A View of the internal Policy of Great Britain. 17 Obferver, the title-page itfelf proclaims the demerits of the work: for it is impoffible that fuch various, comprehenfive, and important fubjects, fhould be difcuffed in a clear and fatisfactory manner, within the narrow limits of a wide-fpread Duodecimo. Perhaps, however, it is fortunate both for the Author and his Bookfeller, that the Gentleman did not choose to take a larger fweep; for he who cannot find his way in the high-road, will certainly lose himself in a wilderness: and in truth the Writer feems to be bewildered from the first page to the laft. There is no order or precifion in his ideas; no perfpicuity in his expreffion. He opens with a threadbare definition of riches; and in the next chapter treats of the progrefs of Commerce as follows. The exchanging commodity is of fuch neceffity, that the moft uncivilized Savages are conftrained to it. Although they make small account of provifions, their arms, cloathing, and furniture of their hut, are with them important property. Next to these are warlike republics, as Lacedemon and Rome. The idea of Lycurgus was, to form an army of the whole people; and by a divifion of lands, giving fubfiftence to as many as the country could maintain ;-arms was their fole ftudy, the labour of the lands was a bufinefs for flaves. Rome in its beginning was much the fame; except the Romans condescended to labour with their own hands; among these there was but little more room for trade than among Savages. • Monarchy being calculated for magnificence and expence, is favourable for trade, as its luxury confumes much; for in proportion to the confumption must be the fupply, and to the fupply Artizans, Mafters of various kind, Merchants, &c. But Monarchy, when abfolute, has this ill convenience, the rich are never fecure, the Merchant trades with fear and trembling; if he is rich, he appears poor, and is for ever thinking to escape to fome fecure place, to which he is invited with open arms by the trading republic.' We This, we affure the Reader, is the whole chapter on the Progrefs of Commerce. But what progrefs it has made, and in what direction it moved, we are ftill at a lofs to know. expected to have been told, in what countries Commerce firft flourished, and to have learned the reafons why it took its flight from thence, and fixed its refidence in fome more favoured fot. Inftead of any information of this kind, we are given to underftand, that among Savages, and in the warlike republics of Lacedemon and Rome, there was little room for trade. A piece of intelligence which common fenfe would have fugg-Rod, withREV. Jan 1764. C out in the defenite. À naas tenga la more expert, and mess 9 very great, coumemes, that -For and expedi ocess for ance. Some for arms andles, who, with mer◄ Tak nations the not warlike, hav entary troops, fost fondapall de advantage of camming the was where they please, from tang ade to finish and feed their arms with so much greater convenience. A war may fometimes become eligible; fog, se ond a certain degree, wealth and abundance become a dog, Pop circulation, and corrupt in the commonweal; as tos dierfdwing of the blood often does in the human body. A was then bromes recetary, as it diffipates fuperfuity, exer( a the fanu ties of thofe in power, proves their capacity or wolknob, goes a new fpring and life to the whole machine.' B what if the war proves unfuccesful? In that cafe, infread of giving new life to the whole machine, it may prove its unter in and diffolution. Surely the fagacity of a Politician mwe have found out fome more eligible way of disipating fuperk lty, and execifing the faculties of thofe in power, than by the havock of the human fpecies. This is a favage expedi, adopted, if we miftake not, by Machiaval; and it is the to fortune of Writers to take up fentiments through prejudice, til at length error becomes fanctified by authority. The Author proceeds to take notice of the ancient conftitunon of England, and gives a very fhort and imperfect account of the chance cffcted in it by the policy of Henry the feventh. But he makes no mention of the wife and prudent laws concerning Commerce, which were enacted in this reign: and which moft immediately concern the profeffed fubject of this He goes on with a kind of epitome of the English history, to te death of the late King, and even enters fomewhat minutely into the operations of the late war. It must be confefied, that many of his obfervations are perfectly juft: but few of them, in our apprehenfion, are applicable to the matter of enquiry, or can contribute to enlarge our View of the internal Policy of Great Britain. In the fecond Part of this work, (which, according to out A View of the internal Policy of Great Britain. idea of arrangement, fhould have been the first) he confiders the first condition of man, as obferved in the most rude focieties or favage tribes. In the next place, he examines the fecond condition of man, when arts begin to dawn, which produce greater plenty of fubfiftence; on which he makes the following curious reflections. In the fecond condition of the human fpecies, when the ufe, of feed and roots have been discovered, with the breeding of tame cattle, we find the carnivorous difpofition of man of great benefit to the animals he feeds upon. He enters as it were into fociety with them, partakes his fhare of labour, and contrives with all his care for their increase and support; which to them greatly over-balances the fhortening of fome of their lives for his ufe.' The animals we feed upon are certainly much obliged to us for entering into fociety with them, and contriving for their increafe; that is, fattening of them, in order to devour them. We should be glad to know by what art our Author has made the discovery, that our care for their fupport, to them greatly overbalances the fhortening of fome of their lives. We believe, if the poor animals could fpeak, they would