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confideration an account of the immenfe fums annually fubfcribed by the rich for the fupport of hofpitals, infirmaries, difpenfaries, for the relief of fufferers by fire, tempefts, famine, lofs of cattle, great fickness, and other misfortunes; all of which charities must cease were all men on a level, for all men would then be equally poor; it cannot but excite one's aftonishment that fo foolish a fyftem should have ever been fo much as mentioned by any man of common fenfe. It is a fyftem not practicable; and, was it practicable, it would not be useful; and, was it useful, it would not be just.

"But fome one may think, and, indeed, it has been studiously inculcated into the minds of the multitude, that a monarchy, even a limited one, is a far more expenfive mode of civil government than a republick; that a sivil lift of a million a year is an enormous fum, which might be faved to the nation. Suppofing that every fhilling of this fum could be faved, and that every fhilling of it was expended in fupporting the dignity of the crown, both which fuppofitions are entirely falfe, ftill fhould I think the liberty, the profperity, the tranquility, the happiness of this great nation, cheaply purchafed by fuch a fum; ftill fhould I think that he would be a madman in politicks who would, by a change of the Conftitution, risk these bleffings (and France fupplies us with a proof that infinite rifk would be run) for a paltry faving of expence. I am not, nor have ever been, the pation of corruption. So far as the civil lift has a tendency to corrupt the judgement of any member of either house of parliament, it has a bad tendency, which I with it had not. But I cannot with to fee the splendour of the crown reduced to nothing, left its proper weight in the fcale of the Conftitution fhould be thereby deftroyed. A great portion of this million is expended in paying the falaries of the judges, the interpreters of our law, the guardians of our lives and properties! Another portion is expended in maintaining ambafiadors at different courts, to protect the general concerns of the nation from foreign aggreffion. Another portion is expended in penfions and donations to men of letters and ingenuity; to men who have, by naval, military, or civil fervices, juft claims to the attention of their country; to perfons of refpectable families and connexions, who have been humbled and broken down by misfortunes. I do not fpeak with accuracy, nor on fuch a fubject is accuracy requifite; but I am not far wide of truth in laying, that a fifth part of the million is more than fufficient to defray the expences of the royal household. What a mighty matter is it to complain of, that each individual contributes less than fix pence ayear towards the fupport of the monarchy !

"That the Conftitution of this country is fo perfect a, neither to require or admit of any improvement, is a propofition to which

I never did, or ever can, affent; but I think it far too excellent to be amended by peafants and mechanicks. I do not mean to speak of peasants and mechanicks with any degree of difrefpect; I am not fo ignorant of the importance, either of the natural or focial chain by which all the individuals of the human race are connected together, as to think difiefpectfully of any link of it. Peasants and mechanicks are as ufeful to the state as any other order of men; but their utility confifts in their difcharging well the duties of their respective stations. It ceafes when they affect to become legiflators, when they intrude themselves into concerns for which their education has not fitted them. The liberty of the prefs is a main fnpport of the liberty of the nation; it is a blefling which it is our duty to tranfmit to pofterity; but a bad ufe is fometimes made of it; and its ufe is never more pernicious than when it is employed to infufe into the minds of the lowest orders of the community difparaging ideas concerning the Conftitution of their country. No danger need he apprehended from a candid examination of our own Conftitution, or from a difplay of the advantages of any other; it will bear to be contrafted with the beft: but all men are not qualified to make the comparison; and there are fo many men, in every community, who wish to have no government at all, that an appeal to them, on such a point, ought never to be made.

"There are, probably, in every government upon earth, circumftances which a man, accustomed to the abstract investigation of truth, may easily prove to be deviations from the rigid rule of ftrict political juftice; but whilft thefe deviations are either generally not known, or, though known, generally acquiefced in as matters of little moment to the general felicity, I cannot think it to be the part, either of a good man, or of a good citizen, to be zealous in recommending (uch matters to the difcuffion of ignorant and uneducated men.

"I am far from infinuating, that the fcience of politicks is involved in mystery; or that men of plain understandings should be debarred from examining the principles of the Government to which they yield obedience. All that I contend for is this-that the foundations of our Government ought not to be overturned, nor the edifice erected thereon tumbled into ruins, because an acute politician may pretend that he has difcovered a flaw in the building, or that he could have laid the foundation after a better model.

