comes out in the dufk of the evening and morning, and collects its food; this it does chiefly on the wing when it finds abundance of moths and other infects ftirring. In the month of July, it is faid to live entirely on the dorr beetle, or cock-chaffer; and from this cir cumftance Charlton has called it the Dorr-Hawk.

"The notes of this bird are of two kinds: the loudeft,' fays Pennant, fo much refembles that of a large fpinning-wheel, that the Welch call this bird aderyny droell, or the Wheel Bird.' And he farther adds, it begins its fong moft punctually on the clofe of day, fitting ufually on a bare bough, with its head fower than the tail, the lower jaw quivering with the efforts. The noife is fo very violent, as to give a fenfible vibration to any little building it chances to alight on, and emit this fpecies of note. The other is a fharp fqueak. which it repeats often: this feems to be a note of love, as it is obferved to reiterate it when in purfuit of the female among the trees.'

"The male is diftinguished from the female by a large oval white fpot, fituated on the inner web of the first three quill feathers, and another at the ends of the two exterior feathers of the tail.

"The bill is alike in both male and female: it is fhort, but the gape is remarkably wide. It is, probably, from the structure of the mouth, that the ancients fuppofed this bird fucked the teats of goats. In the days of Ariftotle, this ridiculous notion was generally prevalent; but among modern naturalifts, none except Scopoli feems inclined to credit fuch an opinion.

"The female makes no neft, but lays her eggs on the bare ground. They are ufually two in number, of a whitish hue, and marbled with brown.

"This is a very confined genus. Latham enumerates, including his fupplementary volume, but feventeen fpecies, and of thefe we find only our prefent fubject, mentioned as a native of Europe. It appears to be an inhabitant of every country on the continent, but is very fparingly diffufed in fome parts, and no where common: it is also faid to inhabit Africa and Afia. Sonnerat met with one on the coast of Coromandel. With us it is a bird of paffage, and arrives about the latter end of May. It entirely difappears in the northern parts of the kingdom in Auguft, but does not quit the fouthern parts till September.

"The fize of this fpecies is ten inches and a half, breadth twenty two inches and a half, weight two ounces and three quarters." Pl. 67.

It is with great fatisfaction that we obferve the general encouragement which is now given to works illuftrative of Natural History; particularly thofe which refer to the animals of our own country. Many of these publications are expenfive. This of Mr. Donovan, confidering the beauty of the plates, cannot be faid to be high-priced; and we truft he will continue to be fupported by the public, till he fhall have exhaufted the fubjects of his two pleafing works. Practice has produced great improvement in the style of his descriptions.

ART. X. Mr. Burke's Memorials on French Affairs.

(Concluded from our laft, p. 654.)

EMORIAL the fecond (or now third) Heads for Confiler.

ation on the prefent State of Affairs, written in November, 1792. It has always been reputed to be the true policy of Great Britain, to oppose the increase of the territories of France on the Continent. After the difaftrous retreat of the Duke of Brunswick, the armies of France had penetrated into Germany, menaced Flanders, and her fleet had a temporary maftery in the Mediterranean; hereby Italy was threatened with pillage, and the fouthern coaft of Spain commanded, while her western fhores and the Flota, were exposed to the armaments of the republic on the ocean; and the northern frontier of that kingdom, which "is not a fubftantive power, but muft lean on France or England," laid open to an attack by land.

Such is the abstracted representation of the state of things, at the time of his writing, given by Mr. Burke. He then proceeds to point out the bad confequences which must be experienced by this country, if Spain fhould be fuffered to fall into an abfolute dependence upon France; to prevent which, he, in this Memorial, recommended that we should again have recourse to a measure, by which the ambition of that nation for aggrandizement, had been so often restrained, and which never was fo needful, as at that juncture; the forming of a grand alliance between the Emperor, the Dutch, the Swifs, and the Kings of Sardinia and Spain, against the republic, of which we were to fet ourselves at the head, and prefcribe the object. The danger of each of thefe powers being confidered, he supposes this pre-eminence would have been easily accorded to us, to procure our voluntary affiftance. He defcribes alfo, the different modes by which the acceffion of fome other great powers to this alliance, might have been moft probably fecured.

Such an alliance, Mr. Burke further afferts, ought fedulously to have avoided both the military and political errors, of the two combined fovereigns, in the preceding campaign. Thofe of each kind he defcribes; on what he fays of the former, no remark will be here made; on the latter he obferves, that the two powers at the outfet, very much injured their cause, by admitting," that they had nothing to do in the interior arrangements of France, in contradiction to the tenor of the public

law

law of Europe;" for when they afterwards infifted on the restoration of the royal authority," they found themselves involved in a manifeft contradiction; and from this they thought to escape, by a new abfurdity, which had not the falle varnish of a feeming refpect to the rights of others, to cover it over; which was, that the perfon of the monarch of France, was every thing; and the monarchy, and the intermediate orders of the ftate, by which monarchy was upheld, were nothing." The treatment of the French nobility and gentry, who, on their invitation, had facrificed every thing, to take arms and join them, is here faid to have been impreffed with the fuli fpirit of this maxim. The two fovereigns thruft them wholly from their councils; difcountenanced, rejected, and difgraced them. Thus no restoration of "a government really French," was to be expected from their fuccefs; but that" of a nominal monarch, abfolute as over them;" but who "was to be a vice-roy to the Emperor, and the King of Pruffia."

