LITERARY

JOURNAL.

IN

N an advertisement prefixed to this publication, we are informed that "the first four books, which contain the progrefs of the war in the Netherlands, the eftablishment of the truce with the Dutch, and the expulfion of the Morefcoes from Spain, are printed literally from the manufcript of Dr. Watfon; but that the two laft were written by the editor of Dr. Watfon's manufcript, at the defire of the guardians of his children. This was deemed an attention due to the curiofity of the reader: a curiofity, it is added, which, in the prefent important æra, may be fuppofed to be fomewhat enlivened by the great events which have lately happened in the world." Here, therefore, are two different writers, and we proceed to give a brief account of their respective portions of the work before us.

Dr. Watson, in his life time, attained to a very confiderable degree of celebrity, nor has this pofthumous work detracted in the least, but on the contrary, added to his fame. A laborious attention to truth, a clearness of arrangement, a minute circumftantiality of defcription, a folid rather than refined judgement, a lively fenfibility to the differences in moral character and conduct: thefe are generally allowed, with reafon, to mark the character of the reign of Philip II. and thefe alfo diftinguish what Profeflor Watfon has written of the reign of Philip III.

The materials for writing modern hif tory are fo copious that it becomes the bufinefs, and forms the chief merit of an hiftorian, not to hand down to pofterity, like Herodotus, all the facts and reports concerning his fubject, that lie within the circle of his knowledge, but, to make fuch a felection as fhall exhibit to mankind, in general, but particularly to thofe who are intrufted with the government EUROP, MAG,

of nations, a picture at once entertaining and inftructive. It fhould be interefting in order that it may be read; and inftructive that it may be read with advantage. Men of poetical fancy, and a turn to fpeculation and refinement, expatiate freely in the fields through which they pafs, and contemplate or glance at whatever is great or affecting. If their digreffions are not too numerous or difproportionate to the body of the work; if they arife naturally from the subject, and are in perfect unifon with the natural genius, and the tone which is affumed by the writer, they beftow a dignity, a variety, an intereft on a compofition which never appear in the writings of men of moderate genius, and cold tempers, however folid their judgment, or however juft their tafte. But, in compofitions on this high fcale, it is difficult to combine the excurfions of genius with that unity of design which is demanded by the judgment. It is an arduous task for the hiftorian or the poet, while he travels over the variegated surface of things, to keep ftill on wing, and, without interrupting his flight, now to foar over rocks and mountains, and now to fweep along the humble vale.

Dr. Watson has not attempted, fo bold a flight: nor is there any reafon to imagine he would have fucceeded, if he had. But he is intitled to the praise of plain, fimple, and perfpicuous narration: and if he feldom roufes and agitates the foul, he nevertheless, fupports the curiofity of the reader, and never lofes fight of the events and feenes which it is his object to record and defcribe. What feems most cenfureable in the writings of this author is, his affectation of military knowledge; the tedious minuteness with which he defcribes the fieges of fo many towns, and the fimplicity, or rather vul M m

garity

garity of the few reflections that appear in his narrative. There are in truth fo obvious that to have hinted, them at all was perfectly unnecellary. Fine writing confits in fentiments that are natural, without being obvious.

The following is Dr. Watfon's ac count of the conclufion of the famous truce between Holland and Spain.

"The commiffioners, together with the French and English ambaffadors, had meetings every day in the Hotel de Ville of Antwerp; and there was till confiderable diversity of fentiments among them with regard to certain articles of the treaty, and particularly with refpet to the time during which the truce fhould fubfift. It was at length agreed, that it fhould be concluded for twelve years from the prefent period; and as foon as this and the other points in difpute was fettled, and the treaty drawn up in the usual form, it was tranfmitted to Bruffels and Bergen op Zoom, to receive the fanction of the archdukes, and of the ftates; and was finally concluded on the 9th of April 1609.

"It confifted of eight and thirty articles, the most important of which were thofe which have been already mentioned. The reft had been prepared by Barnevelt, and were equally calculated to promote the fecurity and intereft of individuals and of the state. No individuals had merited fo highly from the republic as thofe of the family of Nallau; and all parties readily concurred in giving them proof on this occafion of their refpest and gratitude. By one article of the truce it was provided that none of the defcendants of William, the first prince of Orange, fhould be liable for the debts which that prince had contracted from the year 1567 till his death. And by another, that fuch of his eftates, within the territory of the archdukes, as had been confifcated, fhould be reitored, and his heirs permitted to enjoy them unmolested during the continuance of the truce.

