Spain, on occafion of which he parted with his Tuscan dominions. But it is not probable, that these alliances can affect the tranquillity of Europe, till most of the princes who have made thefe contracts for their children are removed from the reins of government; events, confidering their ages, of no very near prospect. In time, no doubt, these marriages and ceffions will give rife to troubles, filial love and refpect giving way to the more powerful paffions of ambition and avarice; and mankind may again fmart for the honour, which fome fovereigns do their subjects, of making them over to each other, without their concurrence, like beats of the field. The fucceffor to the Austrian dominions, in right of the prefent emprefs dowager, may look upon himself as equally intitled to thofe of Tuscany in right of the late emperor, efpecially as it does not appear, that, as legal heir, he has received any equivalent for them; whilft a king of Spain may think it his duty to protect a fifter, a coufin, or their iffue, in the enjoyment of dominions purchased, perhaps, for them by no inconfiderable portion. And, after all, it must be owned, that this is but a fmall part of that trouble and confufion, which must robably attend these ineluctable vents, confidering the complicated claims of Spain and Parma to the throne of the Two Sicilies, and that of a Don Lewis to Parma itself.

But gloomy as this profpect may be in regard to the great Romancatholic nations of Europe, it can give no alarm to Great Britain, or the other great Proteftant powers,

whofe ftrength muft ever be in proportion to the weakness of thofe in the oppofite intereft. Befides, the chief of the latter have been of late equally attentive with the former, to preferve that compactnefs fo neceffary to all political bodies by treaties of intermarriage; in the cementing of which, as no ceffions or transfers of territory have been made, fo no feeds have been fown of future difcontent and difcord. Not to fpeak of the late renewals of amity between the branches of the Brunfwick family, by the nuptials of the princefs Augufta, his majefty's eldest fifter, with the hereditary prince of Brunfwick Lunenburg, and of a fifter of that gallant prince with the prince royal of Pruffia, nephew to the reigning king; the treaty of intermarriage lately concluded between another of his majesty's fifters, and the prince royal of Denmark, by drawing ftill clofer the already very clofe bands of friendship between these two fo great and fo good monarchs, how much foever it may contribute to the fatisfaction and honour of their respective families, and the happiness and fecurity of their fubjects, cannot but contribute ftill more to the ftrengthening of the Proteftant interest.

These two fyftems, which we have been furveying, the Proteftant and the Roman-catholic, are not however, and, in all probability, never will be, either of them, fo much one, as to contain no devious, irregular bodies, politically tending to the other. prefent, these bodies are chiefly, on the Proteftant fide, Protestant Sweden, and on the Roman-catholic, Portugal; both, beyond all doubt, [B] 2

For the

the

:

the moft intolerantly zealous members of the perfuafions they refpectively belong to, yet both ftrongly attached to fome powers of very different, and extremely jealous of other powers of the fame, creed with themselves. Sweden and France ftill perfift in their old friendship, and will, probably, long perfift in it, fince both find their intereft in fo doing. The mixt intercourfe of trade and politics, which has fo long continued between them, and which their mutual neceffities feem in a great measure to support, gives this connection the air of a natural alliance France stands in the greateft need of, and is the best able to pay for, thofe commodities in trade, and thofe affiftances in war, which Sweden is beft able to furnish; viz. metals; materials for building fhips; fhips ready built; and fometimes men, whofe bravery and fidelity, as well as hardinefs and difcipline, may be fafely relied on. Portugal, from the defigns of her former mafters, and the natural imbecillity of the country, ftands much more in need of foreign affiftance than Sweden. This affifiance, which Portugal ftands in need of, the wifely looks for at the hands of the two greatest maritime powers of Europe, Great Britain and Holland, but at the fame time the two warmest fupporters of the Proteftant interest. As much as these powers may cover the gold of Portugal to accumulate it at home, or want it to purchase the commodities of other countries, where thofe of their own may not readily find a vent, fo much does Portugal ftand

in need of their affiitance against Spain, France, and other powers, to fecure to her a communication with, if not indeed the poffeffron of, the fources of that precious metal ; fince France and Spain as far exceed Portugal in maritime ftrength, as they are themselves exceeded in that particular by Great Britain. Add to this, that it is not fo much in the fpirit of the British and Dutch conftitutions to conquer countries, as fairly to gain, by the more agreeable, yet far more prevalent, arts of hufbandry, manufacture, and commerce, a fhare of the riches, with which thefe countries may happen to be peculiarly blessed.

