noxious infects; you dread the spring of the tyger, or the mortal bite of the Naja.

This is a cooler indeed! but left it fhould not be enough to make us fully content with our own more temperate and lefs dangerous fituation, here follows a heater, which will furely do the bufinefs effectually. In defcribing the black-capped Pigeon, he informs us, that the bird from which the drawing here given was made, was found on the ground in the ifle of Java, having dropped down dead, in one of thofe hot days known only in the torrid zone, when the fowls of the air often perish, unable to refpire; when lions, leopards, and wolves immerge up to their noftrils in water, to preferve themselves from the fcorching fun; and when even men have been forced to afcend the highest trees, in order to draw in a more temperate air.'-We shall take time to confider about the voyage.

ART. XI. A Candid Enquiry into the prefent ruined State of the French Monarchy. With Remarks on the late defpotic Reduction of the Intereft of the national Debt in France. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Almon. 1770.

N the beginning of the winter of 1768, we were alarmed with a frightful reprefentation of the prefent ftate of our own country, and a fpecious difplay of the fuperior circumftances and happier fituation of our formidable rivals the French*. In the prefent publication we have a reverfed profpect, and a counter-ftate of the cafe, in which, like the prints viewed thro' a concave mirror, the objects change places, thofe that before were on the right, taking the left hand fide of the picture, and those on the left pofting themselves on the right. Thus Britain, which, two years ago, was on the verge of deftruction, is now rifen, in dignity and importance, not only above the French, but perhaps any other nation the fun ever yet rofe upon.' This is comfortable amidst all our grievances and apprehenfions. As to the mifreprefentations of our own public affairs, contained in the above-mentioned State of the Nation, the prefent Writer obferves, they have been fo fully and fo circumftantially confuted by the fpirited ingenious Writer of the Obfervations on that work, as leaves nothing more to be faid on that part of the fubject:' and, he adds, the following letter may perhaps tend to fhew that the author of the State, &c. conceived as many erroneous opinions of the affairs of the French government, as he did of the fate of his own country.' But the Reader will afk, Who is this letter-writer, and what opportunities hath he had of acquiring a true knowledge of

* See our account of the State of the Nation, Rev. Nov. 1768. † See Review for February and March, 1769.

th

the prefent circumftances of the French nation? The interroga. tion is natural, and the information required is necessary, in order to engage attention to what our Author would advance, and give credit to his reprefentations. All the fatisfaction, however, that is here given us, is that the letter is dated Chantelou in Touraine, Dec. 4, 1769; that the poftfcript is of the 6th of Feb. 1770; and that the Author premises, in the beginning of his epiftle, his having lived 20 years in France, for the recovery of a declining ftate of health from whence we are to infer, without any hint of his rank or ftation, or opportunities of information ‡, his perfonal acquaintance with minifters, measures, politics, circumftances, &c. &c.-How far we may credit him in these refpects, merely from his being the correspondent of a noble lord, we refer to the judgment of our Readers, who are often honoured with the communication of fuch right honourable correspondences.

This Author, however, does not write with the air of a grubftreet politician; nor does his production smell of the lamp. His ftyle is that of a gentleman who writes with ease; and his language is fo incorrect, that we are inclined to question whether his letter was written merely for the prefs, for which it certainly has not been duly prepared: fo that poffibly the following profeffion of the Editor deferves fome credit; viz.

The following letter was lately received from an English gentleman, who now refides, and has the greatest part of his life refided in France.

• The perfon to whom it was wrote, prefuming that all national power, and the happiness of individuals, are merely relative, and best known by comparison, he has, without any motive of private interest, given it to the public, as he will do fome other letters, which fhortly he expects to receive on the fame fubject.'

'Tis pity, however, that the Editor, whether noble or of inferior rank, did not, when he determined to lay before the public the observations of his correfpondent, take proper meafures for the due correction of the language; which is, in fome places, fo defective, that we can account for it only on the fuppofition that the Writer, having been fo many years abfent from his native country, and fo long converfant in the French tongue, had in fome degree forgotten his English,

There is a vague paragraph on this head, which we shall prefently quote.

