brewer, it is always with a certain tone of contempt; as if it were in reality a difgrace to make fhoes, to build a wall, to cut out a coat, and to fell beer." He is the fon of no"body," say they : "his father was an attorney,' A man of fome family comes from a diftant province to Paris, in order, by an employment of fome fort, to improve his fortune. "He is a perfon that nobody fees, that nobody knows." Thefe fatal ideas have made fo ridiculous a progrefs, that you hear every day the most incredible abfurdities uttered with an air of perfect compofure. Cadmus was always afflicted with the Nobil-manic. He would have protected, but never feryed the people. He is not without talents or right difpofitions; but he is totally unfkilled to manage men, and rule the multitude. He is fo far active, as to hate to be quiet; but pot fo far able, as to be of any fervice. He has one quality, that entitles him to our applaufe, he is defirous to be advifed. In the firft affembly of notables Cadmus was guided by a man of genius, who is now no more. This period will be one of the most brilliant in his ftory, if the ftory of Cadmus fhall ever engross a few pages in the annals of his country. The ideas now in vogue are fo different from thofe that reigned forty years ago, that the minds of individuals, that have not kept pace with the progrefs of the age, can fcarcely be expected to comprehend the language that is now spoken in France. and cannot be any thing more than courts of justice;-is-te reafon well from right data, is to inlift oneself. under the banner of the constitution; and yet thefe phrafes, thefe unquestionable truths, four years ago, would infallibly have inclosed a man in the walls of the departed Battile. Perfons the moft liberal, would have laid, "Government can do no otherwife; To fay that the legislative power ought to refide in the nation; that a king has no right to originate taxes; that rank is a mere accidental dif tinction; that all men have an equal title to liberty; that taxes ought to bear impartially upon all orders in the community; that law and reafon make a minifter refponfible for his meafures; that the parliaments are not if people will be fools and think " themfelves infpired, they must be thut out from the order of fociety, "He, who employs no policy in his "language, cannot complain, if he meet with no indulgence." These were the very expreflions of a man in office, upon occation of the imprifon, ment of Mr Linguet. Now, a man, a nobleman, a peer of France, educated in the old school, and who has remained stationary from the moment he was introduced into the world, can he think any thing elfe, but that the whole nation is delirious?Such is the fituation of Cad mus. The code of military discipline was written in blood; but, however terrible it be, it does not go fo far as to ordain, that men fhould kill their fathers, their wives, their children, their brothers, and their fifters. Now, if the troops, that were before quar. tered at Paris, had fired upon the people, all thefe parricides must neceffar rily have followed. I know very well, that there was bad generalfhip in fuffering feven thoufand men to winter at Capua; but, this error once committed, was it not neceflary to abide by the confequences, and, a bove all, to know beforehand, that you were haftening thofe very evils you defired to prevent ? It is only a fmall number of rational beings, that are capable of calculating what a body of a million of men are able to effect. Paris, Lon don, and Calcutta, require a different mode of policy from any that is ex emplified in the annals of history. Military Military men, who pretend, that difcipline alone can compenfate the refources of a multitude, muft fhut their eyes upon dreadful examples. We will mention only what the Turks did in the campaign of 1788. Two hundred and fifty thoufand Imperialifts spent their force in vain, against this mighty mass of men, undifciplined, but courageous, and who felt all the energies of tanguinary refentment, against enemies whom they regarded as unjust aggreffors. Cadmus ! you muft either die untimely the martyr of your good old principles; or die in your bed, a consert to new ones! LABUI S. (M. Bailly, Mayor of Paris, one of the Forty Members of the French Academy, and Author of a celebrated Work upon the Hiftory of Aftronomy.) ONE of thofe men of fenfe, who having always exercifed their minds upon fcientifical truth, become, as it were, the reprefentatives and arche-types of reafon, and who in an untried career, enlightened by her rays, advance with futficient deliberation, not to incur the hazard of mifcarriage. Of fuch a fituation we may easily trace the effects. Hence that moderation, which does not derive from the fyftematical digeftion of a plan, and the certainty of realfing it in the execution; but which flows from that apprehenfivenels of error, natural to him who undertakes to fpeak in a foreign language. Hence that timidity, which we may well excufe in a man, who finds himfelf fituated in the middle place, between the king and the nation, between the fear of difpleafing and the defire to be useful, between the love of virtue and inexperience, between perfonal integrity and courtly intrigue. To prefide with fuccefs in a national affembly, it is requifite, that one fhould be admitted into the fecret of the national wifhes, that one should hold the rudder, and steer the veffel of the ftate, along the tempeftuous fea of contending opinions, and amidst the rocks and quickfands of perfonal interests. Then it is, that the knowledge of mankind is the most precious of all qualifications. Happy the man, called to this diftinguifhed fituation, who can diftinguish the courtier from the