Page images
PDF
EPUB

gundy; and while he was feriously employed in all these bagatelles, or was lofing his time in the pleafures of the chace, they made themfelves, really, the fole masters of the government, and managed defpotically all the affairs of the empire."

Now for our late King:

GEORGE II. Elector of Hanover, was at this time King of Eng. land. He had virtues, and capacity; but his paffions were quick and lively in the extreme. His ceconomy had the character of avarice. He was firm in his refolutions, capable of application, incapable of patience, violent, and brave; but he governed England with a conftant eye to the interests of his electorate, and was too little master of himself to rule a nation whofe idol is Liberty.'

We can perceive a likenefs in this portrait; but it is not a Battering, nor even a fair one. The defects come forth in the glaring colours of Fufeli, and the virtues are feebly pronounced. GEORGE was radically an honeft man, true and faithful to every principle of integrity and honour. If he managed parfimoniously his own purfe, he never fwelled it with the plunder of his neighbours; and if (as all Kings muft and ought to do) he rewarded the men who co-operated in the execution of his plans for the honour and advantage of the nation, he never once attempted to encroach on its liberty or its conftitution. The idol remained unmolefted: but Liberty, SIRE, is not an idol, the is a goddess.

ELISABETH FARNESE, Princefs of Parma, and Queen of Spain, who acted a part on the political fcene, is reprefented with vivid colours in the following portrait:

Spartan pride, English obftinacy, Italian cunning, and French vivacity, were combined in forming the character of this fingular woman. She went on audaciously to the accomplishment of her projects. Nothing could difconcert her; nothing could ftop her. She could not breathe but on a throne, and the wished to rule the world.'

The characters of the then minifters are not delineated with lefs judgment and fpirit than thofe of their mafters. Sir RoBERT WALPOLE is only fketched. Cardinal FLEURY is highly finished, and the tenor of his administration is described in a manner which difcovers an extenfive knowlege of the French cabinet in his time. The ways and means of these and other Viceroys are fagacioufly pointed out by FREDERIC, who was an able minifter as well as a great monarch, and kept a fharp look out on the tranfactions of the fraternity.

Some famples of the Royal Author's account of the state and characters of the European nations will properly follow the paffages we have felected relative to their fovereigns and minifters:

England was (in 1740) the moft opulent nation in Europe. Her commerce extended to all parts of the world. Her riches were exceffive, and her resources almost inexhaustible. Yet with all these advantages, he did not hold that rank among the powers of Europe that seemed to belong to her.' This is attributed to the weak ad

2

miniftration

miniftration of Walpole; who knew nothing of foreign affairs, and was principally employed in captivating his mafter by accumulating favings in the civil lift, which garnished the coffers of Hanover, and fecured a majority in the Houfe of Commons. Being once preffed by fome ladies to a party of cards, be told them that he had given over whift and Europe to his brother Horace.'

The people, however, got the better of him, and the occafion of their victory was, fays the King, a pair of ears which the Spaniards had cut from the head of an English fmuggler. His Majefty is very arch and pleafant on the fubject of thefe ears, telling us, that the bloody robe of Cæfar, held up by Mark Anthony to the people, did not produce fuch a violent and vindictive fenfation at Rome, as this pair of ears, expofed to view in the House of Commons, excited at London. The outcries against the Spaniards were violent, and the minifter, who was bent on peace, was obliged to enter into a war against his will. This story about the ears is three times repeated in the space of twenty pages; the Hiftorian thought, perhaps, that a good ftory can not be too often told. So fays the proverb.

What is faid of Holland requires fome correction in one important paffage, which runs thus:

The Hollanders, as citizens, abbor the Stadtholdership, which they look on as a step toward tyranny; and, as merchants,' they have no politics but their intereft.'