"The archdukes engaged that thefe and all the other articles thould, within the space of three months, be ratified by the king of Spain; and the king's deed of ratification was accordingly delivered to the Rates a few days before the expiration of that term, to transfer to his brother and his children the feveral high employments which he held, at whatever period he should think fit. Thefe reto lutions of the states seem to have originated from the French monarch, and were formed at the initance of Bar

nevelt, whom Jeannin had engaged to enter into his matter's views. No perfon queftioned that prince Maurice's family were well entitled to every mark of fa vour which the ftates could bellow; it was rather unfortunate however for the prince's character that, after fo violent an oppofition to the truce, his acquiefcence in it was fo quickly followed by pecuniary rewards. But although his enemies were difpofed to infinuate that thefe rewards were rather to be confidered as the price of his filence, than as rewards for his former fervices, there is nothing to justify thefe infinuations in the numerous letters extant in Jeannin's negocia tions, either of the king or the minifters of France.

"The Dutch were henceforward confidered as a free and independent people. Having gained immortal honour by the magnanimity which they had displayed during the continuance of the war, they were now confidered as having obtained the reward which their virtue merited, and were every where refpected and admired. Their minifters at foreign courts were now received with the fame diftinction as those of other fovereign powers; and their alliance was courted by nations who had formerly regarded them as rebels, that muft fpeedily fubmit to the yoke which they had fhaken off.

"On the other hand, the reputation of the Spanish nation received a mortal wound; and their power ceafed to be rgarded with the fame dread as formerly. They had been foiled by a handful of their own fubjects, and would not, it was fuppofed, any longer pretend to give law to other nations. The high Ipirited nobility, and the people in general, were fecretly mortified by the conceffions which the Dutch had been able to extort; and were ready to afcribe the humiliation which the nation had fuffered, not fo much to any infurmountable difficulty in the conteft in which it had been fo long engaged, as to mifcondu&t and want of vigour on the part of government."

Dr. Watton's narrative of the expulfion of the Morcicues from Spain is exceedingly affetting; and unites the mafculine features of truth, with all the feminine charms of romance. This narrative takes up the whole of book iv. which is the beft that Dr. Wation wrote.

"The Morefcoes, conducted by his (the viceroy of Valentia's) troops, and many of them accompanied, from compation and humanity, by the barons whole vaffals they had been, were every

where

where in motion, and haftening in nowds, with their wives and children, to the coaft. The fhips which had been provided for tranfperting them, having been found extremely inadequate to the purpose, many more were collected from the fea-ports in Spain, Majorca, and Italy. Of these many were hired by the Morefcoes themielves, who defired, as foon as poffible, to emancipate themselves from the power of the Spaniards; while the greater number went on board the fhips provided by the king. And in a few weeks about a hundred and twenty thousand men, women, and children had embarked.

"Many of these were perfors of fubfiance and condition; fome of them, on account of their early profeffion of Chriftianity, had been raised, to the rank of nobility, by the emperor Charles V. Ard the elegance and beauty of the young Morelcoe women is highly cele.. brated by a contemporary Spanish hiftorian, whole bigony often prompts him to exult in their diftrefs.

"Widely different from the fentiments of this bigotted ecclefiaftic were thofe of the Valentia barons; who gave their vaffals, on this melancholy occalion, every proof of generous compaffion and humanity. By the royal edict they were entitled to all the property belonging to their vaffals, except what they were able to carry about their perfons: but the barons, defpifing this right which the edict bestowed on them, allowed the Morefcoes to difpofe of whatever part of their effects could be fold for money, and likewife permitted them to convey their moft valdible furniture and manufactures on mules and in carriages to the fhips. Many of them accompanied their vaffals in perfon to the fhore, and fome of them, having embarked along with them, faw them fafely landed on the coaft of Africa. "But this kind attention of the barons ferved only for a little time to mitigate their diftrefs. Their exile from ther native country, which juftly excited in them the most bitter regret, and gave them fo much ground for anxiety with regard to their future fortune, was foon fucceeded by ftill greater calamities. Great numbers were fhipwrecked on their paffage, and never reached the African coast; while many others were barbaroufly murdered at fea, by the crews of fhips which they had freighted; this latter calamity befel only thofe who had chofen to tranfport themselves in private hips, and instances are recorded of fuch

inhuman cruelty exercifed against this harmless, perfecuted, and defenceless people, by the owners and crews of thefe hips, as equals any thing of the fame kind of which we read in hiftory. The men butchered in the prefence of their wives and children; the women and children afterwards thrown alive into the fea; of the women, fome, on account of their beauty, preferved alive for a few days to fatiate the luft of the inhuman murderers of their husbands and brotheas, and then either slaughtered or committed to the waves, foch were fome of the horrid deeds of which thefe barbarians were convicted upon their trial, to which they were brought, in confequence of quarrelling with each other about the divifion of their prey; and fuch, if we may credit a contemporary hiftorian, was the unhappy fate of a great number of the Morcicoes.

