fters, vifited their dominions, and were punctual in rendering juftice to high and low. The people carried on an extensive and lucrative commerce, which brought a revenue to the Emperor, that enabled him to maintain a standing army of one hundred thousand foot, thirty thoufand horfe, and feven hundred elephants. But profperity and opulence ruined all. The Emperors, poisoned with pride and voluptuoufnefs, were now contented with fwelling titles, inftead of folid fame. King of kings, and Hufband of a thousand wives, were at the head of a long catalogue of fuch pompous, but empty epithets. Corrupted by flattery, they affected divine honours, and appeared rarely in public; leaving the care of their dominions to their minifters, and to the governors of their provinces. At the beginning of the fixteenth century, neighbouring princes encroached on all fides. In the year 1565, Bifnagar, the capital, was taken and facked by four Moorish kings The governors of the provinces declared themfelves independent; and out of that great empire fprung the kingdoms of Golconda, Vifapour, and feveral others. The empire of Hindoftan, once widely extended, is now reduced to a very fmall kingdom, under a prince. who no longer is entitled to be defigned the Great Mogul; the governors of his provinces having, as ufual, declared themfelves independent.

Our North-American colonies are in a profperous condition, increafing rapidly in population and in opulence. The colonists have the fpirit of a free people, and are enflamed with patriotifm. Their population will equal that of Britain and Ireland in lefs than a century; and they will then be a match for the mother-country, if they chufe to be independent: every advantage will be on their fide, as the attack must be by fea, from a very great distance. Being thus delivered from a foreign yoke, their first care will be, the choice of a proper government; and it is not difficult to foresee what government will be chofen. A people, animated with the new bleffings of liberty and independence, will not incline to a kingly government. The Swifs cantons joined in a federal union, for protection against the potent houfe of Auftria; and the Dutch em

braced the like union, for protection against the more potent King of Spain. But our colonies will never join in fuch a union; because they have no potent neighbour, and because they have an averfion to each other. We may pronounce then, with tolerable certainty, that each colony will chufe for itself a republican government. And their prefent conftitution prepares them for it: they have a fenate; and they have an affembly reprefenting the people. No change will be necessary, but to drop the governor, who reprefents the King of Britain. And thus a part of a great ftate will be converted into many fmall, ftates.

ΝΕ

SKETCH V.

GREAT and SMALL STATES compared.

EIGHBOURS, according to the common faying, must be sweet friends or bitter enemies: patriotism is vigorous in fmall ftates; and the hatred to neighbouring ftates no lefs fo: both vanish in a great monarchy.

Like a maximum in mathematics, emulation has the fineft play within certain bounds; it languifheth where its objects are too many, or too few: and hence it is, that the most heroic actions are performed in a ftate of moderate extent. Appetite for applause, or fame, may fubfift in a great monarchy; but by that appetite, without the fupport of emulation, heroic actions are feldom atchieved.

Small ftates, however corrupted, are not liable to defpotifm: the people being contiguous to the feat of government, and accuftomed to see their governors daily, talk familiarly of their errors, and publifh them every where. On Spain, which formerly confifted of many finall ftates, a profound writer (a) makes the following obfervation. "The petty monarch was but little elevat"ed above his nobles: having little power. he could not "command much refpect; nor could his nobles look up

(a) Dr. Robertson.

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to him with that reverence which is felt in approaching great monarchs." Another thing is equally weighty against defpotifm in a small state: the army cannot easily be feparated from the people; and for that reafon, is very little dangerous. The Roman Pretorian bands were billeted in the towns near Rome; and three cohorts only were employed in guarding that city. Sejanus, prefect of thefe bands under Tiberius, lodged the three cohorts in a fpacious barrack within the city, in order to gain more authority over them, and to wean them from familiarity with the people. Tacitus, in the 4th book of his Annals, relates the ftory in the following words. "Vim

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præfecturæ modicam antea, intendit, difperfas per ur"bem cohortes una in caftra conducendo; ut fimul imperia acciperent. numeroque et robore, et vifu, inter "fe, fiducia ipfis, in cæteros metus, crearetur*."

