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the church ought unquestionably to be represented. This consideration M. Neckar wholly passes over.*

Though this gentleman considers an hereditary monarchy as preferable in the abstract, he deems it impossible that such a government could be established in France, under her present circumstances, from the impracticability of establishing with it an hereditary aristocracy: because the property, and the force of opinion, which constituted their real power, is no more, and cannot be restored. Though we entirely agree with M. Neckar, that an hereditary aristocracy is a necessary part of temperate monarchy, and that the latter must exist upon the base of the former, or not at all-we are by no means converts to the very decided opinion he has expressed of the impossibility of restoring them both to France.

its ancient, should be deemed so irresistible in the hands of its present, possessors, we are at a loss to conceive; unless, indeed, it be supposed, that antiquity of possession diminishes the sense of right and the vigour of retention; and that men will struggle harder to keep what they have acquired only yesterday, than that which they have possessed, by themselves or their ancestors, for six centuries.

In France, the inferiority of the price of revolutionary lands, to others, is immense. Of the former species, church land is considerably dearer than the forfeited estates of emigrants. Whence the difference of price, but from the estimated difference of security? Can any fact display, more strongly, the state of public opinion with regard to the probability of a future restoration of these estates, either partial or total ? We are surprised that M. Neckar and can any circumstance facilitate the should attempt to build any strong ar- execution of such a project, more than gument upon the durability of opinions the general belief that it will be exein nations that are about to undergo, cuted? M. Neckar allows, that the or that have recently undergone, great impediments to the formation of a political changes. What opinion was republic are very serious; but thinks there in favour of a republic in 1780? they would all yield to the talents and Or against it in 1794? Or, what activity of Bonaparte, if he were to opinion is there now in favour of it, in dedicate himself to the superintendence 1802? Is not the tide of opinions, at of such a government during the period this moment, in France, setting back of its infancy: of course, therefore, he with a strength equal to its flow? and is to suppose the same power dedicated is there not reason to presume, that, to the formation of an hereditary for some time to come, their ancient monarchy: or his parallel of difficulties institutions may be adored with as is unjust, and his preference irrational. much fury as they were destroyed? If Bonaparte could represent the person opinion can revive in favour of kings of a monarch, during his life, as well (and M. Neckar allows it may), why as he could represent the executive of not in favour of nobles? It is true a republic; and if he could overcome their property is in the hands of other the turbulence of electors, to whom persons; and the whole of that species freedom was new, he could appease the of proprietors will exert themselves to jealousy that his generals would enterthe utmost to prevent a restoration so tain of the returning nobles. Indeed, pernicious to their interests. The ob- without such powerful intervention, stacle is certainly of a very formidable this latter objection does not appear to nature. But why this weight of pro- us to be by any means insuperable. If perty, so weak a weapon of defence to the history of our own restoration were to be acted over again in France, and royalty and aristocracy brought back by the military successor of Bonaparte, it certainly could not be done without a very liberal distribution of favours among the great leaders of the army.

The parochial clergy are as much unrepresented in the English Parliament as they are in the parliament of Brobdignag. The bishops make just what laws they please, and the bearing they may have on the happiness of the clergy at large never for one moment comes into the serious con

sideration of Parliament.

Jealousy of the executive is one

feature of a republic; in consequence, | ance

A love of equality is another very strong principle in a republic; therefore it does not tolerate hereditary honour or wealth; and all the effect produced upon the minds of the people by this factitious power, is lost, and the government weakened: but in proportion as the government is less able to command, the people should be more willing to obey; therefore, a republic is better suited to a moral than an immoral people.

