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which furnishes proofs of the ultimate superiority of moral action over the powers either of climate or the lower parts of our nature, does not permit us to doubt, that the progress of such a plan will be accelerated beyond the conception of vulgar minds. We refer, not without pride, to the late progress made by the Quakers in North America, over far more obstinate prejudices, in proof how soon liberal motives, substantiated by corresponding conduct, would gain the confidence of the African Princes, and induce their tribes to refer to us as counsellors and guides.

It is surely not to be feared, for the time to come, that in contempt of uniform experience, we should ever attempt, for the sake of commerce, to govern by force of arms, an already peopled country. We have heard indeed, the prosperity of America declared by Lord Sidmouth, when he was Minister of State, to be an awful warning to Great Britain, never hereafter to colonize a new country. Merciful Heaven! that the brethren of our ancestors should have founded a mighty empire, indefinite in its increase,—an empire, which retains and is spreading all that constitutes Country' in a wise man's feelings, viz. the same laws, the same customs, the same religion, and above all the same language; that, in short, to have been the mother of prosperous empires, is to be a warning to Great Britain! And whence this dread? Because, forsooth, our eldest born, when of age, had set up for himself; and not only preserving, but, in an almost incalculable proportion, increasing the advantages of former reciprocal intercourse, had saved us the expense and anxiety of defending, and the embarrassment of governing a country three thousand miles distant! That this separation was at length effected by violence, and the horrors of a civil war, is to be attributed solely to the ignorance and corruption of the many, and the perilous bigotry of a few. But Africa is free from the objections even of this Genus Attonito rum,' both from the climate, and the absence of those tempta tions, which have been found too powerful in India.

The Africans are more versatile, more easily modified than perhaps any other known race. A few years of strict honesty and humane attention to their interests, affections, and prejudices, would abolish the memory of the past, or cause it to be remem bered only as a fair contrast. The Legislature of Great Britain having once decreed that no territorial conquest shall be made in Africa, this law having been made public there, and enforced by correspondent conduct on the part of our mercantile agents, there would be less difficulty in buying up the tributes hitherto levied by the African chieftains on the great rivers, than William Penn found in purchasing the more important possession of Pennsylvania from the American Indians, Permission would in time be

gained to raise commercial magazines, so armed and manned, as should be found necessary for the security of our countrymen. Privileges, both useful and flattering, should be held forth to such of the African tribes as would settle round each of these forts still higher honours should be given to the individuals among such settlers as should have learnt our language, and acquired our arts of manufacture or cultivation. Thus, each fort, instead of being, as hitherto, a magazine of death and depravity, would finally become a centre of civilization, with diverging lines, the circumference of which would join or pass through similar circles. The intercourse with every part of Africa would not only be rendered secure in relation to the natives, but, from their friendly dispositions, rendered less dangerous to the health of European adventurers, no longer compelled to remain unsheltered, exposed to the vertical sun by day, or the destructive dews of the night. How valuable the productions of Africa already known are, may be learnt by consulting either Mr Clarkson's work on the Impolicy, or the volumes now before us, (vol. II. p. 14, &c.) or the Evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons. That these bear but a small proportion, both in number or value, to what would be hereafter discovered in consequence of our being masters of the great rivers, is most probable and we are certain, that if African industry were awakened, few indeed are the articles necessary for our manufactures or consumption, which might not be raised in Africa, and come to us more cheaply, including the first cost and the freightage, than from any other part of the world.

Africa holds out no temptations, either to conquest or individual rapacity. The timid statesman will have to contemplate no independent American republic in its germ: the philosopher no future East Indian empire, to render peace short and insecure, and war more costly and anxious. It cannot be denied that the superstitions of the Africans will occasion great difficulties and embarrassments; but, by a systematic repression of all religious proselytism, except indeed that most effective instrument of conversion, the christian conduct of our agents; by a prudent and affectionate attention to the wishes and comforts of the chieftains, and the Mandingo priests; and by sedulous endeavours to enlighten them as men; this obstacle might gradually be removed,-at all events greatly lessened. Every individual employed in the different forts or settlements, should act under the conviction, that knowledge and civilization must, in the first instance, form the foundation, not the superstructure, of Christianity.

The African character is strikingly contrasted with that of the

North

North American Indians; and the facility with which the Africans are impressed, the rapidity with which they take the colours of surrounding objects, oftentimes place them in a degrading light, as men, but are most auspicious symptoms of what they may hereafter become, as citizens. A crowd of slaves shouting in triumph at the proclamation of the reestablishment of slavery, (we allude to Villaret's letter,) or fighting with desperate fury against their own countrymen, who had escaped from a common tyrant, will not indeed bear a comparison, in moral dignity, with the stern, unbending warriors of the interior of North America; and yet present far better data of hope, regarded prospectively, and as the materials of a future nation. The American Indians are savages: the Africans (to speak classically) barbarians. Of the civilization of savages, we know no certain instance, the actual origin of Mexico and Peru, the only cases that have any claim at all to be adduced, not having been preserved even by the rudest tradition. But of the progress from barbarism to civilization, through its various stages, the history of every nation gives a more or less distinct example, in proportion to our opportunity of tracing it backward.

