[France and Russia opposed to the emperor's demands.]

tries were most likely to have recourse, especially now that the fortresses on the barrier were demolished. Notwithstanding the affinity between the royal families of Vienna and Versailles, his most christian majesty made very pressing remonstrances to the emperor; he justified the conduct of the Dutch, and urged his imperial majesty not to persevere in violating these important rights, which were so solemnly secured; he hoped the emperor would desist from efforts, which would cause so general an alarm among his neighbours; and other powers would think themselves obliged to take such precautions and measures as circun.stances and events might require. The king himself must, in that case, be under the necessity of assembling troops on his frontiers, and could not, by any means, be indifferent to the fate of the United Provinces, nor see them attacked by open force in their rights and possessions. The remonstrances of France made no impression upon the emperor; he considered the free navigation of the Scheldt as an incontrovertible right, which was subject to no discussion or question. The Netherlands was fast filling with his troops, and winter only retarded hostile operations.

Great Britain observed all those proceedings with a watchful eye, but did not commit herself by any hasty declaration. The views of the British cabinet were great and extensive; it was planned to secure Holland from the aggressions of her neighbours, and to detach her from a connexion with France. This project, however, was then only in contemplation, being by no means fit for execution.

Britain was now recovering fast from the distresses of the war; trade was reviving; by the prevention of fraud the revenue was becoming much more productive; and industry and enterprise were again roused by the rekindled hopes of success. So lately drooping, this country now raised her head; a benignant season added to the improvements of her condition, and in present comfort the people soon forgot recent distress prospects of returning prosperity opened, and the people were satisfied with a government, whose measures they expected would greatly increase and accelerate private and public prosperity. The great demands of our distant possessions, precluded during the war from regular and sufficient supply, afforded a very large vent for the productions and acquisitions of British industry and skill. The Americans too, communication being again opened, eagerly flocked in quest of British wares, the superior excellence of which, compulsory disuse had only imprinted the more deeply on their minds. The restored islands of the West Indies furnished a considerable market for our commodities; the want of which, while under the dominion of our enemies, they had so sensibly felt. The settlements also which remained in our possession, had been but sparingly provided while hostile fleets hovered on their coasts, and not yet having fully recovered from the scourge of the hurricanes, called for a great portion of our merchandise. Of our foreign settlements, the chief vent after the peace was the East, in which the supply had not been by any means so liberal as the wants of British India required; but during this, and some years after the war, the outward trade of the company very far exceeded the usual periods of peace. Our commerce

This great and general benefit to skilful and judicious adventurers, as well as to the public, was attended with partial evil in the ruin of those traders, who did not distinguish the real nature of the case, and who confounded temporary with general causes. Finding that very large profits had been made by a variety

[Death and character of Dr. Johnson.]

with our late maritime enemies of Europe revived, although it was easily seen that systems might be formed, respecting every branch of trade, which would render them much more productive.

This year England lost one of the brightest ornaments that had graced her literary annals during a century, with which he was almost coeval. In December, 1784, died Dr. Samuel Johnson, in the 76th year of his age, after a long and tormenting illness, which he bore with fortitude and resignation, worthy of his other virtues. Literary history affords few instances of such a combination of intellectual and moral qualities as constituted the character, and prompted and guided the efforts of Samuel Johnson. An understanding perspicacious, powerful, and comprehensive; an imagination vigorous, fertile, and brilliant; and a memory retentive, accurate, and stored with valuable knowledge, were uniformly directed to render mankind wise, virtuous and religious. The most successful and beneficial exertions of this illustrious sage were exhibited in philology, criticism, biography, and ethics. On subjects of language, Johnson displayed science as well as knowledge; he not only collected usages, but investigated principles; applying and modifying general analogies, according to the circumstances of the particular cases, he extremely enriched the English tongue, and improved it in precision and force. The style which his precept and example formed, bore the stamp of his mind and habits, being less distinguished for elegance and delicacy, than for perspicuity and strength: his expression, however, was perhaps not the most useful as a general model, because its excellence depended on its conformity to his vigorous sentiments and thought. Since the time of Aristotle few have equalled Johnson as a critic, either in principles of estimation, or in actually appreciating defect and excellence. Surveying models rather than considering ends, many critics of distinguished acuteness and knowledge of literature conceived that meritorious execution consists in resemblance to certain celebrated performances: but these, justly and highly applauded, do not include every possible means of deserving applause. Disregarding mere usage and authority, Johnson followed nature and reason: in rating the value of a Shakspeare, he did not esteem the mode of Grecian arrangement the criterion of judgment, but the exhibited operation of passion, sentiment, and character, and its conformity to real life. He estimated works of imitation by their likeness to originals, combined with the importance of object and difficulty of delineation. As a biographer Dr. Johnson is unequalled; he indeed possessed the highest requisites for that important species of writing: he thoroughly knew the constitution and movements of the human understanding and will; was intimately conversant with the kind of circumstances in which his subjects acted; and the usual and probable operation of such causes: he completely knew their individual history, comprehended their character, and had the power of clearly conveying to others, and forcibly impressing, his thoughts, opinions, and conceptions. Though the most valuable ethics are diffused