Public acts may confer liberty; that government is clogged with a but experience only can teach a people multiplicity of safeguards and restric- to use it; and, till they have gained that tions, which render it unfit for investi- experience, they are liable to tumult, gating complicated details, and manag- to jealousy, to collision of powers, and ing extensive relations with vigour, to every evil to which men are exconsistency, and despatch. A republic, posed, who are desirous of preserving therefore, is better fitted for a little stage a great good, without knowing how to than a large one. set about it. In an old-established system of liberty, like our own, the encroachments which one department of the State makes on any other are slow, and hardly intentional; the political feelings and the constitutional knowledge, which every Englishman possesses, creates a public voice, which tends to secure the tranquillity of the whole. Amid the crude sentiments and newborn precedents of sudden liberty, the Crown might destroy the Commons, or the Commons the Crown, almost before A people who have recently experi- the people had formed any opinion of enced great evils from the privileged the nature of their contention. A nation orders and from monarchs, love repub-grown free in a single day is a child lican forms so much, that the warmth born with the limbs and the vigour of of their inclination supplies, in some a man, who would take a drawn sword degree, the defect of their institutions. for his rattle, and set the house in a Immediately, therefore, upon the de- blaze, that he might chuckle over the struction of despotism, a republic may splendour. be preferable to a limited monarchy.

And yet, though narrowness of territory, purity of morals, and recent escape from despotism, appear to be the circumstances which most strongly recommend a republic, M. Neckar proposes it to the most numerous and the most profligate people in Europe, who are disgusted with the very name of liberty, from the incredible evils they have suffered in pursuit of it.

Whatever be the species of free government adopted by France, she can adopt none without the greatest peril. The miserable dilemma in which men living under bad governments are placed, is, that, without a radical revolution, they may never be able to gain liberty at all, and, with it, the attainment of liberty appears to be attended with almost insuperable difficulties. To call upon a nation, on a sudden, totally destitute of such knowledge and experience, to perform all the manifold functions of a free constitution, is to entrust valuable, delicate, and abstruse mechanism, to the rudest skill and the grossest ignor

Why can factious eloquence produce such limited effects in this country? Partly because we are accustomed to it, and know how to appreciate it. We are acquainted with popular assemblies; and the language of our Parliament produces the effect it ought upon public opinion, because long experience enables us to conjecture the real motives by which men are actuated; to separate the vehemence of party spirit from the language of principle and truth; and to discover whom we can trust, and whom we cannot. The want of all this, and of much more than this, must retard, for a very long period, the practical enjoyment of liberty in France, and present very serious obstacles to her prosperity; obstacles little dreamed of by men who seem to measure the happiness and future grandeur of France by degrees of longitude and latitude, and who believe she might acquire liberty with as much facility as she could acquire Switzerland or Naples.

M. Neckar's observations on the

finances of France, and on finance in general, are useful, entertaining, and not above the capacity of every reader. France, he says, at the beginning of 1781, had 438 millions of revenue; and, at present, 540 millions. The State paid, in 1781, about 215 millions in pensions, the interest of perpetual debts, and debts for life. It pays, at present, 80 millions in interests and pensions, and owes about 12 millions for anticipations on the public revenue. A considerable share of the increase of the revenue is raised upon the conquered countries; and the people are liberated from tithes, corvées, and the tax on salt. This certainly is a magnificent picture of finance. The best informed people at Paris, who would be very glad to consider it as a copy from life, dare not contend that it is At least, we sincerely ask pardon of M. Neckar, if our information as to this point be not correct; but we believe he is generally considered to have been misled by the public financial

So.

reports.

In addition to the obvious causes which keep the interest of money so high in France, M. Neckar states one which we shall present to our

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"There is one means for the establishment of credit (he says) equally important with the others which I have stated-a sentiment of respect for morals, sufficiently diffused to overawe the government and intimidate it from treating with bad faith any solemn engagements contracted in the name of the state. It is this respect for morals which seems at present to have disappeared: a respect which the Revolution has destroyed, and which is unquestionably one of the firmest supports of national faith."

revolutionary government. Either the despotism or the credit of France directed against this country would be highly formidable; but, both together, can never be directed at the same time.

In this part of his work, M. Neckar very justly points out one of the most capital defects of Mr. Pitt's administration; who always supposed that the power of France was to cease with her credit, and measured the period of her existence by the depreciation of her assignats. Whereas, France was never niore powerful than when she was totally unable to borrow a single shilling in the whole circumference of Europe, and when her assignats were not worth the paper on which they were stamped.

