Spain. on occafion of which he parted with his Tufcan dominions. But it is not probable that thefe alliances can affe&t the tranquility of Europe, till moft of the princes who have made thefe contracts for their children are removed from the reins of government; events, confidering their ages, of no very near profpe&t. In time, to doubt, these marriages and ceffons will give rife to troubles, filial love and respect giving way to the more powerful paffions of ambition and avarice; and mankind may again fmart for the honeur, which fome fovereigns do their subjects, of making them over to each other, without their concurrence, like beafts of the field The fucceffor to the Aufirian dominions, in right of the prefent emprofs dowager, may look upon himself as equally intitled to thofe of Tufcany in right of the late emperor, especially as it does not appear, that, as legal heir, he has received any equivalent for them; whilst a king of Spain may think it his duty to protect a fifter, a coufin, or their iffue, in the enjoyment of dominions purchafed, perhaps, for them by no inconfiderable portion. And, after all, it must be owned, that this is but a fmall part of that trouble and confufion, which must probably attend these ineluctable events, confidering the complicated claims of Spain and Parma to the throne of the Two Sicilies, and that of a Don Lewis to Parma itself.

But gloomy as this profpect may be in regard to the great Romancatholic nations of Europe, it can give no alarm to Great-Britain, or the other great Proteftant powers,

whofe ftrength muft ever be in proportion to the weakness of thofe in the oppofite intereft. Befides, the chief of the latter have been of late equally attentive with the former, to prekrve that compactnels fo neceflary to all poliical bodies by treaties of intermarriage; in the cementing of which, as no ceflions or transfers of teritory have been made, so no feeds have been fown of future difcontent and difcord. Not to peak of the late renewals of amity between the branches of the Brunswick family, by the nuptials of the Princefs Augufta, his majefty's eldest fitter, with the hereditary prince of Frunfwick Lunenburg, and of a fifter of that gallant prince with the prince royal of Pruflia, nephew to the reigning king; the treaty of intermarriage lately concluded between another of his majefty's fifters. and the prince royal of Denmark, by drawing fill clofer the already very close bands of friendship between these two fo great and fo good monarchs, how much foever it may contribute to the fatisfaction and honour of their respective families, and the happinefs and fecurity of their fub. jects, cannot but contribute ftill more to the ftrengthening of the Proteftant intereft.

Thefe two fyftems, which we have been furveying, the Proteftant and the Roman-catholic, are not. however, and, in all probability, never will be, either of them, fo much one, as to contain no devious, irregular bodies, politically tending to the other. For the prefent, these bodies are chiefly, on the Proteftant fide, Proteftant Sweden, and on the Roman-catholic, Portugal both, beyond all doubt, [B] 2

the

the most intolerantly zealous members of the perfuafions they refpectively belong to, yet both ftrongly attached to fome powers of very different, and extremely jealous of other powers of the fame, creed with themfelves. Sweden and France fill perfift in their old friendthip, and will, probably, long perfift in it, fince both find their intereft in fo doing. The mixt intercourfe of trade and politics, which has fo long continued between them, and which their mutual neceflities feem in a great meafure to fupport, gives this connec. tion the air of a natural alliance: France ftands in the greateti need of, and is the best able to pay for, thofe commodities in trade, and thofe afliftances in war, which Sweden is belt able to furnish; viz. metals; materials for building thips; fhips ready built; and fometimes men, whofe bravery and fidelity, as well as hardinefs and difcipline, may be fafely relied on.

Portugal, from the defigns of her former mafters, and the natural imbecillity of the country, ftands much more in need of foreign affifiance than Sweden. This ailiftance, which Portugal ftands in need of, the wifely looks for at the hands of the two greatest maritime powers of Europe, Great Britain and Holland, but at the fame time the two warmeft fupporters of the proteftant intereft. As much as thefe powers may covet the gold of Portugal to accumulate it at home, or want it to purchase the commodities of other countries where those of their own may not readily find a vent, fo much

does Portugal ftand in need of their affiftance against Spain, France, and other powers, to fecure to her a communication with, if not indeed the poffeflion of, the fources of that precious metal; fince France and Spain as far exceed Portugal in maritime ftrength, as they are themfelves exceeded in that particular by Great Britain. Add to this, that it is not fo much in the fpirit of the British and Dutch conftitutions to conquer countries, as fairly to gain, by the more agreeable, yet far more prevalent, aris of hutbandry, manufacture, and commerce,, a fhare of the riches with which thefe countries may happen to be peculiarly bleffed.

