of the earth, after repeated fhocks, and long and obftinate struggles between ambition and liberty, feem at last fettled in the wretched tranquility of fervitude. They now employ thunder in their battles, for the fake of taking a few towns, and gratifying the whims of a few powerful men: they formerly employed the fword to ruin and to establish kingdoms, or to avenge the natural rights of mankind. Our history is become infipid and trifling, yet we are not become more happy. A regular and daily oppreffion has fucceeded to the troubles and ftorms of conqueft; and we see with indifference the various ranks of faves combatting each other with their chains for the amusement of their masters.

"Europe, that part of the globe, which has most influence over the reft, feems to have fixed itself on a folid and durable foundation, It is compofed of communities that are almoft in the fame degree powerful, enlightened, extended, and jealous. They encroach perpetually upon each other; and in the midft of this continued flu&uation, fome will gain and others lofe, and the balance will alternately incline to different fides, without ever being entirely deftroyed. The fanaticifm of religion, and the fpirit of conqueft, thofe two difturbers of the universe operate no longer. That great machine, whofe extremity was attached to the earth, and whofe center of motion was in heaven, is now broken; and kings begin to discover (though not for the happiness of their people, who attract but little of their attention, but for their own private intereft) that the great end of government is to obtain riches and fecurity. Hence they keep up large armies, fortify their frontiers, and encourage trade.

"A fpirit of barter and exchange hath arifen in Europe, that feems vaft fcene of fpeculation to adventurers, but can only fubfift in the midst of peace and tranquility. A war, among commercial nations, is a conflagration that deftroys them all; it is an action, which brings the whole fortune of a great merchant into question, and makes all his creditors tremble. The time is not far off, when the tacit fanction of government will extend to the private engagements between the fubjects of different nations; and when thofe bankruptcies, the effects of which are felt at immenfe diftances, will become matters of ftate. In thefe mercantile ftates, the difcovery of an ifland, the importation of a new commodity, the invention of fome useful machine, the conftruction of a port, the establishment of a factory, the carrying off a branch of trade from a rival nation, thefe will be efteemed atchievements of the highest importance; and the annals of nations will in future be written by commercial philofophers, as they were formerly by historical orators."

Book VII. treats of the conquest of Peru, the changes which happened in that empire, fince that change of government, and the territories dependent on and communicating with that kingdom.

Book VIII. relates the conqueft of Chili and Paraguay, and treats of the principles on which Spain manages her Colonies. Book IX. contains, an account of the Settlements of the Brazils by the Portuguefe; the wars they have fuftained there;

and

and the produce and riches of the country; concluding with remarks on the decay of Portugal and its Colonies, and the means of restoring them.

The third Volume contains five books, viz. X. XI. XII. XIII. and XIV.

In the Xth, the Author treats of the Settlements of the European nations in the great Archipelago of America, known by the name of the Antilles or Caribbee Islands: tracing their history from the earliest period to the prefent, and concluding with an enumeration of the advantages procured to Great-Britain in those iflands by the last peace.

In Book XI. he defcribes the manner of carrying on the flave trade on the toast of Guinea, for the purpose of cultivating the western iflands; his reflections on which do him no less honour as a man than as a politician and philofopher. We shall give our readers a fhort specimen of those reflections as far as they relate to the fubject of humanity.

"He who fupports the fyftem of flavery is the enemy of the whole human race. He divides it into two focieties of legal affaffins; the oppreffors and the oppreffed. It is the fame thing as proclaiming to the world, If you would preferve your life, inftantly take away mine, for I want to have yours,

"But the right of flavery, you fay, extends only to the right of labour and the privation of liberty, not of life. What! does not the mafter, who difpofes of my ftrength at his pleasure, likewife difpofe of my life, which depends on the voluntary and proper ufe of my faculties? What is existence to him, who has not the difpofal of it? I cannot kill my flave; but I can make him bleed under the whip of an executioner; I can overwhelm him with forrows, drudgery and want; I can injure him every way, and fecretly undermine the prin ciples and fprings of his life; I can fmother, by flow punishments, the wretched infant, which a negro woman carries in her womb. Thus the laws protect the flave against a violent death, only to leave to my cruelty the right of making him die by degrees.

