Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

in that kingdom; the chief of these refources are, perhaps, to be fought for in the youth and tractable difpofition of the fovereign;

England, no fooner arifen to the meridian of glory and power, than it begins to experience the ills that refult from them; overwhelmed, as it were, by its greatnefs and conquests; expofed to all the horrors of a civil war, under a prince who is univerfally admired for the natural lenity of his temper; and to the ravages of luxury, notwithstanding the pattern of fimplicity which this fame prince exhibits to his fubjects; neceffitated, whatever may be the fuccefs of the American war, to fee from the present hour in her children only fo many inexorable enemies or redoubtable flaves; paying, by the most enormous taxes for the honour of holding the first rank in Europe, and by the lofs of its morals, for that of being the repofitory of almost all the gold of the globe; enjoying however, notwithstanding the inconceivable riches of individuals, only of an imaginary national wealth; a wealth, which may in one moment be deftroyed, and leave to its poffeffors only the melancholy feelings of regret, corruption, civil animofities, and defpotifm;

Italy, reduced to nothing, or at least to the enjoyment of a delicious climate and the reliques of its ancient magnificence, under a government which owes its prefent weakness to the lenity it has fo long adopted;

[ocr errors]

Spain, affording only a great name and the fhadow of its former power; a fhadow which is ftill fpread over a greater portion of the globe than was ever under the dominion of the Cæfars, but which will foon give way to the influence of liberty if the Americans fhould preferve it;

[ocr errors]

Germany, on the eve of a revolution which for more than three centuries has taken place around it, and labouring to accelerate the moment in which its prefent foedal ftate will give way to an abfolute monarchy, under which its princes will be confidered only as peers of the Imperial court, or as its chaplains ;

Sweden, juft delivered from an ariftocracy, which, like all aristocratic governments was humiliating and defpotic; and feeking for protection in the abfolute authority of one man against the inconveniencies of limited and divided power, it being better at any rate to be under one tyrant than many;

Poland, imbibing from its wounds a principle of activity, which will perhaps bring with it more real ftrength than it ever derived from its ftate of feeming fecurity; and waiting only for an hereditary fovereign to aftonish, perhaps to terrify its neighbours, and to avenge itself one day or other, at their expence, for the humiliation into which it feems juft now to be fallen ;

Pruffia and Ruffia, rifing ftates, exhibiting, like Hercules from the cradle, a degree of ftrength, which is feldom to be met with in infancy, and having to fear only from the premature vigour they feem to announce, and which cannot fail to ex

cite the jealoufy and envy of their neighboues. The latter of thefe, Ruffia, affords us a very extraordinary view of four fucceffive female fovereigns, all of them glorious, and more efpecially the reigning emprefs. A proof this, that the Salic laws are as abfurd as they are unjuft. The talents for administration may be common to both fexes; and councils and fupport being effentially neceffary to fo elevated a ftation, a female fovereign will naturally feek for them in the oppofite fex. Every throne therefore from which women are excluded, will be influenced by their intrigues, whereas thofe to which they have a right of luc ceffion will be fupported by men: but with this effential difference, that the favourite to whom the male crown chances to be fubjected, having arifen to this afcendency through the channel. of vice and intrigue, and being tempted by the uncertainty of her fituation to be rapid in her acquifitions, never fails to difgrace the reign in which the governs: whereas, a woman who is confecrated by the royal unction, is directed by nobler views; confcious of the legitimacy of her elevation fhe derives from it a dignity of fentiment; and her own perfonal intereft attaches her to the intereft of her fubjects. She enjoys more feelingly, and perhaps better, than a man would do, the glory fhe derives to herself and the nation, because less was expected from her. In short, the taste of her fex for great things, and the idea of its weakness, render her fo much the more ftudious to distinguish and countenance merit."

Mr. Linguet's obfervations on Afia and Africa difcover the fame remarkable ftrain of philofophical reflexion; but, what is moft calculated to excite regard, is the author's fpeculations on the confequences that would refult from the independency of America. The fpirited and agreeable manner in which this interefting fubject is treated, will, we doubt not, render the following quotation acceptable to every reader.