"What would you fay to a stranger who fhould defire you to pull down your house, becaufe, forfooth, he had built one in France or America, aiter, what he thought, a better plan? You would fay to him, 'No, fir, my ancestors have lived in this mansion comfortably and honourably for many generations; all its walls are ftrong, and all its

timbers

timbers found. If I should observe a decay in any of its parts, I know how to make the reparation without the affiftance of strangers; and I know too, that the reparation, when made by myself, may be made without injury either to the ftrength or beauty of the building. It has been buffeted, in the courfe of ages, by a thousand ftorms; yet ftill it ftands unshaken as a rock, the wonder of all my neighbours, each of whom fighs for one of a uimilar construction. Your houfe may be fuited to your climate and temper; this is fuited to mine. Permit me, however, to obferve to you, that you have not yet lived long enough in your new houfe to be fenfible of all the inconveniences to which it may be liable; nor have you yet had any experience of its ftrength; it has yet fuftained no fhocks; the first whirlwind may fcatter its component members in the air; the firft earthquake may shake its foundation; the first inundation may fweep the fuperftructure from the furface of the earth. I hope no accident will happen to your houfe; but I am fatisfied with mine own.'

"Great calamities, of every kind, attend the breaking-up of established governments; yet there are fome forms of government, efpecially when they happen to be badly administered, fo exceedingly deftru&tive of the happiness of mankind, that a change of them is not improvidently purchased at the expence of the mifchief accompanying their fubverfion. Our government is not of that kind. Look round the globe, and fee if you can discover a fingle nation, on all its furface, fo powerful, fo rich, fo beneficent, fo free and happy, as our own. May Heaven

avert from the minds of my countrymen the flightest wish to abolish their Conftitution!

'Kingdoms, observes Mr. Locke, 'have been overturned by the pride, ambition, and turbulency of private men; by the people's wantonnefs and defire to caft off the law ful authority of their rulers, as well as by the rulers' infolence, and endeavours to get and exercise an arbitrary power over the peo ple. The recent danger to our Conftitution was, in my opinion, fmall; for I confidered its excellence to be fo obvious to men even of the most unimproved understandings, that I looked upon it as an idle and fruitless effort, either in foreign or domeftic incendiaries, to endeavour to perfuade the bulk of the people to confent to an alteration of it in favour of a republick. I knew, indeed, that in every country the flagitious dregs of a nation were always ripe for revolutions: but I was fenfible, at the fame time, that it was the intereft, not only of the opulent and powerful, not only of the mercantile and middle claffes of life, but even of honeft labourers and manufacturers, of every fober and induftrious man, to refift the licentious principles of fuch peftilent members, fhall call them? or outcafts of fociety. Men bet ter informed, and wifer than myself, thought

5

that the Constitution was in great danger. Whether, in fact, the danger was great or small, it is not neceffary now to enquire; it may be more useful to declare, that, in my humble opinion, the danger, of whatever magnitude it may have been, did not origiate in any encroachments of either the legiflative or executive power on the liberties or properties of the people, but in the wild fancies and turbulent tempers of difcontented or ill-informed individuals. I fincerely rejoice that, through the vigilance of Adminis tration, this turbulency has received a check. The hopes of bad men have been disappointed, and the understandings of mistaken men have been enlightened, by the general and unequivocal judgement of a whole nation; a nation not more renowned for its bravery and its humanity, though justly celebrated for both, than for its loyalty to its princes, and, what is perfectly confiftent with loyalty, for its love of liberty, and attachment to the Conftitution. Wife men have formed it, brave men have bled for it; it is our part to preferve it. R. LANDAFF.

London, Jan. 25, 1793,"

143. Dialogues on the Rights of Britons, be tween a Farmer, a Sailor, and a Manufatturer. Dialogue I.

SUBJECTS, in themselves the most important, and, to Englifhmen, peculiarly interefting, are feafonably and as greeably difcuffed in thefe Conftitutional Dialogues; and seldom have we seen so much good fenfe and ufeful matter conveyed in fo pleafing a form.

The Farmer finds the Manufacturer in a fituation which is thus described:

"But if you (to Manufacturer) have been studying Mr. Paine, I am not at all furprifed that your mind is become reftiefs, your hands idle, and your circumstances embarraffed. These are the RIGHTS which he endeavours to establish among the laborious part of the community: he feeks to infufe the poifon of difcontent into their minds, in order to make them his tools to promote confusion.”

The Manufacturer, like many others of the fame clafs, had been perfuaded that we are not only without our Rights, but that we are even deftitute of a Con ftitution in this country.

"Manufacturer. But I wish to know where this famous Conftitution is to be found. I have seen a copy of the late Conftitution of France, in a neat little book, containing the whole complete from beginning to end, and I dare fay the next will be drawn out and published in like manner: but I have never had a copy of the English Constitution put into my hands, nor have I heard of any fuch thing being kept at the Tower, or any where elfe.