"Let us proceed a step further: the right of flavery is that of perpetrating all forts of crimes: those crimes which invade property; for flaves are not fuffered to have any even in their own perfons: thofe crimes which deftroy perfonal fafety; for the flave may be facrificed to the caprice of his mafter: thofe crimes which make modefty fhudder.-My blood rifes at these horrid images. I deteft, I abhor the human fpecies, made up only of victims and executioners, and if it is never to become better, may it be annihilated! Further, that I may not conceal any part of my this fubject. Cartouche, the highwayman, fitting at the foot of a tree in a deep foreft, calculating the profits and loffes of his robberies, the rewards and pay of his affociates, and adjusting with them the ideas of proportion and distributive juftice; this Cartouche is not a very different character from that of the privateer, who, reclined on his counter, with his pen in his hand, fettles the number of

fentiments on

attacks

1

attacks which he can order to be made on the coafts of Guinea; who deliberately examines how many firelocks each negro will coft him, in order to fupport the war which is to furnish him with flaves; how many iron fetters to confine him aboard; how many whips to make him work: how much each drop of blood will be worth to him with which each negro will water his plantation; if the black woman will contribute more to his eftate by the labours of her hands, or by thofe of bearing children?-What think you of this parallel?— The highwayman attacks you, and takes your money; the trader carries off even your perfon. The one invades the rights of fociety, the other, those of nature. This certainly is the truth; and if there existed a religion which authorifed, which tolerated, even by its filence, fuch enormities; if, moreover, occupied by idle or factious queftions, it did not eternally denounce vengeance against the authors or inftruments of this tyranny; if it made it criminal for a flave to break his bonds; if it did not expel the unjust judge who condemns the fugitive to death; if fuch a religion existed, its minifters ought to be maffacred under the ruins of their altars."

Book XII. treats of the fettlements of the Dutch and the Danes in the American Islands;

Book XIII. of the fettlements of the French; and,

Book XIV. of the fettlements of the English; after giving the hiftory of which, he confiders their present state, and concludes with the following reflections on the probability of their future fituation.

"Whether the American islands, with the fettlements that make them fo flourishing, will always remain in the hands of their original poffeffors, whether they will change mafters; or, in cafe of a revolution, into whofe hands they will fall, and by what means; thefe are queftions that afford much room for fpeculation and conjecture, which may be affifted by the following reflections:

"The islands depend totally upon Europe for a fupply of all their wants. Those which only refpect wearing apparel and implements of husbandry will admit of delay, but the leaft difappointment with regard to provifions, fpreads a general alarm, and caufes univerfal defolation, which rather tempts the people to with for than fear the ap proach of an enemy. And, indeed, it is a common faying in the colonies, that they fhall never fail to capitulate with a fquadron ftored with barrels of flour instead of gunpowder. If we pretend to obviate this inconvenience, by obliging the inhabitants to cultivate for their own fubfiftence, we defeat the very end of these fettlements, without any real advantage. The mother country would deprive herfelf of a great part of the rich produce of her colonies, and would not preserve them from invafion.

"In vain should we hope to oppose an enemy by the help of negroes, born in a climate where effeminacy ftifles the feeds of courage, and who are still more enervated by flavery, and therefore but little concerned in the choice of their tyrants. As to the white men, difperfed in extenfive plantations, they are fo few, that they could make

bet

but little refistance. It is even a question whether they would repulie an invafion if they could.

"All the colonists hold it as a maxim, that their islands are to be confidered as thofe great cities in Europe, which lying open to the first comer, change their dominion without an attack, without a fiege, and almost without being fenfible of the war. The strongest is their mafter. The inhabitants cry out with the Italians, God fave the conqueror; paffing and repaffing from one yoke to another in the courfe of a campaign. Whether at the peace, the city returns to its old mafter, or remains in the hands of the victor, it has loft nothing of its fplendor; whilft fotified towns are always depopulated and reduced to a heap of ruins. Indeed, there is hardly one inhabitant in the American islands who does not think it a folly to expofe his fortune for the fake of his country. This greedy calculator is little concerned whofe laws he obeys, if his crops are but left ftanding. It is to enrich himself that he has croffed the feas. If he preferves his treasures, his purpose is answered. Can the mother-country that forfakes him, too often after tyrannizing over him, that is ready to give him up, or, perhaps, to fell him at the conclusion of a peace, have any claim to the facrifice of his life? It is no doubt a glorious thing to die for one's country. But a state, where the profperity of the nation is facrificed to forms of government; where the art of cheating men is the art of training up fubjects; where they will have flaves and not citizens; where war is declared and peace concluded, without confulting the opinion or the wishes of the people; where evil defigns are always countenanced by the intrigues of debauchery, or the practices of monopoly; and where ufeful plans are only adopted with fuch clogs as make them impracticable: is this the country for which we should facrifice our blood?