"This diftinction between the favage and barbarous ftate, which is indeed fruitful in confequences, bears upon the prefent queftion in one important point, the willingness, we mean, with which barbarous tribes adopt, as it were at command, the changes in laws or religion, dictated to them by their leaders. Let no alarm ing zeal be betrayed: rather let the initiation into Christianity be held up as a diftinction,-as a favour to be bestowed; and it need not be doubted, that natural curiofity will prompt the chieftains, and most intelligent of the African tribes, to inquire into the par. ticulars of a religion profeffed by a race confeffedly fo fuperior to them, and that the fenfe of this fuperiority will act as a powerful motive toward their adoption of it. At all events, a long trial has been given to injuftice and cruelty: furely justice and benevolence may claim, that one experiment fhould be made of their influence, and in their favour.

In the commencement of this review, we stated our purpose, not to examine thefe volumes as a mere work of literature. It is fufficient for us to fay, in concluding, that the ftyle, in general, is perfpicuous, correct, and characterized by a fort of fcriptural implicity, well fuited both to the author and the fubject. Here and there indeed, we have met with an incongruous metaphor, and occafionally felt a want of cement in the ftyle, from the thortnefs and independence of the fentences; but we can with truth aver, that the only fault which remained in our memory, after the perufal of the two volumes, was the want of a third. Many in

teresting

teresting events, fuch as the trial of Somerfet, fhould have been given at large; and of the laft part of the fecond volume, the narration appeared to us rather hurried. We rife, however, from the perufal, with feelings of gratitude and veneration to Mr Clarkfon, and with pleafing and favourable impreffions of human nature in general.

ART. VI. Raccolta Cronologico-ragionata di documenti inediti, che formano la floria diplomatica della rivoluzione e caduta della Repubblica di Venezia, corredata di critiche offervazioni. 4to. p. 812.

2 vol.

An accurate Account of the Fall of the Republic of Venice, and of the circumftances attending that event; in which the French fyftem of Undermining and Revolutionizing States is expofed; and the true Character of Buonaparté faithfully pourtrayed." Translated from the Italian, by John Hinckley Efq. F. S. A.

WE long fince proposed to notice the firft of thefe works; but, as it was ftudiously fuppreffed on the Continent by the agents of the French government, the difficulty of obtaining a complete copy of it repeatedly obliged us to poftpone this intention. It contains, as the title imports, a collection of documents relating to the revolution and fall of Venice. To thofe who wish to become minutely acquainted with the circumftances which preceded and accompanied that event, this collection cannot fail to be interesting. It confifts, indeed, chiefly of orders, inftructions, and decrees of the Venetian government, and of despatches from their ministers at foreign courts; and we are perhaps the more inclined to fet a value upon it, in confequence of the impenetrable fecrecy in which the affairs of the republic were formerly involved. Independently, however, of the gratification which our curiofity derives from the development of the tranfactions of this mysterious government, it is impoffible that a ftate, whofe political existence includes a period of nearly fourteen centuries, and whose annals record many fplendid and memorable achievements, fhould fink into annihilation without producing an interest correfponding to the historical importance of fuch an event. With reference to the scenes which have lately been exhibited in the grand political drama, the catastrophe of Venice appears to be hardly a fufficiently prominent object to claim any peculiar attention. But when we reflect on the antiquity and origin of these states, the effectual refiftance which they opposed to the moft formidable combinations against their independence; the extent of their poli

tical influence on the affairs of the Continent; the maritime dominion which they once exercifed, almost without controul; and their fuccefsful extenfion of commerce, and promotion of the arts, we must admit, that the fall of this republic is an event calculated to produce a very confiderable fenfation. It must be confeffed, that the fubverfion of the government would have been viewed with more regret, if those who administered it had been more diftinguished for firmnefs, wifdom, or patriotifm. But we are apprehenfive, that the following outline, which we have extracted from a careful perusal of the documents before us, will too plainly demonftrate, that the whole body of public functionaries was criminally deficient in all the great and virtuous qualities, which, in fuch times, were indifpenfably requifite to provide for the fecurity of the ftate.

The new principles to which the French revolution had given birth, excited an early alarm in many parts of Italy. The court of Turin feems to have been firft ftruck with the danger; and, to guard against it, conceived the project of uniting the different powers of Italy into a league for their own defence. This, at leaft, was the oftenfible object of the propofed confederacy. Towards the conclufion of the year 1791, the Sardinian minifter communicated this project to the Venetian government, with an invitation to accede to the general alliance; but the latter, clinging with obftinate timidity to the narrow policy of a strict neutrality, expreffed a determination not to become a party to the league. They appear, however, not to have been infenfible to the chance of future danger; for, fhortly afterwards, they recalled their maritime force from the Mediterranean. Upon this, the Grand Duke of Tufcany made an application to them for the protection of Leghorn and the Papal fhores; but they replied, that the neutrality which they had adopted, required that their navy fhould be employed folely in defence of their own poffeffions in the Adriatic.

Similar overtures were afterwards made to the Venetians from various quarters. The courts of Sardinia and Naples jointly propofed an alliance; and, nearly at the fame time, towards the end of 1792, a confederative offer was made to them by the Auftrian cabinet. Both of thefe overtures were declined, upon the principle of a rigid obfervance of neutrality. It fhould, however, be obferved, that thefe propofitions were never communicated to the Senate. The Savi, to whom they had been tranimitted by the inquifitors of flate, withheld them. The fame fate attended almost every important defpatch, or official communication, which same into the hands of the Savi, and which, if fubmitted to the Senate, would have fupplied them with that information, without

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