It is hardly requifite to fay any thing concerning the other Romancatholic or Proteftant powers of Europe; or at least a few words will be fufficient. The king of Poland, though not as yet formally acknowledged by thofe powers who proteiled against the diet that elected him, is likely to be foon fo. France has again fupplied the Genoefe with troops for the garrifoning of the few places left them in Corfica; but there is very little probability of her endeavouring to recover for them any of those they have lot. It is not her intereit that the Corficans fhould be entire ly free, or entirely flaves, fince, as long as they remain in the dubious ftate they now are in, fhe may expect to command in Genoa one of the best maritime keys to Italy, befides fhips and failors on an emergency, in return for a few land-forces, that she can raise and recruit with very little trouble or expence.

CHAP.

as

O complete our furvey of the European powers, we are next to confider Rufia and Turkey. The head of the former, wifely confidering, that as much as it may be her duty to deferve, it is, confidering her want of an heredi tary or even elective title, much her intereft to win, the affections of her fubjects, not only fhews the greatest defire to make them happy, but endeavours it by fuch means, as may not too glaringly clash with their deeprooted prejudices either civil or religious; a method of proceeding fuited only to fuch a fovereign as her predeceffor Peter the Great, whofe pretenĥons to the crown were themselves fupported by thefe prejudices. Amongst other fteps taken by her to compafs fo exalted a defign, fhe has given the ampleft encouragement for the introduction of letters and useful arts, thefe fovereign antidotes against barbarifm and fuperftition *. Upon the whole, therefore, there does not appear the leaft reason to apprehend any thing from Ruffia for the peace of Europe.

Little as there is to be apprehended from Ruffia, ftill lefs,

if any thing at all, is to be feared from Turkey, the only great power of Europe, which, as being, by its maxims of religion and government, quite diftinct. from, or rather diametrically oppofite to, all the others, which we have reviewed, we muft here take a particular furvey of. The prefent emperor of that ill-governed and illiterate, yet, from its numbers and enthusiastic fervility to its head, dangerous neighbour to fome of the Christian powers, feems to be a very different man from all his predeceffors. Under him, the fpirit of Turkish defpotifm and jealousy feems to be in fome degree lowered. He permits brothers to live, even after efcaping from that confinement, to which the laws of the feraglio had condemned them ; and by fending to France for a collection of aftronomical treatises, he has fhewn a tafte for thofe fciences, which fo much tend to enlarge and refine the human mind. But what does him ftill more honour, is that truly neighbourly part he fo lately acted in the affairs of Poland, which must make us confider him as a pacific, as well

as

as a wife and benevolent prince, and only leave us room to regret, that there are not more potentates of that character amongft thofe educated in principles infinitely better calculated to form it.

In short, Europe feems, in general, to wear a much more ferene appearance, than from history there is any reafon to judge the ever did. The fpirit of inven tion, industry, and improvement, are abroad, and feem to have taken place of the fpirit of conqueft and rapacity, which fo much difgrace her former annals. Princes, in all appearance, begin to discover more wealth and power in the honeft endeavours of their fubjects to enrich themelves, than they used to do in the fervile affiftance of them to enfiave others. Agriculture and navigation have, at laft, in a great measure, obtained that attention, which fuch uteful and fublime arts aeferve. Nor have the intermediate handicraft arts, supported by agriculture and fupporting navigation, and contributing fo much, in other refpects, to the conveniency and pleasure of life, been neglected.