The fate of the American colonies being now fubmitted to the decifion of arms, it would be to no purpose to investigate the justice of their claims to independency. But I could wish to inquire of politicians in either hemifphere, whether they have feriously reflected on all the effects which fuch an independency may be expected to produce.

In the first place, will not the fuccefs of the Americans be an endless fource of divifions amongst themselves? From what we know of the human mind, ambition and a love of power will foon begin to actuate the operations of the congrefs and provincial affemblies. In all ariftocratic governments there is more of the parade, but perhaps lefs of the reality of patriotifm than under an abfolute monarch. The example of feven little provinces near the Zuiderzee, which have preferved unity after fuccefs, and freedom notwithstanding their wealth, is by no means applicable to the vast aud almoft boundless extent of the American colonies. Holland, deriving not only the luxuries

but

but even the neceffaries of life from other countries, would seem to be reftrained from corruption by the frugal hand of nature herfelf; but this is not the cafe with America: nor have the Americans the fame motives to revolt that formerly influenced the Dutch, who were groaning under the moft oppreffive tyranny. Nor will they, like the Dutch, be able to maintain one common intereft and an unity of plans and operations; but will find a thousand objects for rivalship arifing the moment their independency becomes acknowledged, and their commerce free and uninterrupted. In fhort, without having had occafion for, or perhaps without producing a Brutus, they will foon meet with a Cæfar, and will then feelingly regret under the weight of a national defpotifm, the yoke of a diftant government which had ftrength fufficient to protect, though it was too weak to opprefs them.

In the next place, the first manœuvre of the Americans as independent ftates, will be to open an afylum to Europeans; and this will be an endless fource of emigration from the old to the new world. The crowd of active and reflefs minds, whom the hopes of a better fortune, and the dawn of liberty in a rifing ftate, may attract to the western hemisphere, will not fail to multiply the feeds of disorder there; they will carry with them their vices, their avidity, their averfion to repofe as well as to useful labour, and their facility to adopt new projects. In fhort, they will be found to afford more accomplices to the ambition of a tyrant, than useful promoters of agriculture and commerce.

But this is not all. It is well known how baneful fuch transplantations are to the generation which experiences them ; and they will be more especially fo in America, where culti vation is already extended over the best and most fertile parts of the continent. The new comers will be admitted only to the refuse of the ancient inhabitants, and of courfe will be obliged to take up their abode on fome unfruitful foil, or in those swamps which are fo fatal to the ftranger. And here the emigrants, weakened by a change of nourishment and climate, and oppreffed by penury and difeafe, will foon be rendered odious by their complaints, and fufpicious by their murmurings, till at length they will ficken and die, lamenting the error that drew them to fo inhofpitable a fhore. Their pofterity will probably be few in number, fo that although Europe will have loft, America will be hardly faid to have gained them: and the former being in this manner evacuated, and having conftantly thofe fifcal charges to fupport, with which the preceding reigns will not have failed to load their pofterity, the contributions must neceffarily be increased in proportion as the number of contributors is diminished; and who knows to what catastrophes this unfortunate remnant may be reduced by an excess of mifery and oppreffion ?

[ocr errors]

Suppofing however thefe Speculations to be ill founded, and that the new world fhould be able to procure from its own

ftock

flock a population, which shall not materially affect the rest of the univerfe, ftill it must be acknowledged, that America, when well peopled, will no longer have any occafion for the productions or affiftance of Europe. Its climate, modified even in its rudeft parts by the hand of labour, and rendered profitable in others by an induftrious cultivation, will foon enable it to difpenfe with the dangerous and fatiguing commerce of our feas. Its inhabitants, furrounded by feas which abound with fish; mafters of the richest mines; in the neighbourhood of the Weft Indies; and performing in two months, with winds that are conftantly in their favour, voyages which are always tedious, and very often dangerous, to European fhips; receiving without trouble, and without danger, on the one hand fugar, indigo, and the most delicious fruits; and on the other fpices, precious ftones, and fine linen; and thus drawing to them the riches and luxuries of the two hemifpheres, will foon become the masters of our deftiny. It will be then from the neceffity of things that we fhall depend on them, more than ever they depended on us, through the rage, or if you will, the wisdom of our prohibitive laws. It will be no longer by Cairo or the Cape of Good Hope, that we fhall procure the treasures of Africa, or the perfumed productions of Afia; but from factories established in the feas of America-And alas! what return fhall we be able to make for these things to the lords of Brazil, and the proprietors of Peru ?