of articles during the first voyages after the war, not a few of the company's officers in the shipping service, and their connexion at home, carried out investments of the same kind, until they glutted the market and lost their former profits, and from their misjudging eagerness of avarice completely defeated their own purposes and became bankrupts; but skilful and able traders continued to realize for

tunes.

[State of Literature and Science at his decease.]

through all his works, yet two of his productions are more peculiarly appropriated to these subjects. His Rambler showed more of man in his general nature, as he himself says of Dryden; his Idler, as he says of Pope, more of man in his local manners. His Rambler was the work of a profound, comprehensive philosopher; his Idler of genius and learning experienced in life: the former describes men as they always are, the latter as they then were in England. It may be easily and obviously objected to the political writings of Johnson, that they were by no means equal in either knowledge or wisdom to his other productions. A whig zealot might exclaim against the high church bigotry, theological intolerance, and arbitrary politics of this great man, as a tory zealot might depreciate Milton, because a puritan and republican; but the impartial observer, making allowance for human infirmities, will see prejudices and unfounded opinions totally outweighed by transcendent excellencies. The historian of the present reign, if he narrate the truth after balancing the good and the bad, must admit that few either lived or died in it of such great and beneficially directed wisdom as Samuel Johnson. Besides the vast accession of knowledge and instruction accruing to mankind from the individual efforts of this extraordinary man, his conversation and writings stimulated and formed many others to meritorious compositions. The disciples of the Johnsonian school, whatever might be their several diversities of ability and character, have written to promote religion, order, and virtue. Having made such important additions to the general mass of information and instruction, he taught by precept and example the most efficacious processes of reasoning, and the surest test of truth; he exhibited the close connexion between clearness of conception and precision of expression, and afforded materials and principles of thought and judgment, with directions and examples for estimating fairly, and conveying ideas and sentiments with clearness, force, and effect. Scholars of moderate talents, who neither evince depth of reflection, vigour of invention, or brilliancy of fancy, are now accurate composers, and competent estimators of literary merit. Through Johnson, respectable mediocrity of ability and learning has been prompted and enabled to direct its patient and industrious efforts to the useful purposes, not only of just criticism, but loyal and patriotic, virtuous and religious, inculcation. Perhaps, however, the literary efforts of Dr. Johnson may have been more beneficial to other writers, than to his own particular associates; from the latter, they come to the world tinctured with his particular prejudices; among the former, they have often diffused unalloyed portions of his general wisdom and virtue..

As the death of Dr. Johnson is an epoch in the literary history of the times, it may not here be unseasonable to give a short sketch of literary efforts at this period. The American war had produced a vast multiplicity of political pamphlets, of which, though the greater number were of only a temporary interest, yet some, from the ability of the writers, the importance of the principles, and the receptions of the doctrines, were of much more permanent consequence. Two men of considerable talents and high reputation engaging in this controversy, broached opinions of a very unconstitutional tendency: these were, doctors Richard Price and Joseph Priestley, gentlemen who from nature and study possessed the means of promoting, to a great extent, the benefit of society, were dis

[Drs. Priestley and Price--Betake themselves to politics.]