declare very different fentiments. They would probably fay, "Leave us to nature: let us provide for ourselves, and live out the full length of our days." We are apt to suspect likewise, that had it been our Author's fate to have lived among Cannibals, he would not have thought, that the being cooped up and pampered, till he was as plump as a Mandarin, could overbalance the shortening of his life, to fatiate the carnivorous appetite of a depraved creature, who might well fubfift on more natural aliment. After several desultory fteps, our Author returns to the conftitution of Great Britain, of which he gives a very imperfect, and, in our judgment, a very mistaken account. It is, he tells us, an original, and of a more complex conftruction than any history has left us an account of; the generous affociating paffions, patriotifm, or the love of country, have full opportunity of diftinguishing themselves; nor can they any where fhine with greater glory: on the other hand, thofe of the inferior, and private individual system, are fo balanced, and their evils fo well provided againft, that they rather forward and contribute from their activity to the public welfare. The admired fyftems that ingenious men have formel in their own minds, or have in a degree been put in execution in fmall focieties, and petty republics, to fupport which, the mind of each individual must be formed, or, as it were, caft in a mould, to fit it for the condition refolved on, is what never can be applied to fuch a great nation as Britain; nor can the repu lican principles drawn from the policies of fingle cities, be applied to a conftitution compofed of many great cities, themfelves republics invefted with great power, befides a vast extent of populated country. The manners of a fmall people may be better watched, and as the affociating spirit is more confined and strongly felt, men are more ready to fubmit their own pri vate paffions to the state, but in fuch a mighty conflux of people there is no fuch thing as flopping the course of the private fyftem and felf paffions, which, led on by ignorance, invade the mind, and take fuch root in all ranks. All that can be done, is to provide against their ill effects, and leave them to their courfe. As thefe paffions are of a wonderful active nature, and gain the view of all, IT keeps up a spirit of labour and induftry, that gives life and vigour to the whole.' Some of these fentiments are unquestionably juft: but taking the whole paffage together, there is in it neither coherence, truth, fenfe, nor grammar. In the course of the work, the Author takes feveral other topics into confideration, which he drops and refumes without any order or method, though he difplays all the affectation of analyfis. But we are perfuaded, that the Reader will excufe our being minutely critical on fo indifferent a performance. It would be unjust not to take notice, that in an advertisement prefixed to this treatise, our Author premifes, that the Reader is not to expect an entire new set of thoughts, the defign being to come at truth from certain known facts and principles. No one prefumes to cenfure the axioms of the Mathematician. Thus in things which belong to us, and of which we can have certain ideas and felf-evident principles, our reafoning ought to be deduced from thence.' This advertisement, which is barely intelligible, may, perhaps, apologize for the want of originality in this work, but we apprehend that it will not be thought a fufficient excufe for incoherence and absurdity. The Poetical Calendar. Vol. XI. for November. 12mo. HE volume before us contains amongst other pieces the Tpoctical works of the moft ingenious Mr. William Collins This Gentleman was a native of Suflex, and bred at Magdalena College in Oxford. The powers of his imagination were unfortunately fortunately fo great, that he loft his reason, at a time of life when common minds poffefs it in its greateft perfection. What a melancholy reflection must it afford to men of genius, to behold, in fo many inftances, the faculties of the mind ruined by their own exquifite fineness! And with what caution ought they, in particular, to avoid all intemperance, which is equally an enemy to reason, whether its object be the bottle, or the book! Of Mr. Collins's Oriental Eclogues we gave fome account in the fixteenth volume of our Review, page 486, and there we observed, that his Odes defcriptive and allegorical, had been too much neglected. It fhall not, however, be our fault if they are neglected any longer. If a luxuriance of imagination, a wild fublimity of fancy, and a felicity of expreffion fo extraordinary, that it might be fuppofed to be fuggefted by fome fuperior power, rather than to be the effect of human judgment, or capacity-if these are allowed to conftitute the excellence of lyric poetry, the Author of the Odes defcriptive and allegorical, will indifputably bear away the palm from all his Competitors in that province of the Mufe. Twelve of Mr. Collins's Odes are printed in this Collection of his works, the firft of which is an Ode to Pity. The measure of this Ode is happily chofen, for the repetition of melody is calculated to exprefs that tenderness and pathos which must be infeparable from an Ode to Pity: By Pella's Bard, a magic name, By all the griefs his thought could frame, Long. Pity, let the nations view Thy fky-worn robes of tendereft blue, And eyes of dewy light. An ordinary Painter would have been contented to represent the eyes of Pity as languifhing and mild-the dewy light was a ftroke which the happiest imagination alone could execute. In writing an Ode on a subject of tenderness, the Poet couldnot poffibly omit to mention his countryman Otway, who was Indeed the Priest of Pity, like Collins ingenious, and like him unhappy: But wherefore need I wander wide To old Iliffus' diftant fide, Deserted ftream, and mute? Wild Arun too has heard thy ftrains, Leen footh'd by Pity's lute: Euripides. There |