every fervile office, wiping fhoes not ex-
cepted. They are permitted to trick and
deceive one another; and the finest fellow
is he who is the moft artful. Friendship
indeed is cultivated, but fuch as we find
among robbers: a boy would be run
down, if he had no affociate.
fay, and am far from thinking,
manners are inculcated by the
but I fay, and am forry to fay, that no-
thing is done to prevent or correct them.

I do not that fuch mafters ;

When a nation, formerly warlike and public fpirited, is depreffed by luxury and felfishness, doth nature afford no means for refloring it to its former ftate? The Emperor Hadrian declared the Greeks a free people; not doubting, but that a change fo animating, would reftore the fine arts to their prifine luftre.-A vain attempt : for the genius of the Greeks vanished with their patriotism; and liberty to them was no bleffing. With refpect to the Portuguefe, the decay of their power and of their commerce, hath reduced them to a much lower ftate, than when they rofe as it were out of nothing. At that time they were poor, but innocent: at present they are poor, but corrupted with many vices.

1

Their pride, in particular, fwells as high as when masters of the Indies. The following ridiculous inftance is a pregnant proof: shoes and stocking are prohibited to their Indian fubjects; though many of them would pay handfomely for the privilege. There is one obvious measure for reviving the Portuguese trade in India but they have not so much vigour of mind remaining, as even to think of it. They fill poffefs, in that country, the town and territory of Goa, the town and territory of Diu, with fome other ports, all admirably fituated for trade. What stands in the way but indolence merely, against declaring the places mentioned free ports, with liberty of confcience to traders of whatever religion? Free traders flocking there, under protection of the Portuguese, would undermine the Dutch and English companies, which cannot trade upon an equal footing with private merchants; and by that means the Portuguese trade might again flourish. But that people are not yet brought fo low, as to be compelled to change their manners, though reduced to depend on their neighbours even for common neceffaries: the gold and diamonds

of

of Brafil, are a plague that corrupts all. Spain and Portugal afford inftructive political leffons: the latter has been ruined by opulence; the former, as will be feen afterward, by taxes no lefs impolitic than oppreffive. To enable thefe nations to recommence their former courfe, or any nation in the fame condition, I can discover no means but pinching poverty. Commerce and manufactures taking wing, may leave a country in a very diftreffed condition but a people may be very diftreffed, and yet very vitious; for vices generated by opulence are not foon eradicated. And, though other vices fhould at last vanish. with the temptations that promoted them, indolence and pufillanimity will remain for ever, unless by fome powerful caufe the oppofite virtues be introduced. A very poor man, however indolent, will be tempted, for bread, to exert fome activity; and he may be trained gradually from less to more by the fame means. Activity, at the fame time, produces bodily ftrength; which will reftore courage and boldness. By fuch means a nation may be put in motion with the fame advantages it had originally; and its fecond progress may VOL. II.

X x

prove

prove as fuccefsful as the firft. Thus nations go round in a circle: the first part of the progrefs is verified in a thousand inftances; but the world has not fubfifted long enough to afford any clear instance of the other *.

*The following letter I had from a gentleman, who, though at Lifbon for the fake of health, neglects no opportunity to increafe his frock of knowledge. Nothing but ocular demonftration could have con"vinced me that the human fpecies may be depraved

to the degree that is exemplified in this country. "Whether with regard to politics, morals, arts, or fo"cial intercourse, it is equally defective. In fhort, "excepting the mere elementary benefits of earth and "air, this country is in the loweft ftate. Will you be "lieve that I found not a single man who could in"form me of the price of land, very few who had any "notion to what value the product of their country "extends, or of it colonies. No one able to point out "the means of reviving Portugal from its prefent de"fponding condition. With refpect to a general plan "of legiflation, there is none; unless the caprices of "an ignorant defpot may be called fuch, or the pro"jects of a defigning minifter, conftantly endeavour"ing to deprefs the nobility, and to beggar the other "orders of the ftate. This the Marquis Pombal has "at length completed. He has left the crown poffeffed of a third part of the land-property, the church enjoying another third, the remainder left to an indigent nobility and their vaffals. He has fubjected branch of commerce to ministerial emoluments, " and

every

I close this Sketch with two illuftrious examples of patriotifm; one ancient, one modern; one among the whites, one among the blacks. Ariftides the Athenian is famed above all the ancients for love to his country. Its fafety and honour were the only objects of his ambition; and his fignal difinterestedness made it the fame to him, whether thefe ends were accomplished by himself, or by others, by his friends

"and fixed judicial proceedings, both civil and crimi"nal, on the fluctuating basis of his own intereft or "inclination. Take an inftance of their law. A "fmall proprietor having land adjoining to, or inter"mixed with, the land of a great proprietor, is obli"ged to fell his poffeffion, if the other wishes to have "it. In the case of feveral competitors to the fuccef"fion of land, it is the endeavour of each to feize the "poffeffion, well knowing that poffeffion is commonly "held the best title; and, at any rate, that there is no "claim for rents during the time of litigation. All "the corn growing in Eftremadura must be fold at "Lisbon. A tenth of all fales, rents, wages, &c. goes "to the King. Thefe inftances are, I think, fufficient "to give a notion of the prefent ftate of the kingdom, "and of the merits of Pombal, who has long had the "reins in his hands as first minifter, who may jusly "boaft of having freed his countrymen from the dread "of becoming more wretched than they are at pre

fent. It gave me fatisfaction to find the doctrines of "the Sketches finely illuftrated in the hiftory of this fingular kingdom. I am," &c.

or