The principles and views of the grand confederacy, here recommended by Mr. Burke, were widely different from thefe; its first object was to have been to fecure the monarchyt, as principal in the defign; and the fecond to free the monarch, if poffible. To effect the former, the free members of the several orders of the state, and the emigrants alone could fall under that defcription, were to have proceeded to declare a regent; who ought to have been recognised by the allied powers. We fhall referve what we have to say on this measure, to our observations on the following tract, where Mr. Burke has added much to what he has here laid down; obferving only, that this mode of conduct toward the emigrants, would have amounted to the firmeft guarantee which could have been given, that they were not to hazard their lives again, to establish a foreign domination in their native country.

We have here alfo an account of a scheme, which might pass for a counter-project to this: a congress of the European powers was proposed to have been formed, for the purpose of a defenfive alliance, against the open aggreffion, or fecret practices, of the French against other ftates; the parties to which, were to have engaged to recognise the new republic, and to make peace with it, on the release of the royal family an

* See Appendix title ift. Cafes of interference, from Vattel's Law of Nations; we alfo refer our readers to Grotius de jure Belli ac pacis, 1. 2. cap. 25; Bellum juftè fufcipi, § 5, pro amicis, § 6, imo pro hominibus quibufvis.

+ What fpecies of monarchy is here meant, is defined in the first Memorial; fee our article on it.

expedient

expedient much too feeble, in the opinion of this great politician, for the strength of the neceffity. For every confederacy has a weakness inherent in its very nature, increafing as the number of parties to it increases; and this defect is most fatal to those formed for the purpose of mutual defence. An offenfive confederacy can hold together longer; and it might have been hoped, had that recommended here taken place, that, founded on fo universal and so just an intereft, it might have held together long enough to have produced its effect. We finish our account of this paper, with what we believe to be a true maxim of politics, confirming the laft pofition of Mr. Burke; although it will expofe us to the hazard of being reputed the difciples of a very unilluminated school; "that the nobleness of a common end, is the strongest and most lasting bond of common union.”

Before the use could be made of this Memorial which Mr. Burke had intended, France had actually commenced the war against us, by her decrees, and the attack of the Dutch territories, guaranteed by us. Thus the Government was obliged to join the confederacy; and had not the power of ftipulating for the direction of its object, as propofed by Mr. Burke.

Memorial 3. Remarks on the Policy of the Allies with refpect to France, begun in October, 1793. This Memorial is a piece of great curiofity and importance. Mr. Burke was drawn to the confideration of the fubject, by information which he had received of the intention of the allies, to concur in a manifesto, which was to contain their intended system of conduct with regard to France. Some incidents induced him, for a time, to lay afide his defign before it was completed. To what he had at first written, he afterwards made confiderable additions: hence, perhaps, the matter has not that precife fucceffion and arrangement it would have received, if it had been all compofed at once. We fhall endeavour, therefore, to give a regular analysis of the greater principles and plans which pervade the whole, with a few obfervations on them.

Three capital points are here confidered. The propriety of the publication of a manifefto at that juncture; fome errors in the antecedent conduct of the allies; and the system to be pursued by them.

The manifefto, Mr. Burke obferves, as far as addressed to the natives of France, must confift principally of two partsmenaces and promifes. But, as every crime, which menaces are calculated to restrain, was already committed, the time for them was over: nor did the intended moment of the publication feem to him fó chofen, that promifes could procure many ad

herents

herents to the allies in the interior of France; becaufe the effect of fuch engagements, on the parties to whom they are addreffed, muft depend on the prefent power, or the difpofition exhibited, in the paft conduct of the parties promifing; in neither of which could the royalifts then see much reason to confide. Of this the following circumftances are brought forward in proof. The tide of victory was, at that very juncture, turning against the allies; the attempt on Dunkirk had recently failed; nor was the contemptuous neglect, in which the Princes of France were left, in the village of Hanau, by thofe of the confederacy; or their confidering the emigrants as nothing in their own caufe; or their agreeing to a cartel, which left them, when taken prifoners, to the executioner, any marks of a difpofition, on the parts of the allies, to engage the confidence of the royalists. The addrefs to them, at that jun&ture, must, therefore, have been without effect.

:

We come now to the opinion of Mr. Burke, on the practical fyftem pursued by the two leading powers of the confederacy, which he thows to be fuch as muft fpeedily diffolve it. Auftria, who had difmantled her frontier, faid, Give me that of France: Britain wanted to deftroy her marine, and to poffefs her colonies and every victory gained by the armies of Pruffia, or the navy of Spain, in conjunction with those two powers, muft relatively have depreffed the two latter, compared with their allies; or might ultimately have reduced them into dependence upon those powers. It is further represented, that, in cafe the arms of the confederates fhould have prevailed over those of France, and the lofs of her frontier had not been followed by that of her ftrength, her efforts to regain it would have involved Europe in a long fucceffion of wars : and, if her power had been annihilated, the modern iniquity of a treaty of partition, would probably have put an end to her political exiftence. Mr. Burke alfo infifts, that while France continues Jacobine, no country can, in reality, be aggrandized. This is an important truth; for, until the principle of anarchy be fubdued in Europe, an unfeen decay daily corrupts the parent-trunk of every empire; and the further its branches fhoot out, and the larger they grow, the more furely the first ruffle of the atmosphere will tear them from the original ftem, and expofe to view its internal part, in the laft stage of decay,

The fyftem of conduct for the allies, as laid down by Mr. Burke, is now to be explained. He determines, firft, the agents to be selected to act in conjunction with them; and, in the fecond place, the principles to be proceeded on.