patriot, the man of arrogant pretenfions from the man of ability, the flave of ambition from the lover of mankind. One may be learned, logical, and fhrewd; one may be skilful to parry the arguments and objections of a private circle, nay, poffefs a thousand claims to public efteem, and yet want the effential qualities of a prefident. Such things have been, and fuch things may occur again. A cold manner is not expreffive of true firmness, any more than bland and gentle qualities are always expreffive of irrefolution. Too much referve leads to miftruft; too pliable a temper encourages the neglect of difcipline and order. What a ftrange thing is that, which men have agreed to denominate virtue? It verges with hardly any exception upon a neighbouring vice, and a mathematical ine is all that feparates them. Has Labies given occafion to thefe difquifitions? Yes: not that they are abfolutely applicable to him, but that they infallibly ftart up in the mind of him that diffects him. They are not therefore altogether impertinent; for, while I am painting thefe portraits, no idea can enter my mind, that is not fuggefted by the countenance I undertake to copy. While Labuis was nothing, people fuppofed that he would have been fomething, omething, if he were trusted with an nterefting fituation; when he became fomething, every body faw that Labuis was nothing. Such is the hiftory of many a Frenchman. The faculty of fpeaking with facility and ease misleads us. May it not be fufpected, that those, who afferted, that the nation was not ripe for affembling the ftates-general, were not altogether in the 'wrong? Who does not fee, that the people, intoxicated with a pretending independence, will indulge in repeated exceffes; that the clergy, menaced with a reduction of their credit, will exert a double fhare of ingenuity to recover their ancient fituation; that the nobility, feeing themfelves reduced to their juft va lue, will combat for the chimeras in the contemplation of whichthey fondly indulged; and that, in a mafs thus conftituted, there will not be found force enough to fix immoveably the foundations of a conftitution? It is very poffible, that better deputies could not have been elected; but it is by no means clear, that, fuch as they are, they are fufficient for their undertaking. We have yet to expiate a complete century of wit, gaiety, and politenefs. When we fhall have renounced our characteristic frivolity, we fhall not immediately be fit for the office of governing ourselves. To Louis the Fourteenth and the regent, we were indebted, for the petty ad vantage of being the moft polished nation in Europe; to Louis the Sixteenth we fhall perhaps be indebted for the dawn of a regeneration, of which our grandchildren will reap the benefits. It is for them that we fow, and it would be folly to expect that we should ourselves enjoy the fiuits of our meritorious labours. ZOHOR. (The Marquis de Condorcet, one of the Forty Members of the French Aca. demy, author of a Treatife upon Probabilities, a Treatife upon the States General, the Life of M. Turgot, and feveral other performances.) THE merit of Zohor is of a solid, not of a brilliant defcription. He paffionately loves the friends of mankind, the friends of liberty, the friends of reafon, and the friends of order. Efteemed by the judicious, he is not the fubject of vulgar panegyric. He has taken no care to obtain the friendfhip of thofe female cabals, whose activity is fo inceffant to draw the man they favour out of his native obfcurity, He has not endeavoured to fecure to himself thofe fplendid fuffrages, that impofe on the multitude. He is not anxious to be quoted in the noisy circles of agitation and paffion. Hẻ has lived for himself and his friends, and he has lived a little for glory. Zohor, inured to those profound meditations, which by means of arithmetical proceffes change conjecture into demonftration, is probably unadapted for those turbulent difcuffions, which characterise numerous affemblies, thrown into fermentation by the variety of interefts, the collifion of paffions and the extraordinary crifes that may be expected to refult. Unaccustomed to fpeak in public, he cannot command the refources of a Demofthenes, and is unable to subjugate the mind by the eloquence and energy of his diction. But he amply compenfates for the want of thefe brilliant qualifications, by a feries of study, that enables him to difcern what it is that will be ufeful to his country, and what are the remedies that her misfortunes demand. Zohor is perhaps the laft defender of that philofophy, fprung up in England, and received for a moment in France, the primeval caufe of the revolution which is now taking place; that philofophy, which would produce the happiness of the world; if, re ftrained ftrained within proper limits, its advantages had never been exaggerated by enthufiaftic advocates, and never profcribed by the apprehensive and the timid. If Zohor do not unfurl its ftandard like Voltaire, if he do not deify it like Dideros, it is however impoffible to miftake his real fentiments; and we may fay of him, "He feeks the fhade, but first he would be feen*." He has invented nothing, and yet is infinitely fuperior to ordinary writers. Why? Because he has advanced and improved the art of thinking. If his imagination be parfimonious and scanty, his judgment is luminous and found; and he will prove of more real ufe to mankind, than twenty writers, that afpire with justice to the praise of genius. A woman, who had formerly fome reputation, attacked him with virulence, without being able to draw from him a word of reply. This philofophic moderation has been much praifed, but little imitated. Zohor enjoys a name, that his