tention to the viciffitudes of its hiftory and government. tion of Europe has been advancing in improvement and civilization, Poland appears to have been long ftationary; if it has not rather returned in a contrary progrefs. It would require both greater abilities and more leifure than fall to my fhare, to trace the operation of the various caufes which have concurred to produce these remarkablę effects. As, however, the fubject is interesting, and as it may tend to give you a more diftinct idea of the fituation of the country, I fhall endeavour to give you a fhort view of the principal circumstances which have deprived the republic of Poland of its wonted energy, and reduced it to the state of weakness in which it appears at the period of which I propose to give you fome account. Poland, in the changes it has recently undergone, and in the fituation in which it now appears, prefents an interefting fubject of inquiry to the philofopher and the politician. About a century ago, it was one of the most respectable powers in Europe. It now preferves little more than a nominal existence, as an independent nation. During the course of the prefent century it has exhibited an almost uninterrupted scene of diforder and calamity. Sometimes overrun and pillaged by foreign enemies, and generally distracted by internal diffenfions, peace and fecurity and fettled government have been almost unknown. Kings have been raifed to the throne, and precipitated from it. Conftitutions have been eliablished, and altered, and overthrown, and renewed. Some of its fineft provinces have been dismem-country have taken their rife. In bered; and foreign armies established in the republic, either to perpetuate its miferies, or to complete its fubjugation. The fituation of the country exhibits the most striking impreffions of thefe convulfions. The principles of diforder, long ago incorporated into the frame of the conftitution, have been matured and perfected by the habits of party diffenfion, heightened by religious animofity, and fomented by the infidious policy of the neighbouring ftates. Law and juftice have been filenced by the ftrife of faction, or overwhelmed by the preffure of foreign force. The people, reduced to the lowest state of degradation and oppreffion, have no interest in the meafures of government, and no incitement to induftry. The practice of felling the crown to the highest bidder has introduced an almost univerfal venality among the nobility. Amidst the violence of faction, honour and principle have been fwept away, and, while almost every na The nature of the Polish government is certainly the great fource from which the misfortunes of this fupport of this opinion, I begin with an historical sketch of the government of Poland, from which you will fee the weakness of the state keeping pace with what the Poles are pleafed to call the freedom of the conftitution, The firft part of the history of Poland, like that of moft other nations, cannot be confidered in any other light than as a mafs of fable, illuminated with fome fcattered rays of truth. Little, therefore, can be certainly known refpecting the origin of the Polish government. There are, however, feveral circumftances to direct our opinion. The description Tacitus has left us of the tribes from whom the Poles are moft probably defcended; the analogy of other northern nations, and the general tenor of the Polish hiftory, tend to prove, that the great body of the people enjoyed an high degree of freedom, as well as a confiderable influence on the measures of government. Altho? the fovereign power was generally con. continued in the fame family, there was no established rule of hereditary fucceffion. If a free election did not take place on every vacancy, the consent of the nation, expreffed in a general diet, was always neceffary to confirm the nomination of a fucceffor to the ducal dignity. While the government remained on this footing, the people were in fact free; and yet the fovereign power appears to have been fubject to no conftitutional restrictions. Neither the prerogatives of the Duke, nor the privi. leges of the people, were defined by pofitive law. Custom feems to have formed the only restriction to either. The fovereign carried his power as far as he thought he could depend upon the fubmiffion of the nation; and the people fometimes exerted their right of expelling a tyrannical mafter, and afferting their freedom by force. The government fubfifted for a confiderable time in this undefined ftate. We are only informed of two attempts, in the courfe of fome centuries, to introduce a better form of government. But as the Poles were not better acquainted with the fcience of legiflation at that time,than their defcendants appear to have been in later times, the expedients hit upon, produced none of the benefits expected from them; and the old government was, in both cafes, foon reftored. The first circumstance which tended to operate a permanent influence on the form of the government, and the condition of the people, was the practice of beftowing fiefs upon the feudal principles. This inftitution, faid to have been introduced into Poland about the year 820, invefted the feudal lords with a fpecies of authority over their vaffals, which was, eventually, the more fatal, as, in the days of ignorance, it was not thought neceffary to define it with much accuracy. The effects of the inftitu tion were not immediately felt; and confequently we may fafely conclude, that, in a state of fociety in which men are but little difpofed to inveftigate diftant confequences,they were not forefeen. The inftitution was therefore allowed gradually to incorporate itfelf into the conftitution. By the continued exercise of command, the nobles proceeded, by infenfible gradations, to regard the peafants under their jurifdiction as their property. The difficulty of refifting an authority which, being at firft but little felt, rofe into an abfolute dominion by flow acceffions and diftant encroachments, each of