Such are the principal contents of M. Neckar's very respectable work. Whether, in the course of that work, his political notions appear to be derived from a successful study of the passions of mankind, and whether his plan for the establishment of a republican government in France, for the ninth or tenth time, evinces a more sanguine, or a more sagacious mind, than the rest of the world, we would rather our readers should decide for themselves, than expose ourselves to any imputation of arrogance by deciding for them. But when we consider the pacific and impartial disposition which characterises the Last Views on Politics and Finance, the serene benevolence which it always displays, and the pure morals which it always inculcates, we cannot help entertaining a high respect for its venerable author, and feeling a fervent wish that the last views of every public man may proceed from a heart as upright, and be directed to objects as good.

AUSTRALIA. (E. REVIEW, 1803.) Account of the English Colony of New South Wales. By Lieutenant-Colonel Collins, of the Royal Marines. Vol. II. 4to. Cadell and Davies, London.

The terrorists of this country are so extremely alarmed at the power of Bonaparte, that they ascribe to him resources, which M. Neckar very justly observes to be incompatible-despotism and credit. Now, clearly, if he be so omnipotent in France as he is represented to be, there is an end of all credit; for nobody will trust him whom nobody To introduce an European population, can compel to pay; and if he estab- and, consequently, the arts and civililishes a credit, he loses all that tem-sation of Europe into such an unporary vigour which is derived from a trodden country as New Holland, is to

Where civilisation gives birth to new

from the delight he experiences at the novel accession of power, and from the contrast he will always be enabled to make between his two situations, long after the pleasure of novelty has ceased. For these reasons, it is humane to restore him to sight.

confer a lasting and important benefit upon the world. If man be destined comparisons unfavourable to savage for perpetual activity, and if the proper life, with the information that a greater objects of that activity be the subjuga- good is possible, it generally connects tion of physical difficulties, and of his the means of attaining it. The savage own dangerous passions, how absurd no sooner becomes ashamed of his are those systems which proscribe the nakedness, than the loom is ready to acquisitions of science and the re- clothe him; the forge prepares for him straints of law, and would arrest the more perfect tools, when he is disgusted progress of man in the rudest and with the awkwardness of his own: his earliest stages of his existence! In- weakness is strengthened, and his wants deed, opinions so very extravagant in supplied, as soon as they are discovered; their nature must be attributed rather and the use of the discovery is, that it to the wantonness of paradox than to enables him to derive from comparison sober reflection, and extended inquiry. the best proofs of present happiness. To suppose the savage state perma- A man born blind is ignorant of the nent, we must suppose the numbers of pleasures of which he is deprived. those who compose it to be stationary, After the restoration of his sight, his and the various passions by which men happiness will be increased from two have actually emerged from it to be causes ; extinct; and this is to suppose man a very different being from what he really is. To prove such a permanence beneficial (if it were possible), we must have recourse to matter of fact, and judge of the rude state of society, not from the praises of tranquil literati, but from the narratives of those who have seen it through a nearer and better medium than that of imagination. There is an argument, however, for the continuation of evil, drawn from the ignorance of good; by which it is contended, that to teach men their situation can be better, is to teach them that it is bad, and to destroy that hap-meddle. Why we are to erect penipiness which always results from an ignorance that any greater happiness is within our reach. All pains and pleasures are clearly by comparison; but the most deplorable savage enjoys a sufficient contrast of good, to know that the grosser evils from which civilisation rescues him are evils. A New Hollander seldom passes a year without suffering from famine; the smallpox falls upon him like a plague; he dreads those calamities, though he does not know how to avert them; but, doubtless, would find his happiness increased, if they were averted. To deny this, is to suppose that men are reconeiled to evils, because they are inevitable; and yet hurricanes, earthquakes, bodily decay, and death, stand highest in the catalogue of human calamities.

