too weak the numberlefs forts and legions that covered their frontiers could not defend them from a panic upon every motion of the barbarians *. A nation, in which the reciprocal duties of fovereign and fubject are confcientiously fulfilled, and in which the people love their country and their governors, may be deemed invincible; provided due care be taken of the military branch. Every particular is reversed in a great empire: individuals grafp at money, per fas aut nefas, to lavish it upon pleasure: the governors of diftant provinces tyrannize without control; and, during the fhort period of their power, neglect no means, however oppreffive, to amafs wealth. Thus were the Roman provinces governed; and the people, who could not figure a greater tyrant than a Roman proconful, were ready to embrace every change. The Romans accordingly were fenfible, that to force their barrier, and to difmember their empire, were in effect the fame. In our times, the nations whofe frontiers lie open, would make the most refolute oppofition to an invader; witness the

*The ufe of cannon, which place the weak and ftrong upon a level, is the only refource of the luxurious and opulent against the poor and hardy.

German

German ftates, and the Swifs cantons. Italy enjoys the strongest natural barrier of any country that is not an island; and for centuries has been a prey to every invader.

yet

Three plans at different times have been put in execution for fecuring the frontiers of an extenfive empire, building walls, laying the frontiers wafte, and establishing feudatory princes. The first was the ancient practice, proper only for an idle people without commerce. The Egyptians built a very extenfive wall for protecting themselves against the wandering Arabs, The famous wall of China to protect its effeminate inhabitants against the Tartars, is known all the world over; and the walls built in the north of England against the Scots and Picts, are known to every Briton. To protect the Roman territory from German invaders, the Emperor Probus conftructed a ftone wall ftrengthened with towers. It stretched from Ratifbon on the Danube to Wimpfen on the Necker; and terminated on the bank of the Rhine, after a winding courfe of two hundred miles. To a low ftate indeed muft the Greek empire have been reduced in the reign of the Emperor AnaRafius,

ftafius, when to reprefs the Bulgarians, it was neceffary to build a wall, at no greater distance from Constantinople than ten leagues, abandoning all without to the barbarians. Such walls, tho' erected with ftupendous labour, prove a very weak bulwark; for a wall of any extent is never fo carefully guarded, as at all times to prevent furprise. And accordingly, experience has taught that walls cannot be rely'd on. This in modern times has introduced the two other methods mentioned. Sha Abbas, King of Perfia, in order to prevent the inroads of the Turks, laid wafte part of Armenia, carrying the inhabitants to Ifpahan, and treating them with great humanity. Land is not much valued by the great monarchs of Afia: it is precious in the fmaller kingdoms of Europe, and the frontiers are commonly guarded by fortified towns. The other frontiers of Perfia are guarded by feudatory princes; and the fame method is practifed in China, in Hindoftan, and in the Turkish empire. The princes of Little Tartary, Moldavia, and Wallachia, have been long a fecurity to the Grand Signior against his powerful neighbours in Eu

rope.

I

SKETCH

N°

SKETCH VI.

War and Peace Compared.

O complaints are more frequent than against the weather, when it fuits not our purpose: "A difmal feafon! we "fhall be drowned, or we fhall be burnt "up." And yet wife men think, that there might be more occafion to complain, were the weather left to our own direction. The weather is not the only instance of diftruft in Providence: it is a common to

pic to declaim against war; Scourge of "nations, Destroyer of the human race, "Bane of arts and industry! Will the "world never become wife! Will war neCC ver have an end!" Manifold indeed are the bleffings of peace; but doth war never produce any good? A fair comparison may poffibly make it doubtful, whether war, like the weather, ought not to be refigned to the conduct of Providence: feldom are we in the right, when we repine at its difpenfations.

VOL. II.

The

The bleffings of peace are too well known to need illuftration: industry, commerce, the fine arts, power, opulence, &c. &c. depend on peace. What has war in store for balancing bleffings fo fubftantial? Let us not abandon the field without making at least one effort.

Humanity, it must be acknowledged, gains nothing from the wars of small states in close neighbourhood: such wars are brutal and bloody; because they are carried on with bitter enmity against individuals. Thanks to Providence, that war at present bears a lefs favage afpect: we fpare individuals, and make war upon the nation only: barbarity and cruelty give place to magnanimity; and foldiers are converted from brutes into heroes. Such wars give exercise to the elevated virtues of courage, generofity, and disintereftedness, which are always attended with consciousness of merit and of dignity *.

Friendship

* In the war carried on by Louis XII. of France against the Venetians, the town of Brefcia, being taken by ftorm and abandoned to the foldiers, fuffered for feven days all the diftreffes of cruelty and avarice. No houfe efcaped but that where Cheva