"The fortifications erected for the defence of the colonies, will fecure them no better than the arms of the inhabitants. Even if they were stronger, and better guarded and stored than they have ever been, they must always furrender unless they are fuccoured. Should the refiftance hold out above fix months, that would not difcourage the befiegers, who being within reach of a conftant fupply of refreshments both by land and by fea, can better endure the feverity of the climate, than a garrifon can refift the duration of a fiege.

"There is no other way to preferve the colonies but by a formidable navy. It is on the docks and in the harbours of Europe that the baftions and ramparts of the American colonies must be raifed. Whilst the mother-country shelters them, as it were, under the wings of her fhips, fo long as fhe fhall fill up with her fleets the vast interval that separates her from thefe daughters of her industry and power, her parental watchfulness for their profperity will fecure their attachment to her. In future, therefore, the maritime forces will be the great object that will attract the attention of all proprietors of land in America. European policy generally directs its attention to the fecuring of the frontiers, of states by fortified towns; but for maritime powers, there ought, perhaps, to be citadels in the center, and fhips all round. A commercial ifland, indeed, wants no fortified towns Her rampart is the fea, which conftitutes her fafety, her fubfiftence, her wealth; the

winds

winds are at her command, and all the elements confpire to promote her glory."

To this flattering defcription of our country, the author adds hence England may undertake any enterprize and expect every kind of fuccefs." The reafon he immediately gives for it, however, fhews how ill qualified even the most judicious and ingenious of philofophers and politicians are to read the events of futurity. "England, fays he, is now the only power that can confide in her poffeflions in America."-A very fhort interval of time hath fhewn how precarious that confidence, and the futility of political prognoftication. - But we must defer our review of the laft and moft interesting volume of this valuable work to another opportunity.

ART. IV. Sermons, preached before the University of Oxford, to which are added three Charges, to the Clergy of the Arch-deaconry of Worcester. By John Tottie, D. D. Late Canon of Chrift Church and Arch-deacon of Worcester. 8vo. 5s. Fletcher, Oxford. Robinson, London.

Thefe excellent Sermons, the firft of which was preached fo long ago as the year 1734, are fixteen in number, and relate to fome of the most important subjects both doctrinal and practical. To particularize each would lead us beyond our prescribed limits. The occafion of this fenfible preacher's laft charge is, however, recent and popular enough to give propriety to our extracting thence a fpecimen of his religious principles, and that moderation which tempers the zeal of his orthodoxy. The fubject of it is the late attempt of certain clerical petitioners to obtain an alteration in the Articles of the Church of England. On this head Dr. Tottie thus addreffes his reverend brethren of the Arch-deaconry of Worcester.

"The attack publicly made upon the Articles of the Church of England muft of neceflity have engaged your attention; and the invidious reflections, which, in defiance of all decency and charity, have been caft upon those who have given their affent to them, muit have quickened this attention in all who have any degree of fenfibility or concern for their reputation. Indeed the charge brought againit us is of fo ferious a nature, and is made with fuch an uncommon degree of confidence, that it behoves us to confider well upon what ground we ftand. It amounts in fact to this :-" That no man of

fenfe can believe the articles, and no honeft man can fubfcribe to "them." It is however fome confolation to us, under this heavy imputation to reflect, that if we cannot escape abufe, we are abufed in good company; as we are in this refpect no more deficient in point of fenfe and honefty, than many of the moft illustrious men that this or any other nation ever produced; men of the greatest abilities and integrity; whofe whole lives were employed, with the advantages