But, however beneficial to the general interests of mankind the civilisation of barbarous countries may be considered to be, in this particular instance of it, the interest of Great Britain would seem to have been very little consulted. With fanciful schemes of universal good we have no business to

tentiary-houses and prisons at the distance of half the diameter of the globe, and to incur the enormous expense of feeding and transporting their inhabitants to and at such a distance, it is extremely difficult to discover. It certainly is not from any deficiency of barren islands near our own coast, nor of uncultivated wastes in the interior; and if we were sufficiently fortunate to be wanting in such species of accommodation, we might discover in Canada, or the West Indies, or on the coast of Africa, a climate malignant enough, or a soil sufficiently sterile, to revenge all the injuries which have been inflicted on society by pickpockets, larcenists, and petty felons. Upon the foundation of a new colony, and especially one peopled by criminals, there is a

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disposition in Government (where any | hundred millions of money in discircumstance in the commission of the covering its strength, and to humble crime affords the least pretence for the ourselves again before a fresh set of commutation) to convert capital pun- Washingtons and Franklins? The ishments into transportation; and by moment after we have suffered such these means to hold forth a very dan- serious mischief from the escape of the gerous, though certainly a very unin-old tiger, we are breeding up a young tentional, encouragement to offences. cub, whom we cannot render less feroAnd when the history of the colony cious, or more secure. If we are has been attentively perused in the gradually to manumit the colony, as it parish of St. Giles, the ancient avoca- is more and more capable of protecting tion of picking pockets will certainly itself, the degrees of emancipation, and not become more discreditable from the the periods at which they are to take knowledge that it may eventually lead place, will be judged of very differently to the possession of a farm of a thou- by the two nations. But we confess sand acres on the river Hawkesbury. ourselves not to be so sanguine as to Since the benevolent Howard attacked suppose, that a spirited and commercial our prisons, incarceration has become people would, in spite of the example not only healthy but elegant; and a of America, ever consent to abandon county-jail is precisely the place to their sovereignty over an important which any pauper might wish to retire, colony, without a struggle. Endless to gratify his taste for magnificence, as blood and treasure will be exhausted well as for comfort. Upon the same to support a tax on kangaroos' skins; principle there is some risk that trans- faithful Commons will go on voting portation will be considered as one of fresh supplies to support a just and the surest roads to honour and to necessary war; and Newgate, then bewealth; and that no felon will hear a come a quarter of the world, will evince verdict of "not guilty" without con- a heroism, not unworthy of the great sidering himself as cut off in the fairest characters by whom she was originally career of prosperity. It is foolishly peopled. believed, that the colony of Botany Bay unites our moral and commercial interests, and that we shall receive hereafter an ample equivalent, in bales of goods, for all the vices we export. Unfortunately, the expense we have in-nation subjected to our examination curred in founding the colony, will not retard the natural progress of its emancipation, or prevent the attacks of , other nations, who will be as desirous of reaping the fruit, as if they had sown the seed. It is a colony, besides, begun under every possible disadvantage; it is too distant to be long governed, or well defended; it is undertaken, not by the voluntary association of individuals, but by Government, and by means of compulsory labour. A nation must, indeed, be redundant in capital, that will expend it where the hopes of a just return are so very

small.

It may be a curious consideration, to reflect what we are to do with this colony when it comes to years of discretion. Are we to spend another

The experiment, however, is not less interesting in a moral, because it is objectionable in a commercial point of view. It is an object of the highest curiosity, thus to have the growth of a

to trace it by such faithful records, from the first day of its existence; and to gather that knowledge of the progress of human affairs, from actual experience, which is considered to be only accessible to the conjectural reflections of enlightened minds.

Human nature, under very old governments, is so trimmed, and pruned, and ornamented, and led into such a variety of factitious shapes, that we are almost ignorant of the appearance it would assume, if it were left more to itself.

From such an experiment as that now before us, we shall be better able to appreciate what circumstances of our situation are owing to those permanent laws by which all men are influenced, and what to the accidental positions in which we have been placed.

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