Here is a ftrange miftake! The very reverfe of the propofition is true. From the moment that the fceptre of Spanish defpotifm was broken by an incenfed nation, with that immortal hero at its head, whom all ages will revere, the Stadtholder was regarded as the Man of the People, and the love of the people was the true bafis of his influence. His eminent and highly popular office was interwoven, by the union of Utrecht, in the fundamental conftitution of the republic. It was defigned as a centre of union to the confederacy, an inftrument of activity in certain executive branches of government, and an additional fource of protection to the interefts and well being of the people. In a word, it was defigned to correct the defects and incon veniences of a form of government purely ariftocratical, and being kept diftinct from the effential powers of fovereignty, was never fufpected of a tendency to defpotifm, until a late ambitious faction attempted to inflame the imaginations of the people with a phantom of liberty, with a view to crush the Stadtholder, and divide the plunder of his prerogatives among themfelves.

After giving a very interefting account of Ruffia, the Royal Hiftorian obferves, that Peter I. had only time to sketch the outlines of its commerce.

Under the Emprefs Anne, the merchant-fleet of the Ruffians was nothing in comparison with thofe of the fouthern ftates. NeverAPP. REV. Vol. LXXIX. thelefs,

Y y

theless, every thing announces a remarkable increase of population, power, opulence, and commerce, in that empire.'

The national character afcribed to the Ruffians, in the lines that immediately follow, feems fo little adapted to produce fuch a brilliant change, that we are tempted to conjecture, that the prediction now mentioned was inferted in this place after the event happened.

The fpirit of the nation is a mixture of diffidence and cunning. The Ruffians are dexterous in imitating, but are quite deftitute of an inventive genius. The nobles are factious; the guards are formidable to their Sovereigns; the people are stupid, felfish, lazy, drunkards, fuperftitious, and miferable.'

In juftification of the famous partition of Poland, which about feventeen years ago made fuch a noife in Europe, we may here refer to the account, given by the Royal Hiftorian, of the government of that republic, and of the character of its inhabitants:

The kingdom of Poland is a perpetual anarchy. The great families are all divided by feparate and oppofite interefts. They facrifice the public good to their private and felfifh views, and never unite but in the cruel oppreffion of their fubjects, whom they treat rather as beasts of burthen than as human beings. The Poles are vain, haughty in profperity, abject and cringing in adversity. They will fick at nothing to amafs riches, which, when acquired, they lavish with a puerile prodigality. Frivolous, and deftitute of folid judgment, they are always ready to adopt a party with precipitation, and to abandon it without reafon or reflection; and by this inconfiftency of conduct, they involve themselves in the moft diftreffing embarraffments. They have laws, but they are not refpected nor obeyed, for want of coercive juftice. The party of the King acquires a temporary weight, when a confiderable number of vacant employments are to be filled; but lofes ground when he has filled them. The women are fagacious, and full of political enthusiasm, and are intriguing in affairs of government, while their husbands are getting drunk.'

The sketch of the state of letters, arts, and fciences, is deli neated with fpirit, elegance, and, generally, with precifion; and the reflections on the changes which the power and weight of the feveral ftates of Europe had refpectively undergone from the year 1640, are not only folid and judicious, but are expreffed with fingular beauty, energy, and fimplicity of ftyle. It is one of the fineft political portraitures which we have seen.

The fecond chapter commences with the reasons that engaged the King to enter into a war with the Queen of Hungary after the death of the Emperor Charles VI. We shall leave thefe reafons to the difcuffion of our Readers,-of thofe, more especially, who are learned in the law, which is a bottomless pit. The King laid claim to the Duchy of Bergues; but as it was not 'convenient for him to affume it, without the concurrence and adjudication

adjudication of other powers, whofe fupport he wanted, and could not obtain, he put in a claim to Silefia, as Matthew Stradling verfus Stiles did to the Pyed Horfes, and fupported this claim by marching an army into that country, under many difadvantages, and the threatening afpect of a formidable oppofition. Other reafons, befide territorial acquifitions, engaged him in this perilous ftep, which fhew the man. He was animated by feveral motives to give, at the commencement of his reign, proofs of vigour and refolution that would render his name and nation refpected and refpectable in Europe. The Pruffians had hitherto little reputation, and their late King was not refpected by the European powers, as he deferved to be. Our Royal Author explains this in a manner that does fignal juftice to his father, and great honour to himfelf:

