the better management of the affairs of the Eaft-India company, as well in India as in Europe, as relates to the administration of juftice in Bengal; and for the relief of certain perfons imprisoned at Calcutta, in Bengal, under a judicature; and alfo for indemnifying the governor-general and council of Bengal, and all officers who have acted under their orders or authority, in the refiftance made to the procefs of the fupreme court." 1 CHARAC (1) CHARACTERS. Character of the Emperor Conftantine; from Gibbon's Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. TH [A. D. 324.] HE character of the prince who removed the feat of empire, and introduced fuch important changes into the civil and religious conftitution of his country, has fixed the attention, and divided the opinions, of mankind. By the grateful zeal of the Chriftians, the deliverer of the church has been decorated with every attribute of a hero, and even of a faint; while the difcontent of the vanquished party has compared Conftantine to the moft abhorred of thofe tyrants, who, by their vice and weaknefs, difhonoured the Imperial purple. The fame paffions have in fome degree been perpetuated to fucceeding generations, and the character of Conftantine is confidered, even in the prefent age, as an object either of fatire or of panegyric. By the impartial union of those defects which are confeffed by his warmeft admirers, and of thofe virtues which are acknowledged by his most implacable enemies, we might hope to delineate a juft portrait of that VOL. XXIV. extraordinary man, which the truth and candour of history should adopt without a blufh. But it would foon appear, that the vain attempt to blend fuch discordant colours, and to reconcile fuch inconfiftent qualities, muft produce a figure monftrous rather than human, unless it is viewed in its proper and diftinct lights by a careful feparation of the different periods of the reign of Conftantine. The perfon, as well as the mind of Conftantine, had been enriched by nature with her choiceft endowments. His ftature was lofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment graceful; his ftrength and activity were difplayed in every manly exercife, and from his earliest youth, to a very advanced feafon of life, he preferved the vigour of his conftitution by a ftrict adherence to the domeftic virtues of chastity and temperance. He delighted in the focial intercourse of familiar converfation; and though he might fometimes indulge his difpofition to raillery with lefs referve than was required by the fevere dignity of his ftation, the courtefy and liberality of his manners gained the hearts of all who approached him. The fincerity of his friendfhip has been fufpected; yet he B fhewed, fhewed, on fome occafions, that he was not incapable of a warm and lafting attachment. The difadvantage of an illiterate education had not prevented him from forming a juft eftimate of the value of learning; and the arts and sciences derived fome encourage ment from the munificent protection of Conftantine. In the difpatch of bufinefs, his diligence was indefatigable; and the active powers of his mind were almost continually exercifed in reading, writing, or meditating, in giving audience to anbaffadors, and in examining the complaints of his fubjects. Even thofe who cenfured the propriety of his measures were compelled to acknowledge, that he poffeffed magnanimity to conceive, and patience to execute, the most arduous defigns, without being checked either by the prejudices of education, or by the clamours of the multitude. In the field, he infufed his own intrepid fpirit into the troops, whom he conducted with the talents of a confummate general; and to his abilities, rather than to his fortune, we may afcribe the fignal victories which he obtained over the foreign and domeftic foes of the republic. He loved glory, as the reward, perhaps as the motive, of his labours. The boundless ambition, which, from the moment of his accepting the purple at York, appeared as the ruling paffion of his foul, may be juftified by the dangers of his own fituation, by the character of his rivals, by the confcioufnefs of fuperior merit, and by the profpect that his fuccefs would enable him to restore peace and order to the distracted empire. In his ci vil wars against Maxentius and Licinius, he had engaged on his fide the inclinations of the people, who compared the undiffembled vices of thofe tyrants, with the fpirit of wifdom and juftice which feemed to direct the general tenor of the administration of Conftantine. Had Conftantine fallen on the banks of the Tyber, or even in the plains of Hadrianople, fuch is the character which, with a few exceptions, he might have tranf mitted to pofterity. But the conclufion of his reign (according to the moderate and indeed tender fentence of a writer of the fame age) degraded him from the rank which he had acquired among the most deferving of the Roman princes. In the life of Auguftus, we behold the tyrant of the republic, converted almost by imperceptible degrees, into the fa ther of his country and of human kind. In that of Conftantine, we may contemplate a hero, who had fo long infpired his fubjects with love, and his enemies with terror, degenerating into a cruel and diffolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune, or raised by conqueft above the neceffity of diffimulation. The general peace which he maintained during the last fourteen years of his reign, was a period of apparent fplendor rather than of real profperity; and the old age of Conftantine was disgraced by the oppofite yet reconcileable vices of rapacioufnefs and prodigality. The accumulated treafures found in the palaces of Maxentius and Licinius, were lavifhly confumed; the various innovations introduced by the conqueror, were attended with an increafing en are taught in the fchools of tyrants; but an impartial narrative. of the executions, or rather murders, which fullied the declining age of Conftantine, will fuggeft to our moft candid thoughts, the idea of a prince, who could facrifice without reluctance the laws of justice, and the feelings of nature, to the dictates either of his paffions or of his interest. increafing expence; the coft of his buildings, his court, and his feftivals, required an immediate and plentiful fupply; and the oppreffion of the 'people was the only fund which could fupport the magnificence of the fovereign. His unworthy favourites, riched by the boundless liberality of their mafter, ufurped with impunity the privilege of rapine and corruption. A fecret but univerfal decay was felt in every part of the public administration, and the emperor himself, though he ftill retained the obedience, gradually loft the esteem, of his fubjects. The dress and manners, which, towards the decline of life, he chose to affect, ferved only to degrade him in the eyes of mankind. The Afiatic pomp, which had been adopted by the pride of Diocletian, affumed an air of foftnefs and effeminacy in the perfon of Conftantine. He is reprefented with false hair of various colours, laboriously arranged by the skilful artists of the times; a diadem of a new and more expenfive fashion; a profufion of gems and pearls, of collars and bracelets, and a variegated flowing robe of filk, moft curiously em broidered with flowers of gold. In fuch apparel, fcarcely to be excufed by the youth and folly of Elagabalus, we are at a lofs to discover the wisdom of an aged monarch, and the fimplicity of a Roman veteran. A mind thus relaxed by profperity and indulgence, was incapable of rifing to that magnanimity which difdains fufpicion, and dares to forgive. The deaths of Maximinian and Licinius may perhaps be justified by the maxims of policy, as they An Account of the paftoral Manners and of the Government of the Scythians or Tartars; from the fame Author. N every age, the immenfe IN plains of Scythia, or Tartary, have been inhabited by vagrant tribes of hunters and fhepherds, whofe indolence refufes to culti vate the earth, and whose restless fpirit difdains the confinement of a fedentary life. a fedentary life. In every age, the Scythians, and Tartars, have been renowned for their invincible courage, and rapid conquefts. The thrones of Afia have been repeatedly overturned by the fhepherds of the North; and their arms have spread terror and de vaftation over the most fertile and warlike countries of Europe. On this occafion, as well as on many others, the fober historian is forci bly awakened from a pleasing vifion; and is compelled, with fome reluctance, to confefs, that the paftoral manners, which have been adorned with the fairest attributes of peace and innocence, are much better adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a military life. To illuftrate this observation, I fhall now proceed to confider a nation of thepherds and of war B2 |