"Sailor.

"Sailor. Nor I neither; but though I never faw a plan of it, I always understood that it was made of the best materials; that it was a long time in building; and that, being well put together, it has weathered many a hard gale."

The Farmer, after tracing the outlines of the Conftitution, and fhewing that it had fruck its roots deep among the foundations of the common law," that it was recorded in the ftatute-book, “the regifier of our private rights," and delineated in the hiftory of the country, thus proceeds:

"I hope I have made it appear that this Conftitution is authenticated by written vouchers, and those of a much more respectable kind than any new-fangled code produced by Fancy and never confirmed by Practice. But the grand excellence of the British Conftitution fill remains to be noticed; namely, that it exifts not merely up. on paper or parchment, but in actual practice; its benefits are hourly experienced; it is to be found in enjoyment; it is beft known by its effects, as a tree by its fruits; and no more requires a pompous defcription to convey an idea of it value than the genial warmth of the fun, or the benevolent fhowers of heaven. The actual advantages poffeffed by Englishmen, as their fure and unalienable birthright, afford the most forcible and the most feeling defcription of the Conftitution, and exhibit to the eye and the heart Magna Charta, the Habeas Corpus Act, the Bill of Rights, and all the other fources and fafeguards of our liberties in their nobleft form: and thefe advantages are peculiarly manifeft in that liberty and that fecurity which every individual enjoys in this country, which are the grand objects of society, and the most valuable bleffings it can bestow."

From the manner in which the Eng. lif Conflitution grew, an occafion is taken to make the following just reA.ction:

"The makers of Conftitutions may hence derive a very useful leffon, and learn the difference between theory and practice. If all the philofophers in the world were to affem ble, in order, at once, to frame a Constitution for a country, however beautiful and alluring their plan might be in appearance, there is very little chance that it would fait the manners, the habits, and the national character, of the people, or that it would be practicable when it thould come to be tried. But the French, defp fing even the advantage of calm and orderly difcuffion, began with removing all thofe powers and authorities which, however in fome inftances abused, were the only fecurity for order, and attempted the great work of forming a Conftitution in the midft of tumult, riot, and confufion."

The true political equality which pre

vails in this country is thus happily defcribed by the Farmer:

"All perfons, whatever their birth, their ftation, or their circumftances may be, are of equal confequence in the eye of the Law. The rights of an Englishman are not the rights merely of the wealthy and the great, but of ALL without diftinction. The fame laws extend their protection alike to all; and whether a nobleman ftrikes a labourer, or a labourer a nobleman, it is equally a violation of the law, and the fame juftice is open to both. The grand prevailing principle of our Conftitution is, to provide as much as poffible for the peace, fecurity, and happinefs of every individual, in whatever state or condition he may appear; and the effential rights of Human Nature, which it is the object of Society to protect, are as facred in the perfon of the lowest as of the higheft. No man, however rich or great, can opprefs the pooreft fubject in thefe realms; no ftation or wealth can furnish the leaft protection from the penalties of the violated laws, or prevent an injured citizen from obtaining redress for his wrongs. Such are the im portant and invaluable privileges of Britons; while the grand bulwark of all, Trial by Jury, protects the enjoyment of our rights from every danger, and forms the cornerftone of our liberties."

We like thefe dialogues fo well, that we shall probably embrace a future occafion to refume this article.

144. An Account of the Life, Writings, and Inventions of John Napier, of Merchiften. By David Stewart Earl of Buchan, and Walter Minto, LL.D. Illußrated with Copper Plates. 1778.

ABOUT twenty years ago, the noble Earl tells us, "he thought it would be easy to bring together a groupe of learned men, who would dedicate a part of their leifure to erect literary monuments to the memory of their illuftrious countrymen, whofe lives had not hitherto been written, or fufficiently illuftrated and he wifhed fuch monuments to be fashioned and executed by men personally eminent in the departments which diftinguished the fubjects of their biographical research, and not by the assistants of a bookfeller or compiler, who cannot be expected, however faithful and accurate, to be animated with that love to the fubject which the Italian artist considers as the foul of his enterprize, and the fource of its perfection. In this expectation he has been disappointed." His Lordship has not fucceeded in exciting fuch a spirit of enquiry as Sir John Sinclair has done. His plan would have furnished many valuable articles to the Biographia Britannica; "these articles, written with care and with zeal, fo as to fupport themselves, in an ifolated state, by the public favour, would have been taken up by fubfe