Nor was the fate of the greater part of thefe who reached the coaft of Barbary lefs deplorable. They had no fooner landed on this barren inhospitable shore, than they were attacked by the Bedouin Arabs, a wild banditti who live in tents, and fupport themselves by hunting and by plunder. The Marefcoes, unarmed, and incumbered with their wives and children, were often robbed by these barbarians, who came upon them in numerous bodies, amounting fometimes to five or fix thousand men; and, as often as the Morefcoes attempted, with ftones and flings, their only arms, to make refifiance, put great numbers of them to the fword. Still greater num beis perished of fatigue and hunger, joined to the inclemencies of the weather, from which they had no means of shel ter, during their tedious journey through the African defarts, to Moftagan, Algiers, and other places, where they hoped to be permitted to take up their refidence. Few of them ever arrived at thefe places. Of fix thoufand, who fet out together from Conaftal, a town in the neighbourhood of Oran, with an intention of going to Algiers, a single perfon only, of the name of Pedraivi, furvived the difafters to which they were exposed; and of the whole hundred and forty thoufand, who were at this time tranfported to Africa, there is ground to believe, from the concurring teftimony of perfons who had accels to know the truth, that more than a hundred thousand men, women, and children, fuffered death in its most hedious forms, within a few months after their expulsion from Valentia.

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"Compared

"Compared to the dreadful fate to which this unhappy people were doomed by the Spaniards, it would have been an act of mercy on the part of the king, had he either commanded them to be put to the fword, or committed to the flames; as their mifery would, in this cafe, have heen of short continuance. The knowledge of what had befallen them ought,

at least, to have deterred him from expofing the rest of his Morefco fubjects to

the like calamities."

The remaining part of this publication, which forms nearly two fifths of the whole, was written by the editor of Dr. Watson's manufcript.

[To be continued.]

Tfrom that of the hiftorians who HE plan of this work is different have preceded our author on the fubject of the Roman flory. He neither follows upon the steps of Hooke, nor of those who have been ambitious to take their materials from that induftrious writer. His defign deferves to be unfolded upon account of its fingularity; and it will be beft understood from his own words. For this purpofe, he has employed the following paffages:

"The Romans, who made their firft ftep to dominion by becoming heads of the Latian confederacy, continued their progrefs to the fovereignty of Italy; or, after many ftruggles with nations poffeffed of refources fimilar to their own, united the forces of that country under their own direction, became the conquerors of many kingdoms in Afia and Africa, as well as in Europe; and formed an empire, if not the moft extenfive, at least the moft fplendid of any that is known in the hiftory of mankind. In poffeffion of this feeming advantage, however, they were unable to preferve their own inftitutions; they became, together with the conquefts they had made, a prey to military government, and a fignal example of the viciffitudes to which profperous nations are expofed.

"This mighty ftate, remarkable for the fmallness of its origin, as well as for the greatnefs to which it attained, has, by the fplendor of its national exertions, by the extent of its dominion, by the wifdom of its councils, or by its internal revolutions and reverfes of fortune, ever been a principal object of hiftory to all the more enlightened nations of the weftern world. To know it well, is to know mankind; and to have feen our fpecies under the fairest afpe&t of great ability, integrity, and courage. There is a merit in attempting to promote the study of this fubject, even if the effect fhould not correfpond with the design.

narrative was undertaken, and chiefly "Under this impreffion the following

with a view to the great revolution, by which the republican form of government was exchanged for defpolitin; and by which the Roman people, from being joint fovereigns of a great empire, became, together with their own provinces, the fubjects, and often the prey, of a tyranny which was equally cruel to both.

"As in this revolution men of the greatest abilities, poffeffed of every art, and furnished with the most ample refources, were acting in concert together, or in oppofition to each other, the fcene is likely to exhibit what may be thought the utmost rage or extent of the human powers; and to furnish those who are engaged in tranfactions any way funilar, with models by which they may profit, and from which they may form found principles of conduct, derived from experience, and confirmed by examples of the highest authority.

"The event which makes the principal object of this hiftory, has been fometimes confidered as a point of feparation between two periods, which have been accordingly treated apart-the period of the republic, and that of the monarchy. During a confiderable part of the firft period, the Romans were highly diftin-. guifhed by their genius, magnanimity, and national spirit, and made fuitable attainments in what are the ordinary objects of purfuit-wealth and dominion. In the fecond period they continued for fome time to profit by the attainments which were made in the former, and while they walked in the tract of the commonwealth, or practifed the arts and retained the leffons which former ages had taught, ftill kept their poffeffions. But after the fprings of political life, which were wound up in the republic, had fome time ceased to act; when the ftate was become the concern of a single perfon, and the veftige of former move

ments