posed to use their talents for those meritorious purposes, and had actually employed them with very great success, in certain paths, to the good of mankind; yet were now active in exerting them in pursuit of objects, or at least in inculcating doctrines of a very injurious tendency to the existing establishments. With genius competent to any subject of literary or scientific investigation, and deeply skilled in calculation, Price had peculiarly distinguished himself by inquiries into population, and by financial research. Priestley, by his discoveries in chemistry, electricity, pneumatics, and subjects relative to these, had made valuable additions to physical knowledge and science, both for theoretical contemplation and practical use. These two philosophers were dissenters, and dissenters of a class which has generally carried dissent beyond theological opinions, and has incorporated politics. Men, at once able and ambitious, if they happen to find themselves in a minority, very naturally seek to render that minority a majority. In situations of peace by making converts, as in situations of war by making conquests, aspiring leaders seek power. From calculations and from chemical researches, doctors Price and Priestley betook themselves to politics, and to theological controversy, which was intended to minister to politics; adopted the visionary theories which the profound wisdom of Locke had not prevented from pervading his opinions in politics, with many of the hypothetical comments which had joined them in the course of the century: these they inculcated as the just conclusions of political wisdom, and the proper rules for political conduct. Besides the treatises already mentioned, they published various works, which refined on Locke's fiction of a social compact, and represented every system of government as necessarily bad, that had not originated in a convention of men assembled for the purpose of forming a constitution; consequently, as no existing government had been so constituted, concluding that every established polity was necessarily unjust. So far as these speculations were merely exercises of metaphysical ingenuity, they might be accounted innocent pastimes: but whether intended or not to be harmless, they certainly were not designed to be inefficient: they were most industriously circulated by the secondary instruments, which, in the literary as well as the political world, are in such numbers ready to repeat even the errors of conceived genius; and by the authors themselves, among those who were most disposed to take their assertions as arguments. Price, though constant in his principle, was more desultory and occasional in his operations; eminent in certain departments of learning, Priestley had attempted to grasp at every subject of human knowledge, and, in the midst of his endeavours at universality, directed his principal efforts towards one great object, the subversion of the ecclesiastical establishment. It is now obvious, by considering the whole series of his conduct, that he had early formed the design of overturning our hierarchy, which he himself afterwards acknowledged with triumphant exultation for the imagined success. Priestley appeared to have proceeded on the following principle: "I, and a minority of this nation, do not approve of any establishment, especially of the church of England, her constitution and doctrines, supported by the majority of the nation; as we, a smaller number with not more than our own proportion of ability and property, cannot agree with the GREATER NUMBER, we must make THEM agree with our VOL. VIII.-4

[Priestley attacks the Church. Opposed by Dr. Horsley.]

creed."* Seeking the downfall of the church, Dr. Priestley formed a plan, consisting of two parts; the first to attack the articles of her faith, the next the muniments of her establishment. The former part of his scheme, which was indeed preparatory to the latter, at present chiefly engaged his attention. For several years he had been strenuously labouring to overturn the Christian doctrine of the Trinity; this being an article of faith, which the greater number of Christians, and especially those of the church of England, deem essential to the gospel, and consequently to every establishment by which the gospel is cherished. An attack upon so fundamental a part of our religion, was by no means an impolitical movement; nor was it carried on without great dexterity. In adducing the common arguments of often exploded sophistry, his genius gave to triteness a colour of originality, and to superficial declamation an appearance of profound reasoning, which, on many even of those not borne down by the authority of his name, made a very strong impression. While the generalissimo of heresy was himself thus employed, he had distributed his officers and troops with great skill in different posts and positions, according to his knowledge of their ability, skill, and zeal for the cause. Our ecclesiastical establishment, however, did not want a defender, who was at once ardent, able, and well provided with the means of guarding the church against the assailant. Dr. Samuel Horsely brought an acute and powerful mind, disciplined and formed by science, and stored with general and theological learning, to support the faith which he had embraced, and the venerable body of which he was a member. The Unitarian controversy, which for several years maintained by misconstruing ingenuity, and re-assertion of often confuted argument; by obstinate iteration of sophistry on the one hand, and on the other, by plain interpretation, deductive reasoning, fair inference, and firm adherence to positions so founded; now occupied a great share of lettered efforts and attention.† Controversies arising from some parts of Gibbon's history were also very prevalent: the author, however, engaged little in the disputes; he was persevering in his able, learned, and approved work, in which, though the pious must disrelish the anti-christian tendency of several parts, and the acute may discover assertion without proof adduced to support favourite notions, yet every reader of judgment, comprehension, and philosophical and political knowledge, must allow that it is an illustrious monument of industry and genius, which lightens readers through the darkness of the middle ages, and exhibits man in various stages of declining society, until he terminated in barbarism, and, regenerating, began to return towards civilization. Another history had at this time just appeared, that embraced periods much better known to every classical reader; but though it recited transactions with which every literary man was well acquainted, it presented new and profound views, unfolded causes, and marked operations and effects, that even intelligent and profound readers had not before discovered. The philosophical pen of Fergusson rendered the affairs of the greatest people of

It must be admitted by any liberal friend of the church, on the one hand, that if Dr. Priestley conscientiously intended the temporal and eternal happiness of his countrymen, and not his own aggrandizement, he was morally justifiable; but a liberal dissenter, on the other hand, must admit, that all those whose opinion was different, whether moralists or statesmen, were equally justifiable in impugning his arguments and repelling his attacks.

The Reviews of these years had more than one half of their writings occupied either with this controversy, or the politics of the day.