The wife and cautious conduct of the late King was looked on as weakness. He had mifunderstandings with the Hanoverians and the Dutch, which he terminated amicably. Thefe inftances of moderation led his neighbours to conclude that he might be infulted with impunity. They thought there was more appearance than reality in his military force; that inftead of able officers he had fencing-mafters, and that instead of valiant foldiers he had only mercenaries, without public fpirit. The world, which is fuperficial and hafty in its judgments, gave credit to these notions, and they were generally adopted. The glory to which the late King afpired, more juft (N. B.) than that of conquerors, had for its object the happinefs of his country, the difcipline of his army, and a wife œconomy and order in the adminiftration of his finances. He avoided war, that he might not lofe fight of thefe excellent and falutary plans of conduct; and thus his reign was rendered peaceable and happy. It was, however, on this account that his character was unjustly appreciated, and that his allies often treated him with as little refpect as his enemies.-George II. King of England, ufed to call him his brother the corporal.-His allies formed plans and changed measures without confulting him. His recruiting officers, who, in confequence of the privileges vefted in Electors, raised men in the Imperial towns, were thrown into dungeons, and treated as the vileft banditti: and even a miferable Bishop of Liege refused to admit his envoy to an audience.'

All these, and other confiderations, perfuaded the son of this pacific Monarch, that moderation is a virtue which ought not, on account of the corruption of the age, to be always ftri&ly practifed by princes and ftatefmen; and that, more especially at the beginning of a reign, it is rather expedient to display a fpirit of vigour than a fpirit of mild nefs. Accordingly, the Royal Reafoner marched into Silefi, and, foon after, the fignal of war was given throughout Europe.

[blocks in formation]

ART. XXI.

Difpenfatorium Fuldenfe, &c. i. e. The Fulda Difpenfatory, in three Parts, adapted to the prefent State of Practice. By FRANCIS ANTONY SCHLERETH, Phil. & Med. Doct. &c. 8vo. pp. 327. Fulda. 1787.

A'

LL Europe feems now employed in improving the practice of phyfic, by the application of the modern difcoveries in chemistry to pharmacy. Moft of the active medicines now in ufe, are taken from the mineral kingdom, and the preparations of them wholly depend on chemical proceffes, which, within twenty years, by being better understood, are greatly fimplified: it would therefore be unpardonable in medical chemifts to continue the unfcientific, and in many inftances erroneous, methods of preparing or compounding the moft material and active medicines, while it is in their power to avail themfelves of the improvements, which the labours of BERGMAN, SCHEELE, BLACK, PRIESTLEY, and other difcoverers, have fuggefted.

Doctor SCHLERETH, privy counsellor and chief physician to the Abbot of Fulda, hath taken on himself the office of compiling a national difpenfatory, a work which, in moft European countries, has been performed by colleges or focieties of learned men; and we do not hesitate to declare, that the Difpenfatorium Fuldenfe, though the work of an individual, contains more fcientific chemiftry than any collegiate Pharmacopoeia that we have yet feen. We hope to prove the propriety of this general affertion by the following analyfis.

The Difpenfatory is divided into three parts; the first contains the Materia Medica; the fecond, preparations or compounds which are not liable to be foon fpoiled, and which ought to be kept in the shops; and the third, fuch preparations as are easily made, and which cannot be long kept.

The Materia Medica is in alphabetical order; each article confifts of the officinal name, the fynonym of Linné, and the German name; to thefe are added, the qualities of the fimple, its uses, and, in fome cafes, especially in active medicines, its dofe, and the form of adminiftering it. We shall copy a few articles as a fpecimen :

Aloë foccotrina, off. gummi-refina. variat. B. Feine Aloe.

Aloë perfoliata Linn.

*Fulda, the capital of a district of the fame name in the circle of the Upper Rhine, lies about 40 miles fouth of Caffel, and 50 miles north-east of Francfort. The abbot is lord of the town and country; a prince of the empire, primate of Germany, and perpetual chancellor to the Emprefs. His revenue is about 30,000l. fterling per anu. and he can raife 5000 men.

TA

• Vim

« PreviousContinue »