to in all the difficulties and uncertainties of life, and who always, of course, preserve their authority, though they are perpetually showing, by the clearest evidence of facts, upon what sort of foundation. [E. R. 1803.]

AFRICAN LITIGATION.

THE Africans are very litigious; and display, in their lawsuits or palavers, a most forensic exuberance of images, and loquacity of speech. Their criminal causes are frequently terminated by selling one of the parties

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AFRICAN MERRIMENT.-FORBIDDEN MEATS.

35

into slavery; and the Christians are always ready to purchase either the plaintiff or defendant, or both; together with all the witnesses, and any other human creature who is of a dusky colour, and worships the great idol Boo-Boo-Boo, with eleven heads. — [E. R. 1803.]

AFRICAN MERRIMENT.

THE Pagan African is commonly a merry, dancing animal, given to every species of antic and apish amusement; and as he is unacquainted with the future and promised delights of the Arabian prophet, he enjoys the bad music, and imperfect beauty of this world, with a most eager and undisturbed relish.-[E. R. 1803.]

BLACKS AND WHITES.

THE Ashantees believe that a higher sort of God takes care of the whites, and that they are left to the care of an inferior species of deities. Still the black kings and black nobility are to go to the upper gods after death, where they are to enjoy eternally the state and luxury which was their portion on earth. For this reason a certain number of cooks, butlers, and domestics of every description, are sacrificed on their tombs.-[E. R. 1803.]

FORBIDDEN MEATS.

THE Ashantees please their gods by avoiding particular sorts of meat; but the prohibited viand is not always the same. Some curry favour by eating no veal; some seek protection by avoiding pork; others say, that the real monopoly which the 'celestials wish to establish is that of beef and so they piously and prudently rush into a course of mutton.-[E. R. 1803.]

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USES OF CONQUEST.-AMERICAN CHARACTER.

USES OF CONQUEST.

NOTHING in this world is created in vain: lions, tigers, conquerors, have their use. Ambitious monarchs, who are the curse of civilised nations, are the civilisers of savage people. With a number of little independent hordes, civilisation is impossible. They must have a common interest before there can be peace; and be directed by one will before there can be order. When mankind are prevented from daily quarrelling and fighting, they first begin to improve; and all this, we are afraid, is only to be accomplished, in the first instance, by some great conqueror. We sympathise, therefore, with the victories of the King of Ashantee—and feel ourselves, for the first time, in love with military glory. The ex-Emperor of the French would, at Coomassie, Dagwumba, or Inta, be an eminent benefactor to the human race. [E. R. 1823.]

THE AMERICAN CHARACTER NOT HEROIC.

THE Americans are a brave, industrious, and acute people; but they have hitherto given no indications of genius; and made no approaches to the heroic, either in their morality or character.

Their Franklins and Washingtons, and all other sages and heroes of their revolution, were born and bred subjects of the King of England-and not among the freest or most valued of his subjects. And, since the period of their separation, a far greater proportion of their statesmen and artists and political writers have been foreigners, than ever occurred before in the history of any civilised and educated people. During the

AMERICA.-SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 37

thirty or forty years of their independence, they have done absolutely nothing for the Sciences, for the Arts, for Literature, or even for the statesman-like studies of Politics or Political Economy.-[E. R. 1820.]

WHAT HAS AMERICA DONE?

IN the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? or goes to an American play? or looks at an American picture or statue? What does the world yet owe to American physicians or surgeons? What new substances have their chemists discovered? or what old ones have they analysed? What new constellations have been discovered by the telescopes of Americans? What have they done in the mathematics? Who drinks out of American glasses? or eats from American plates? or wears American coats or gowns? or sleeps in American blankets? Finally, under which of the old tyrannical governments of Europe is every sixth man a slave, whom his fellow-creatures may buy and sell and torture?[E. R. 1820.]

SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.

THE great curse of America is the institution of Slavery of itself far more than the foulest blot their upon national character, and an evil which counterbalances all the excisemen, licensers, and tax-gatherers of England. No virtuous man ought to trust his own character, or the character of his children, to the demoralising effects produced by commanding slaves. Justice, gentleness, pity, and humility, soon give way before them. Conscience suspends its functions. The love of command-the im