quent

quent editors into that great repofitory of
biographical learning, in a highly-finished
ftate. With refpect to the biography of
Scotland, one of the judges* there, who
would have done it honour, in itsbeft days, by
his virtue, his attention to the dignity and
duties of his ftation, and the ufeful employ
ment of his leifure, has generously offered,
by an advertisement annexed to the Annals
of the Lives of John Barclay, author of the
Argenis, and fome other learned Scots, to
forward the undertaking I wish to promote.
I flatter myself that this article of Napier, in
the Biographia Scotica, will be confidered, in
fome refpects, as a fpecimen of the plan I
have defcribed; for it certainly has been
written con amore.
In the fcientific part I
have received the affiftance of a gentleman
who deferves to be better known on ac-
count of his mathematical learning, and the
accuracy with which he treats the subjects
of his enquiry. If the following publication
fhould have the good fortune to meet the
approbation of the learned world, it is my
intention to give an account of the lives and
writings of Andrew Fletcher, of Saltount,
and John Law, of Lauriefton, on the fame
plan. The first undertaking will furnish
me with an opportunity of reprefenting the
antient Conftitution of Scotland in what I
apprehend to be a clearer light than has hi-
therto been offered, and of treating the
caufes and confequences of the Union be-
tween the two kingdoms; and the other
will open an ample field for exhibiting the
diforders in the finances of France, occa-
fioned by the expenfive wars of Louis XIV.
and the Miffifipp: fcheme, and for explain-
ing by what means they have been gradually

`remedied, and brought to a state which has
enabled that nation not only to bring her
naval force and her trade to a dangerous ri-
valfhip with this country, but to obtain that
credit by goed faith which, in former times, had
given fo decided a fuperiority to Britain. If
feparate lives of illuftrious perfons fhould be
written on the plan 1 propose, and were
accompanied by portraits, elegantly engraven
by the best artists, and the whole executed
in a fimilar manner, in the same quarto fize,
and with the fame type and paper, they
would gradually form the nobleft work
which has been offered to the republick of
letters in any age or country." Advertisement.
Napier was born in 1550; his father,
Sir Archibald, being mafter of the mint,
and his mother, Janet, daughter of Fran-
cis Bothwell, one of the fenators of the
College of Juftice. He was educated at
St. Andrew's, and there, about 1566,
when he could not be above 16, began
to turn his thoughts to the explanation

*Lord Hailes.

How this has been done, fee p. 52.. We fhall foon prefent our readers with an account of this life by another hand.

of the Apocalypfe. His "plain difco-
very" that the Pope was Antichrift was
printed 1593, and tranflated into French
in 1603.
calculation of the completion of the pro-
"With refpect to his fanciful
phecies concerning the duration of the
world, the year in which this monument
is erected to his memory (1778) imme-
diately fucceeds that fixed for the end of
the world, and, no doubt, must be the
year of judgement, with respect to the
authenticity of his difcovery, and the
merit of thofe arguments which are
brought forward to fupport his claim"
(p. 14, n.) His wonderful invention
to kill 3000 Turks without the hazard
of one Chriftian, of which he made an
experiment, by the destruction of a great
many head of cattle and sheep, but fuf-
fered it humanely to die with him,
fhould have been at leaft examined, as
it refts only on the ipse dixit of the cre-
dulous Sir Thomas Urqhart. See p. 15,
n. Mr. Briggs, mathematical profeffor
of Grefham-college, vifited him every
fummer in Scotland, where he died in
1617, aged 68, and was buried in the
family-vault at Edinburgh, without any
monument. He was twice married, and
left five fons and fix daughters. His
biographer proceeds to defcribe the state
of arithmetick before Napier's difcovery.
He then defcribes what are called Na-
inches fquare, each face divided into 10
pier's bones, rods, or parallelopipeds, 3
equal parts, of which 9 are fquare, and

in the middle, and half of the 10th at
one extremity, or the top, and half at
the other extremity, or the bottom.
Every one of thefe fquares is cut by a
diagonal from left to right, upwards.
At the top of each face is fome one of
the 10 digits, 0, 1, 2, 3, &c. Another
contrivance was his multiplicationis
promptuarium, a box of 200 figured la-
mella, 11 inches long and 1 broad, each
divided into 11 equal parts, of which 10
in the middle are fquare, and two-thirds
third at the other: every one of these
of the 11th at one extremity, and one-
fquares divided by 9 lefs; 100 lamellæ
are each one-fourth of an inch thick,
and the other 100 one-eighth. Another
of his inventions was local arithmetick,
by means of counters properly placed on
a chefs board. The hint of the rods,
and the promptuary, which is only an
improvement on them, is taken from the
Abacus Pythagoricus, or common multi-
plication table. Had the logarithms
remained undifcovered, the promptuary
would, in all probability, have become