labours have made illuftrious; all Europe does him this juftice. Let it be obferved, that extenfive celebrity is no trifling poffeffion, at a time, when the world appears to have confpired for the destruction of mediocrity, and has agreed to repulfe with contempt the ambitious pretenders, that befiege on all fides the temple of renown. One merit that belongs to Zohor, is, to have extended the limits of "Geometry, not only through all the "regions of natural fcience, but al"fo into questions of moral confi"deration, which are in their own nature complicated, fortuitous, and "variabie. This obfervation is per"haps matter enough for a long wind"ed panegyric; but we content our "felves with dropping a hint upon "the fubjects, without undertaking " a finifhed delineation." A man foon becomes diffatisfied with what he already poffeffes, and the fuffrage, we had almost faid of the human fpecies, does not content Zohor. He burns to feek for fame in a new career; already he regrets fo many nights paffed in the patience of calculation; he haftens to plunge himself in the ocean of politics, and feeks in the tempeft of debate for a new fource of glory. Zohor is altogether averfe to those numerous circles, where the female fex prefides; where they stamp with their anathema thofe very works, whofe merit they are unable to dif pate; where they loudly applaud me. diocrity, when united with a rank that may patronife or may perfecute; where their upid lovers are encouraged for no other purpose, than to make of them echos, which may fpread far and wide the defpotic decrees of this abfolute fenate. He is a member of that academy, which Richelieu, who had a fpice of the pedant, and not a grain of the philofopher, intended to compofa of grammatical critics. But Zohor knows better than any man living, how puerile it is to be bufied about: words, when natural fcience prefents us every year with a new phenomenon ; when nature, hunted to the quick, continually fuffers one and another of her fecrets to escape her; and when commerce is at length become an object of ratiocination and faience. Zoor ftrictly conforms himself to the advice of his mafter and friend, the late M. d'Alembert, who used to fay, that "the genuine fage was be"neficent and kind towards every "human being, familiar in the fo"ciety of a few, intimate with only ❝ one." *Et fugit ad falices et fe cupit ante videri. Virgil. The 248 Life of the late John Elwes, Efq; Member in three fucceffive Parliaments for Berkshire. By Edward Topham, Efq;* : T HE family name of Mr Elwes was Meggot and as his name was John, the conjunction of Jack Meggot, made ftrangers fometimes imagine that his intimates were addreffing him by an affumed appellation. His father was a brewer of great eminence. His dwelling-houfe and offices were fituated in Southwark; which borough was formerly represented in parliament by his grandfather, Sir George Meggot. The father died while the late Mr Elwes was only four years old; fo, little of the character of Mr Elwes is to be attributed to him: but from the mother it may be traced at once-for though fhe was left nearly One Hundred Thousand Pounds by her husband -fhe ftarved hetfelf to death! At an early period of life he was fent to Weftminster school, where he remained for ten or twelve years. During that time he certainly had not mifapplied his talents-for he was a good claffical fcholar to the laft and it is a circumftance not a little remarkable, though well authenticated, that he never read afterwards. Never was he feen at any period of his future life with a book, nor has he in all his different houfes now left behind him, books that would, were they collected together, fell for two pounds. His knowledge in accounts was ftill more trifling-and in fome measure may account for the total ignorance he was always in as to his own affairs. oned the most defperate; the young horfes were always put into his hands, and he was the rough-rider to the other two. During this period he was introduced to Voltaire, whom he fomewhat refembled in point of appearance; but tho' he has mentioned this circumstance, the genius, the fortune, the character of Voltaire, never feenied to ftrike him-they were out of his contemplation, and his way: the horfes in the riding-fchool he remembered much longer, and their respective qualities made a much deeper impreffion on him. On his return to England, after an absence of two or three years, he was to be introduced to his uncle, the late Sir Harvey Elwes, who was then living at Stoke, in Suffolk, perhaps the most perfect picture of human penury that ever exifted. The attempts at faving money were, in him, fo extraordiuary, that Mr Elwes, perhaps, never quite reached them, even at the laft period of his life. Of what temperance can do, Sir Harvey was an inftance. At an early period of life he was given over for a confumption, and he lived till betwixt eighty and ninety years of age. On his death, his fortune, which was at leait 250,000l. fell to his nephew, Mr Meggot, who by will, was ordered to affume the name and arms of Elwes. From Westminster fchool, Mr El- To this uncle, and this property, wes removed to Geneva, where he Mr Elwes fucceeded, when he had foon entered upon purfuits more a- advanced beyond the fortieth year of greeable to him than ftudy. The ri- his age. And for fifteen years preding-mafter of the academy there, had vious to this period, it was, that he then to boast, perhaps, three of the was known in the more fashionable best riders in Europe, Mr Worley, circles of London. He had always Mr Elwes, and Sir Sydney Mea- a turn for play, and it was only late dows. Of the three, Elwes was reck-in life, and from paying always, and *An abridgment. not |