But their abounding with gold and diamonds will be far from conflituting the whole of their fuperiority over us; they will add to thefe, all the powers which ftates, as well as individuals, derive from the vigour of youth and a confcioufnefs of profperity. Their fplendor being the effect of a rapid revolution; and not having paffed through the flow and almost imperceptible gradations which have marked the rife of other nations, they will find themfelves on a fudden in the full poffeffion of maturity, and this, with all the energy of a youthful conftitution. Even their inteftine divifions will perhaps have the falutary effect of preventing the too fpeedy progrefs of corruption amongst them.

Then, they will foon aim at crufhing the languid powers of Europe: they will come to aftonish and conquer their confufed metropolis, deploring in indigent old age the ingratitude of her children; or if they fhould not deign to avenge the evils fhe occafioned to their predeceffors, the will owe her fafety to' her weakness. She will not be conquered by them because the will be no longer an object worthy of fubjection. The rude and barbarous flate into which he will be fallen, will ferve only to difguft the poffeffors of the most brilliant empire the art of politics has as yet given birth to.

The time of fuch a revolution is uncertain; but it will be inevitable if America fhould become flourishing and independent. We leave to the politicians of Europe to determine how far reaVOL. XLVII. Jan. 1779

E

[ocr errors]

fon and justice and humanity will permit them to accelerate or retard its accomplishment.-They are to judge too whether the prefent generation in concurring towards it, will avoid more ills than they render certain to pofterity; whether it is ftill in their power to prevent it; and whether our minifters, abforbed in their little fpeculations of the day, have not been too inattentive to a revolution which would feem to be more interesting and critical, than any which the annals of the world can prefent us with from the time of its civilization.'

Upon the fuppofition of American independency, these obfervations feem to be no lefs juft than ingenious; but, perhaps, there is at present more improbability that fuch an event will take place, than there might be at the time when the author wrote these remarks. At any rate, the confequences above fuggefted must be confidered as a diftant profpect; and there is reafon to think that should it ever be realized, the event will prove far from advantageous to Europe in general, as well as to the nation most effentially interested to oppose the efforts of American ambition.

Our author's remarks on the prefent ftate of legislation in Europe are particularly fevere. He obferves, that, except Pruffia, Sardinia, and Ruffia, the fovereigns of which have attempted fome improvements, there is hardly perhaps one nation that has a code of laws founded on reflexion, or which is agreeable either to reafon or humanity. His opinion of the military establishments in Europe is almoft equally unfavourable to the policy on which they are founded.

On the fubject of finances we meet with the following paffage, which favours more of farcaftic petulance than of juft and candid reflexion.

Clear, fimple taxes, the produce and extent of which might have been easily ftated, would have been too alarming to the fubject. Were it propofed to an individual to give up a quarter of his poffeffions to his fovereign, he would confider the propofer as a plunderer and a tyrant. The aim of minifters has therefore been to levy, by duties on a thousand different articles, a fum of money, which would terrify the people were it to be collected by a finge tax. The act of parliament by which a new tax is impofed, ferves to ftifle difcontent; and thus the pockets of the fubject, in the course of every year, are infenfibly drained of half their revenue. In this ingenious manoeuvre, which is fo infulting to the human mind, confifts the whole secret of financing.'

Thefe Speculations in general abound with good fenfe, as well as refined obfervations, though, in fome inftances, the author appears to be too much influenced by ingenuity and novelty of reflexion.

[ocr errors]
« ForrigeFortsæt »