which, fingly confidered, was of little importance, by degrees broke the fpirit of the people, and difpofed them to unreferved fubmiffion. I confider the introduction of Chriftianity as another event, which, by tending to ftrengthen the power of the aristocracy, concurred to produce the changes which have fince taken place in the government. The Poles embraced the Chriftian religion about the year 964, when the spiritu al tyranny of Europe was at its height; and the defpotic principles of the Roman Catholic church were received along with the Roman Catholic faith. The apofties of this church, far from imitating the primitive fimplicity of their predecef fors, affumed, in their miffion, a tone of authority, fuitable to the high claims of their temporal head. Formerly, the Romish church formed through Europe one vaft body, whose general interests were the fame, in all its members; one fpirit pervaded and animated the whole. Prefumptuous from the powers they pretended to derive from the author of their religion, and proud from the veneration in which they were held by a fuperftitious people, they naturally coalefced with those who afpired to hold the reins of government. Artful and intriguing, they were indefati, uigable in their endeavours to extend the power of the church; and altho' from a collufion of interefts they might fometimes find it expedient to crush a tyrant, yet the principle of tyranny entered too deeply into their character to allow them to oppofe ufurpations in which they themselves had fo great a share. No fooner had they established themselves in Poland, than they found themselves placed in a fituasion highly favourable to their ambitious views. From either the piety or the folly of the kings and nobles, the higher clergy foon faw themselves poffeffed of ample territories, invefted with all the privileges of the nobility, and, in fome cafes, with a more extenfive authority than any other fubject could claim. While, therefore, their territorial jurifdiction gave them the fame intereft with the nobility to encroach on the rights of the peasants, the blind veneration attached to their character facilitated their ufurpations. The facred phalanx, well trained to fubordimation, feconded with all the fervour of holy zeal, the views of their leaders; and thus the domineering fpirit of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, concurring with the arbitrary principles of the feudal fyftem, gave an eafy victory to the clergy and nobility over the liberties of the people. While implicit obedience was enforced by the horrors of damnation, as well as by the dread of temporal punishment, no effectual oppofition to the tyranny of the ariftocracy could be expected. The people firft felt the confequences of thefe inftitutions in the extinction of their political privileges. They were excluded from the diet of election; the nobility and clergy referving to themfelves the fole right of regulating the fucceffion to the fovereignty. The abridgment of per fonal liberty quickly followed the lofs of political confequence. Op preffions were multiplied. A variety of vexatious claims were, from time to time, established against them. They were gradually deprived of the rights of men, as well as thofe of citizens. The law was too weak, or too corrupt, to afford them relief; and they funk into a state of servitude, from which they have never fince emerged. Attempts have, indeed, been made to restore them to the protection of law, and the rank of freemen; but thefe attempts have hitherto failed of fuccefs. Towards the close of the twelfth century, Caffimir the Second endeavoured to reprefs the tyranny of the aristocracy, and to fecure the perfons and property of the peasants; but the influence of his regulations, as it arofe chiefly from his perfonal character, produced only a tranfitory alleviation of the grievances of the people. The oppreffions he attempted to remedy arofe, on the other hand, from caufes which were permanent, and inherent in the conftitution. Accordingly, no fooner had the death of this amiable monarch removed the restraint of his author?ty, than the anarchy and violence of the aristocracy broke out with renewed fury. The pride of the moft. turbulent of the nobility was offended by this attempt to fet bounds to their ufurpations; and this circumftance, joined to the uncertain ideas entertained concerning the right of fucceffion to the fovereignty, split the nation into factions. Hence arofe a train of civil wars, which convulfed the ftate with only occafional intervals of tranquillity, till towards the middle of the fourteenth centu ry. At this period, arose Caffimir the Great, to whose abilities, Poland ftill confiders herself much indebted. As the reign of this prince forms a remarkable æra in the Polish annals, allow me to sketch the leading fea tures of the constitution at his elevation to the throne in 1333. There There were, at this period, no writ ten laws in Poland. There was no determinate order of fucceffion to the crown. The fovereign, indeed, generally appointed his fucceffor, but this appointment was not always refpected. The nobility always exercifed the right of confirming their fovereign's nomination, if they did not claim the privilege of a free election. When different competitors appeared, as was often the cafe, the right of the strongest was generally found the most reafonable. The prerogatives of the crown were not yet defined; but the king was often obliged to confult the fentiments of the nation, before he adopted his measures. Caffimir himself, though one of the ableft monarchs that ever held the Polish fceptre, was, on feveral occafions, under the neceffity of fubmitting his plans to the difcuffion of the national diet. The pala tinates, or great barons, had acquir ed an almost unlimited jurisdiction in their palatinates, and the inferior gentry had loft much of their confe quence. The peasants were reduced to the loweft ftate of flavery and degradation; their perfons and their property being