It is hardly requifite to fay any thing concerning the other Romancatholic or Proteftant powers of Europe; or at least a few words will be fufficient. The king of Poland, though not as yet formerly acknowledged by thofe powers who protefted against the diet that elected him, is likely to be foon fo. France has again fupplied the Genoele with troops for the garrifoning of the few places left them in Corfica; but there is very little probability of her endeavouring to recover for them any of those they have lott. It is not her intereft that the Corficans fhould be entirely free, or entirely flaves, fince, as long as they remain in the dubious fiate they now are in, the may expect to command in Genoa one of the best maritime keys to Italy, befides hips and failors on an emergency, in return for a few land-forces, that the can raise and recruit with very little trouble or expence.

СНАР.

O complete our furvey of the

any thing at all, is to be feared

next to confider Ruffia and Turkey. The head of the former, wifely confidering, that as much as it may be her duty to deserve, it is, confidering her want of an hereditary, or even elective title, as much her intereft to win, the affections of her fubjects, not only fhews the greatest defire to make them happy, but endeavours it by fuch means as may not too glaringly clath with their deep-rooted prejudices either civil or religious; a method of proceeding fuited only to fuch a fovereign as her predeceffor Peter the Great, whofe pretenfions to the Crown were themfelves fupported by thefe prejudices. Amongst other fteps taken by her to compafs fo exalted a defign, the has given the ampleft encouragement for the introduction of letters and useful arts, these fovereign antidotes against barbarifm and fuperftition*. Upon the whole, therefore, there does Lot appear the least reafon to apprehend any thing from Ruffia for the peace of Europe.

Little as there is to be apprehended from Ruffia, ftill lefs, if

of Europe, which, as being, by its maxims of religion and government, quite diftinct from, orrather diametrically oppofite to, all the others, which we have reviewed, we muft here take a particular furvey of. The prefent emperor of that ill-governed and illiterate, yet, from its numbers and enthufiaftic fervility to its head, dangerous neighbour to fome of the chriftian powers, feems to be a very different man from all his predeceffors. Under him, the fpirit of Turkish defpotifm and jealoufy feems to be in fome degree lowered. He permits brothers to live, even after etcaping from that confinement, to which the laws of the feraglio had condemned them: and by fending to France for a collection of aftronomical treatifes, he has fhewn a tafte for thofe fciences, which fo much tend to enlarge and refine the human mind. But what does him ftill more honour, is that truly neighbourly part he fo lately acted in the affairs of Poland, which must make us confider him as a pacific, as well

as a wife and benevolent prince, and only leave us room to regret, that there are not more potentates of that character among thofe educated in principles in finitely better calculated to form

it.

In fhort, Europe feems, in general, to wear a much more ferene appearance, than from hiftory there, is any reafon to judge the ever did. The fpirit of invention, industry, and improvement, are abroad, and feem to have taken place of the fpitit of conqueft and rapacity, which fo much difgrace her former annals. Princes, in all appearance, begin to difcover more wealth and power in the honelt endeavours of their fubjects to enrich themfelves, than they used to do in the fer ile afliftance of them to entlave others. Agriculture and navigation have. at laft, in a great mealure, obtained that attention, which fuch useful and fublime arts deferve. Nor have the intermediate handicraft arts, fupported by agriculture and fupporting navigation, and contri buting fo much, in other refpects, to the conveniency and ple..fure of life, been negle&ted.

The vegetable fyftem of Tull, after ftanding many years unimpeached by any cafual obfervations, has within thefe few years been confirmed by the exprefs experiments of Monfieur Duhamel, and found to be as true and ufeful, as it was ever allowed to be fimple and ingenious. What is more, his admirable machines, fo well adapted to that fyftem, and fo happily contrived to combine the intelligence of the rational with the strength of the brute creation,

ha'e, likewife, been ad pted and improved. A Linnæus and a Stilling feet have hinted the poffibility and expediency of parting the hitherto undiftinguifhed common plants of the field made ufe of to feed our cattle, in order to give each its proper foil and cultivation, and fow and crop it in its proper feafon. A Wyche, foaring till higher, has, from a juft confideration of the goodness and power of the Creator, fuggefted the exiftence of vegetables, fit for the fame purpofe, hardy enough to thrive in the coldeft weather. And thefe hints and fuggeftions have been, by the parting of the plants already known, and the difcovering and the cultivating of other much hardier ones, been proved well founded, and brought into practice by Mr. Baker, and by Mr. Rocque, to the vaft enlargement of the human empire over the vege table world; feveral plants, which hitherto used to be nurfed up in gardens for the immediate and fole ufe of man, having been compelled to do duty in the open fields for that of cattle, and made subject to the plough as well as the spade, fo as to oblige a far greater portion of the earth's furface to wear the livery of fummer in the depth of winter.

The principles of Sir Ifaac Newton, joined to the aftronomical obfervations of Halley and Bradley, have been made by M. Mayer of Goetinghen a ground-work for contructing, with the affiftance of theorems furnished by Mr. Euler of Berlin, tables of the moon's motions, by which the abfolute time of that heteroclite planet's appulfe to any fixed point of the

heavens,