The Editor himself, however, is not entirely clear from the fame charge; for in his fhort preface he tells us, that the mifrepreJentations in that performance [the State of the Nation] has been fo fully confuted, &c.' It is barely poffible that this ungrammatical expreffion is chargeable on the prefs-which, we fear, is often unjuitly accufed.

which is by no means an uncommon cafe.—To give an instance or two of these defects:

P. 2. Tho' I have refided in this country the greatest part of my life, and been in the occafion to fee the interior ftate of the government of France, its operations and effects, at no great diftance, yet I fear your lordship has deftred of me a task, almoft incompatible with thofe few hours which my health will permit me to devote to fo great an undertaking.'

P. 5. Lewis XIV. after making-fuch efforts in war, and fuch profuse expences in peace, as none of his predeceffors had ever attempted, he loft,' &c. Making fuch expences as had never been attempted, is making ftrange work with our language!

P. 12. Such an impofition as raifes no passions but contempt and ridicule.' This is the first time that we have heard of contempt and ridicule being paffions.

If we

To multiply inftances of this kind would be but an unprofitable exercise both of our Reader's patience and our own : befide, inaccuracies of expreffion, in fuch a publication as the letter before us, are not matters of the laft importance. have authentic information on the very interefting fubjects of which it profeffes to give us a true account, that is the point we ought chiefly to attend to; and, after all, perhaps, the faults of ftyle and diction may be pleaded in evidence of the letter's being genuine :-a catch-penny fcribbler, it will be faid, would have been more attentive to his language.

The Letter-writer fets out with ftating, that Lewis XIV. like Philip II. of Spain, left his fucceffor a ruined nation. He left him, it is added, what was worfe, his example and his principles of government, founded in ambition, in pride, in oftentation, and all the ridiculous fhew and pageantry of state."

From the fplendor of his court, fays the Author, the magnificence of his buildings, the encouragement of arts, and by all the exterior pomp and appearance of glory and fuperior greatness, the people, through their national vanity, were fo intoxicated, and the delufion amongst them was fo general, till the last years of his reign, that, even amongst the fober thinking men, very few of them, I believe, faw half the fatal confequences that would, in time, attend a reign of more than fifty years of the most abfurd profufion, and ridiculous fplendor, that the western nations had ever been wit nefs to.'

During the minority of the prefent king, we are told, the regent of France, ignorant of the diftreffes to which the nation, by the expenfive war for the Spanish fucceffion, was reduced, and hurried on by ambition to act the part of a fovereign, attempted, a few years after the tranquility of Europe was fettled by the peace of Utrecht, to tear that crown from the brows of a prince of Bourbon, fettled on the throne of Spain, which Lewis XIV. had exhausted the very vitals of his country to place there. The regent ftill did worfe. Uninformed of, and a stranger to the wife principles of a modern states

man, he gave public credit many fatal wounds, which still are bleeding; and wantonly committed as many mistakes and frolics with the, finances of the nation, and the private fortunes of the people, as could well be preffed into fo fhort an administration.

The conduct of this bold and giddy regent, during the memo rable transactions of the Miffiffippi fcheme, will, we are farther told, ever remain a monument of his folly, injuftice and ambition. The wounds he then gave to the credit of France, were bitterly felt during the late war. They are ftill felt, and will continue to be fo whilft all the vices of the prefent form of government continue to fubfift in the nation.'

With regard to the prefent monarch of France, though untainted with the vain ambition of a hero and a conqueror, our Author avers that he hath, through the reftlefs temper and haughty difpofition of his minifters, been involved, fince his acceffion, in two fuch expenfive wars as bath entirely effused the small share of strength and vigour, which the nation had recruited by the long peace that preceded them; and by the violent efforts he made in both, fo fuperior to, and inconfiftent with, the debilitated ftrength of his ftate, that from a progress of the original vices of the government, the ruined condition of the landed intereft, the heavy load of national debt, and the entire lofs of public credit, the French nation is now reduced to a more confumptive and exhausted state than the ever was before involved in and as all the great pillars of the flate are now become corrupted and decayed, with an enormous weight of diftreffes preffing upon them, we fhall, without the interpofition of Providence, or fome effential revolutions and changes in the prefent form and mode of her government, fee, even in our own days, the French nation fink into the fame ftate of nerveless indigence and poverty, which the Spanish monarchy hath long been buried in.