The vegetable fyftem of Tull, after ftanding many years unimpeached by any cafual obfervations, has within these few years been confirmed by the exprefs experiments of Monfieur Duhamel, and found to be as true and useful, as it was ever allowed to be fimple and ingenious, What is more, his admirable machines, fo well adapted to that fyftem, and fo happily contrived to combine the intelligence of the rational with the ftrength of the brute creation,

have, likewise, been adopted and improved. A Linnæus and a Sillingfleet have hinted the polibility and expediency of parting the hitherto undiftingu fhed common plants of the field made use of to feed our cattle, in order to give each its proper foil and cultiva tion, and fow and crop it in its proper feafon. A Wyche, foaring ftill higher, has, from a just confideration of the goodness and power of the creator, fuggefted the exiftence of vegetables, fit for the fame purpofe, hardy enough to thrive in the coldest weather. And thefe hints and fuggeftions have been, by the parting of the plants already known, and the discovering and the cultivating of other much hardier ones, been proved well founded, and brought into practice by Mr. Baker, and by Mr. Rocque, to the vast enlargement of the human empire over the vegetable world; feveral plants, which hitherto used to be nurfed up in gardens for the immediate and fole ufe of man, having been compelled to do duty in the open fields for that of cattle, and made fubject to the plough as well as the spade, fo as to oblige a far greater por tion of the earth's furface to wear the livery of fummer in the depth of winter,

The principles of Sir Ifaac Newton, joined to the aftronomical obfervations of Halley and Bradley, have been made by M. Mayer of Goetinghen a ground-work for conftructing, with the affiftance of theorems furnished by Mr. Euler of Berlin, tables of the moon's motions, by which the abfolute time of that heteroclite planet's appulfe to any fixed point of the

heavens,

heavens, and of courfe the difference of longitude between any place and the obferver's, may, with the help of the ingenious Mr. Mafkelyne's new method of finding the proper allowances for parallax and refraction, be precifely determined; and eafe and expedition have been added to precifion by theorems of Mr. Witchell's invention for the ufe of lunar tables, and other tables for the eafy and expeditious application of his theorems. Mr. Harrison's improvements in clock-work for obtaining the fame ends have likewife heen pushed to fo great a degree in point of portability, as well as certainty, as to deferve the highest reward offered by the British government.

The members of the royal academy of fciences of Paris have already published several accounts of particular trades, which, however trivial they may appear in fome eyes, are the fruit of much thought and experience, and yield room for a great deal more, fo as not to be unworthy of the fcientific manner in which thefe gentlemen have handled them. Perhaps, it may be with truth affirmed, that the meanest of these trades is, comparatively, as ufeful in the fcale of thofe human inventions which contribute fo much to make life happy, as the meaneft infect is thought to be in the scale of created beings to fupport and uphold the whole. New focieties have been formed for the cultivation of all these useful arts, not only in England, but in France, and most other countries of Europe.

But unpardonable as it might have been to pass over in filence

things, that have been done for the general benefit of mankind, and the men to whom we are indebted for the atchievement of them, after beftowing fo much time on fcenes of devaftation and flaughter, we may perhaps be thought to have dwelt too long upon them, at leaft for this part of our work, however neceffary fome account of them may be to illustrate subjects more ftrictly hiftorical, according to the ufual meaning of that word, which may hereafter occur in this part of our work, on a fuppofition of the public's favouring us with a continuance of their patience and indulgence. We fhall, therefore, refer our readers for fuller accounts of thefe matters to the other parts of it, in which they may be introduced at large with more propriety, and confequently more ample juftice may be done to them.

We cannot, however, dismiss the fubject, even in this place, without obferving how many English names appear amongst the authors we have been celebra ting; though a thing no way furprifing, fince, in this free and fertile country, every man is fure to enjoy in peace the fruits of his ingenuity and labour, and to gain more by the mere fale of them, confidering the number and opulency of its inhabitants, than could be well expected in any other country from the greatest generofity in the government. But it is very remarkable, that, notwithstanding this certainty of meritorious men being rewarded here without any legislative intervention, the British legiflature has, however, not only been the first to reward thofe, (even foreigners) who have

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im