univerfally

146. The Scripture Doctrine concerning the Coming of Chrift unfolded, on Principles which are allowed to be common to the Jews both in antient and modern Times; in anfwer to the Objections of Mr. Gibbon and Dr. Edwards on this Subject. To which is added, An Appendix, containing fome Remarks on the Miracles of the Gospel, in reply to an Objection of the latter of thefe Writers. Part I. By N. Nifbett, M. A.

MR. N, whom we have before had occafion to commend, fupports, with much ingenuity, the opinion that the xxivth chapter of Matthew is one continued prediction of the deftruction of Jerufalem, exclufively of the day of judgement.

147. A candid and impartial Reply to the Rev. Dr. Priestley's Letters addreffed by him to the Members of the New Jerufalem; in which bis Objections are fairly confidered, and the Doctrines contained in the Theological Writings of the Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg vindicated from Reafon and Scripture. By J. Proud, N. H. M.

univerfally familiar to those who were engaged in tedious calculations. In fection III. the author "proceeds to unfold the logarithms, the difcovery of which has juftly entitled Napier to the name of the greatest mathematician of his country. Euclid and Archimedes appear to have been very well acquainted with the correspondence of an arithmetical to a geometrical progreffion; and, had the latter been furnished with tables of logarithms, he would have known how to have used them; but it appears not that he was poffeffed of any principles which could lead him to the formation of logarithms. This fection concludes with vindicating Napier as the first inventor of them, against Wood and Kepler, who afcribe them to Longomontanus of Denmark, and Byrgius of Helle. Se&t. IV. contains Napier's method of conftructing the logarithmic canon, or canon muficus. Se&t. V. the common logarithms difcovered by Napier, and prepared by Briggs, and the methods propofed by Napier for computing them. Sect. VI. Improvements on them, after Napier's death, by Mercator, Halley, Cotes, and other mathematicians of the first note. Se&t. VII. treats of the ufe of the logarithm. Then follows an appendix, containing, 1. an analytical theory of the logarithms; 2. a table of Napier's logarithms; 3. trigonometrical theorems; 4. the hyperbola, as connected with the logarithms; 5. properties of the logarithms; and, lastly, a list of books quoted or confulted to elucidate the life and writings of Napier. There are five plates of logarithmical figures; and prefixed is a portrait of Napier, engraved by Bengo, from a drawing by Brown, in the poffeffion of Lord Buing ufed in a more obnoxious fenfe, may chan, which does not eminently exprefs the grave and fweet countenance of his other portraits (p. 19).

145. Several Difcourfes on Special Subjects, preached before the University of Oxford, and on other Occafions. By William Parker, D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to bis Majefty, Rector of St. James, Westminster, and F.R. S. 2 vols.

A Republication of the able defences of revealed religion and the Mofaic hiftory against Bolingbroke, Morgan, and other infidel writers, and against Middleton, a fceptical member of the Eftablament. To thefe are added fermons on particular fubjects and occafions, and an explanation of the difference between the old and new style.

MR. P, a minifter of the Swedenborgian church, fets out with an appeal to reafon and fcripture, and profeffion of great refpect to Dr. P; but ends in fuch vifionary flights of myfticism that there feems no ground to conclude he will induce any change in his antagonist's sen

timents.

148. Converfations on Christian Idolatry, in the Year 1791. Published by Theophilus Lindfey, M. A.

IT is not easy to conceive what end can be answered by annexing to the worfhip of the majority of Chriftians an appellation which, according to Mr. L's own conftruction, is harmlefs; but, be

larly of religious difputants. The pamphlet contains a recapitulation of the fcripture arguments for Unitarianifm, and a wish to fee Dr. Clarke's reformed Liturgy brought into general ufe. Dr. Difney announces his reformation of the Liturgy.

embitter the minds of men, and particu

149. A Sermon, preached at Barnstaple, May 26, 1791, at the Vifitation of the Rev. Thomas Balguy, Archdeacon of Winchefter. By Edward Salter, M. d. Domeftic Chaplain to the Duke of Gloucefter, Pébendary of York, &c.

CONTRARY to the plan of the French Revolutionists*, Mr. S. very

*See before, p. 57, Rabaut de St. Etienne's history of it.

properly

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