Infenfible, however, of their approaching fate, with a levity and folly constitutional to all ranks of that people,' this Letterwriter pronounces that the prefent race of the French minifters have adopted the fplendid and ambitious notions of government with which their predeceffors had, during the happier and more vigorous times of the late reign, dazzled and impofed upon all their neighbours but the deception, however, is now confined to themfelves, and to fuch fuperficial statesmen and people of other countries, who take appearances for realities, and judge of the prefent power of France from thofe fhort and tranfient periods of greatnefs which fhone forth with fo much luftre during the meridian of the laft reign.'

But, we are affured, the POWER by which they formerly, with fo much infolence and haughtiness, took the lead in all the affairs of Europe, is now no more; and that the AMBITION only remains. To fupport appearances, he adds, they are now forced to firain every nerve of government. They maintain unneceflary formidable armies, a fplendid magnificent court, and, in every department of the flate, a moft enormous and extravagant peace-eftablishment, for the empty confolation of impofing upon their own people, and fome of their rivals, with

the

the appearances of a power which, our spirited Antigallican fays, is no more natural, or the effect of health and vigour, than the rouge which is daubed on the face of a tawdry antiquated duchefs at Versailles, is of youth and beauty.-In brief, he infifts, that the affairs of government in France are all deception and delufion;-yet, fays he, fo well do the French minifters, by their arts and expedients, keep up the appearances of a formidable power, that many men, who ftood in high stations in the different courts of Europe, are, like fome of your lordfhip's friends in England, as much deceived and miftaken int their opinions of the present power of France, and in the fame ridiculous degree, as they have been partial to, and fond of, its language, its wines, its modes, its vices, and its follies.'

But it is time to come to the facts here cited in proof of our Author's affertion, that the monarchy of France is ruined. He begins with the ftriking proof of its imbecility, when, during the late war, after bullying us with empty threats of an invafion, we manifefted our contempt of their idle bluftering, by actually invading them, and by that means rendered them greater objects of ridicule in the eyes of their neighbours than by all the other loffes and difgraces they fuftained in that war.

The fatal blow which France hath received in the lofs of her national credit, is the next topic.

Through the want of this important refource, he obferves, fhe fuffered, in her laft ftruggle with Great Britain, every diftrefs and difgrace that could poffibly attend the most unfuccefsful war; the not only faw her commerce and marine entirely destroyed, but after those. feeming vigorous efforts in the beginning of the war, which an abfolute and military government is, from the nature of its conftitution, fo well adapted to make, the vitals of the state were fo foon exhaufted, that fo early in the war as the year 1759, fhe was reduced to the fatal neceflity of fhutting up her finking fund, appropriated for the payment of the intereft of her national debt, and to apply its produce towards the expences of the war; and which, in fpite of all the plaufible excufes made by her minifters, was at beft but a partial bankruptcy with her creditors, and did not fail to produce that effect; for, after that violence done to good faith and public credit, he was compelled to give the most exorbitant interest for money to all from whom it could be obtained; even for thofe fums that were borrowed upon the edicts, registered in the parliament of Paris, which then became the debts of the ftate. I have now be fore me proof, was it neceffary, that the paid for it from 10 to 12 per cent. interest; and for those great fums lent by the corporationtowns, collective bodies of men, and the rich individuals, upon the king's perfonal fecurity (a fuperficial mode of credit which you in England are unacquainted with) the intereit was ftill more exorbi tant; and for want of ready money to go to market for the fupply of her armies and navy, the contractors for both did not make less than from 50 to 70 per cent. on their bargains; reduced as the was REV. Mar. 1779. for