What is faid above fuggefts the cause of a curious fact recorded in ancient hiftory, yiz That of many attempts to ufurp the fovereignty of different Greek republics, very few fucceeded: and that no ufurpation of that kind was lafting Every circumftance differs in an extensive ftate: the people, at a distance from the throne, and having profound veneration for the fovereign, confider themselves, not as members of a body-politic, but as fubjects merely, bound implicitly to obey: by which impreffion they are prepared beforehand for defpotifm. Other reafons concur: the subjects of a great ftate are dazzled with the fplendor of their monarch; and as their union is prevented by distance, the monarch can fafely employ a part of his fubjects against the reft, or a ftanding army against all.

A great ftate poffeffes one eminent advantage, viz. ability to execute magnificent works. The hanging gar.

*

"He extended the power of the prefecture, by collecting into "one camp thofe Pretorian cohorts which were formerly difperfed "all over the city: that thus, being united, they might be more "influenced by his orders, and while their confidence in their power was increafed by the conftant view of their own numbers and ftrength, they might at the fame time strike a great terror in o"thers."

dens of Babylon, the pyramids of Egypt, and its lake Meris, are illuftrious examples. The city of Heliopolis in Syria, named Balbek by the Turks, is a pregnant in ftance of the power and opulence of the Roman empire. Even in the ruins of that city, there are remains of great magnificence and exquifite tafte. If the imperial palace, or the temple of the Sun, to mention no other building, were the work of any European prince existing at prefent, it would make a capital figure in the annals of his reign. And yet fo little eclat did these works make at the time of execution, that there is not a hint of them in any historian. The beneficence of fome great monarchs is worthy of ftill greater praife. In the principal roads of Japan hot baths are erected at proper diftances, with other conveniences, for the use of travellers. The beneficence of the Chinese government to thofe who fuffer fhipwreck, gives a more advantageous impreffion of that monarchy, than all that is painfully collected by Du Halde. To verify the obfervation, I joyfully lay hold of the following incident. In the year 1728, the ship Prince George took her departure from Calcutta in Bengal, for Canton in China, with a cargo L. 60,000 value. A violent ftorm drove her ashore at a place named Timpau, a great way weft from Canton. Not above half the crew could make the fhore, worn out with fatigue and hunger, and not doubting of being maffacred by the natives. How amazed were they to be treated with remarkable humanity! A mandarin appeared, who not only provided for them victuals in plenty, but alfo divers to affift them in fishing the wreck. What follows is in the words of my author, Alexander Wedderburn of St. Germains, a gentleman of known worth and ve racity, who bore office in the fhip, "In a few days "we recovered L. 5000 in bullion, and afterward "L. 10,000 more. Before we fet forward to Canton, the "mandarin our benefactor took an exact account of our

money, with the names of the men, furnished us with an efcort to conduct us through his district, and configned us dead or alive to one Suqua at Canton, a "Chinese merchant well known to the English there.

"In every one of our refting places, victuals were "brought to us by the villagers in plenty, and with great

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cordiality. In this manner we paffed from one diftrict "to another, without having occafion to lay out a single "farthing, till we reached Canton, which we did in "nine days, travelling fometimes by land, and sometimes by water. Our cafe had been reprefented to the court at Pekin, from whence orders came to diftribute amongst us a fum of money; which was done by the "Chuntuck, Hoppo, and other officers, civil and military, affembled in great ftate. After a short speech, "expreffing regret for our calamity, with an eulogium on the humane and generous difpofition of their master, "to each of us was prefented the Emperor's bounty, in a yellow bag, on which was inscribed the nature of "the gift. The firft fupercargo received 450 tales in "filver, the fecond 350, myself 250, the mate 75, and "each common feaman 15; the whole amounting to "about 2000 tales, or L. 8oo. This is an example "worthy imitation, even where Chriftianity is professed; though its tenets are often, on like occafions, fcandalously perverted." So far my author: and I add, that this bounty was undoubtedly established by law; for it has not the appearance of an occafional or fingular act of benevolence. If fo, China is the only country in the world, where charity to strangers in distress is a branch of public police..

Another advantage of a great ftate I mention with peculiar pleafure, because all who afpire to be eminent in literature, are interested in it. A fmall kingdom, like Denmark, like Sweden, like Portugal, cannot naturally be productive of good writers; because where there are few readers, there is no fufficient incitement to exert literary talents: a claffical work produced at present in the Celtic language, would be little less than a miracle. France is eminent above all other nations for the encouragement it affords to good writers: it is a populous country; it is the chief feat of tafte, arts, and sciences; and its language has become univerfal in Europe, being the court language every where: what wonder then is it,