entirely at the difpofal of their masters. In a word, the conftitution was changed, from a mo. narchy controlled by a republican affembly, to a monarchy fettered by. a turbulent aristocracy. A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF CANALS. WHATEVER may be thought of the doctrine, that the human race, in the first stage of its exiftence, is of an amphibious nature, it is certain that men, in the most rude and favage ftate, are very much familiarifed with the watery element, and feek their prey in rivers, lakes, and feas, not lefs than in mountains and woods. The fluidity of water, and its property of bearing up and floating bodies of lefs fpecific gravity, are among the earlicft notions that are acquired by mankind; and the rudiments of navigation, an art fo various and complicated in its progrefs, among the first efforts of mechanical improvement.. The convenience of water, as an eafy medium of communication and conveyance, being quickly discover ed, or rather, from the circumftances of man in his wild and untutored flate, obtruded upon his obfervation, it is but one step to the idea of arti. ficial canals, or of introducing water, where it can be easily obtained, for the facilitation of intercourfe and commerce; fome degrees of which take place among all tribes and naEd. Mag. May 1796. tions, in the earliest periods of their civilization. Canals are accordingly found in all countries that have made any advancements in art and fcience. In the empire of China, whofe hiftorical records mount fo much higher up than our European hiftories, or even oral traditions, there is fcarcely a town or village that has not the advantage of either an arm of the fea, a navigable river, or a canal; by which means, navigation is rendered fo common, that almoft as many people live on the water as the land.From the most early accounts of society in Europe, Afia, and the northern coafts of Africa, we read of attempts, made with various fuccefs, to cut through large ifthmufes, in order to effect a communication by water, either betwixt different nations, or diftant parts of the fame nation where carriage by land was long and expenfive; in India, Affyria, Perfia, Egypt, Afia Minor, Greece, and throughout the widely-extended Roman empire. Even in the darkness, of the middle age, Charlemagne formed a defign of joining the Rhine and the Danube, in order to make a Y y com communication between the Ocean and the Black Sea, by a canal from the river Almutz, which difcharges itfelf into the Danube, to the Reditz, which falls into the Maine, as this laft river does into the Rhine, near the Mayence. For this purpofe, he employed a prodigious number of workmen; but met with fo many obftacles, that he was obliged to abandon his magnificent project. In modern times, many fine and extenfive canals have been formed, in Holland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Ruffia, Denmark, Sweden, England, and fome even in Ireland and Scotland. In America, though fitted fo admirably for univerfal commerce, being every where penetrated, indented, and interfperfed by navigable rivers, lakes, and arms of the fea, the ingenious induftry of the inhabitants has begun to improve on thofe mighty advantages, by the conftruction of canals, on a fcale not unworthy of that magnificence of nature which invites them. In a word, in the prefent period of extended commercial intercourfe, and of the application of fcience and mechanical invention to the arts of life, a fenfe of the utility of canals, as might have been expected, particu. larly in our own country, is univerfally entertained, and raised to a kind of enthufiafm. Nor will this paffion for canals appear in any degree unreasonable, when w we turn our attention to the manifold advantages to be derived from that mode of conveyance and communication. } dinary turnpike roads. They col lect the difperfed materials of manufactures, and fupply thefe, as well as all the neceffaries of life, at the cheapest rate. They encourage the cultivation of thofe parts of a country that are remote from towns, fea-ports, and other markets. They are advantageous to towns, by overturning the monopolies of the diftricts in their neighbourhood; and to all parts of a country without exception; for though they introduce into different places rival commodities, they open new markets for the produce of thofe places, whether the growth of nature, or the effects of labour and art. By means of canals, merchants are enabled to export greater quantities of goods from places at a distance from the fea; and to fupply a greater extent of inland country with the commodities they import from foreign nations. CANALS are the great veins that carry on the circulation of internal trade, and replenish the refervoirs of external or foreign commerce. It has been justly obferved, that all the arts naturally flourish more among a people brought clofely together, as in Holland, than an equal number of people widely fcattered over vaft mountains and plains, as in Sweden and Ruffia. Among the former, a quick fermentation of industry is excited by a reciprocity of wants and redundancies; a quick fupply of whatever is need. ed, and a ready market for whatever can be fpared; befides the advantage of turning, in many inftances, the wafte and refuse of one manufacture into raw materials for another. Canals approximate people to one an other, 1*There is no country in the world where mechanical invention has been employed, on various fubjects of induftry, with fo much effect as in our own. In fupport of this pofition, we need only allude to the various difcoveries in chemiftry, the power and various ufes of the Ream engine, the extraction of tar from coal, the machinery employed in spinning of cotton, wool, and other yarn, &c. In one ftriking inftance, mechanism has been applied with wonderful fuccess in facilitating the labour of even the liberal artift; we allude to the POLYGRAPHIC ART or that of copying pictures in oil colours by a procefs chemical and mechanical, |