We do not think, however, that he excels in juft generalization. He particularizes accurately; but the particulars which he records are frequently far from fupporting his general pofitions. Owing to his defective induction, he fometimes fails in his characters. The items are minutely ftated, but the fumming up is far from giving the amount. We do not, as we have beforementioned, fully admit his moral eftimates, any more than his intellectual theories. His ideas on important fubjects of ethics are frequently vague, and fometimes unjuft. The debauch of the fexes, even where it is a violation of the marriage vows, in one or both parties, he feems to treat too lightly. The greatest hiftorians and most philofophical characterizers of exifting manners, have confidered this fpecies of profligacy, when prevalent, as a criterion of general depravity. The views of our author appear to be different; according to his inculcations, these are very venial trefpaffes. From the name of Mr. Pinkerton we were afraid certain religious opinions would have been obtruded on the reader, which must have incurred our cenfure. There, on the whole, we were agreeably mistaken. The peculiar notions of the writer hardly ever appear, at leaft directly. It is not difficult, however, to difcover that the ftyle, like Gibbon, confiders religion as a mere matter of political expedience; but he does not, LIKE THAT bistorian, studiously rehearse the articles of his belief.

On the whole, notwithstanding the defects which impartiality compels us to notice, this is a meritorious and useful history, and deferves to be diligently perufed by readers defirous of tracing civilization, and knowing the hiftory of an important period of Scottish acts and proceedings.

ART. III. The Rife, Progrefs, and Confequences of the New Opinions and Principles lately introduced into France; with Obfervations. Svo. Pp. 272. Price 5s. Wright, London; Bell and Bradfute, Edinburgh. 1799.

MONG the numerous publications to which the French revolution has given rife, we have not met with many which deferve to be more encouraged than the work before us. To much originality the author can, indeed, lay no claim, but he has the merit, and a great merit it is, of having brought within the compass of a small volume a multitude of interefting facts, which lay fcattered through a variety of expenfive works, foreign and domeftic. He has thus put it in the power of every man to obtain, for a very trifling fum, the most important part of the information, which has been communi

S 2

cated

cated to the public by Profeffor Robifon, the Abbé Barruel, and the author of the Hiftoire de la Conjuration du Duc D'Orleans, with many other writers, whom it would be tedious to enumerate; and had he done nothing more than this, his work would have been claffed, by every lover of virtue and of focial order, among the most useful publications of the present day. The industry with which the Jacobins circulate their blafphemies and paradoxes, and the art with which they condense volumes of fedition into cheap pamphlets, can be fuccefsfully counteracted only by the friends of piety and virtue, and good government, pursuing their aims with equal art and equal induftry. Fas eft et ab hofte doceri.

But our author is not a mere compiler. The arrangement of his materials is fcientific; his obfervations on the facts, reafonings, and opinions, that pafs under his review, are judicious; and, though he be a ftrenuous enemy to the politics of France, he is not one of those timid zealots for ancient eftablishments, who tremble at the very found of the word innovation.

"The arts and fciences have been making a gradual and perceptible progrefs from the commencement of history to the prefent time. There is no reafon to fuppofe that politics, confidered either as an art or as a fcience, has yet attained its greatest height. Since the inftitution of the feudal fyftem, all the ftates of Europe have made confiderable progrefs towards improvement. Our own laws and government, in particular, have been every century receiving important corrections and additions; and there is reason to expect, that if they fhall continue to be amended with caution and wifdom, they will be much more perfect before the end of the next century than they are at prefent. We ought not then to difmifs without examination all new opinions in politics; for if every thing new is rejected, there is an end of all improvement. "The French have raised their conftitution upon new opinions and new principles. If thefe are more perfect and more juft, if they have a tendency to produce greater happiness than those which formerly prevailed, we ought highly to value the difcovery. But as the truth and excellence of thefe new opinions and principles have not been proved by experience, the only ftandard by which they can be estimated, why fhould we receive them as perfect upon the recommendation of any individuals, or of any nation inhabiting the globe? We have eyes to fee, we have minds to perceive, we have reafon to compare and to judge as well as they-and why thould we neglect to use them? Shall we, then, in an abject pufillanimous manner renounce our own understanding and the experience of our venerable ancestors, and implicitly adopt, without examination, opinions imported from France, as if we were a puny, ignorant, weak-minded, credulous nation, that knows not how to act, or what to believe, till aided, by the supreme wildom of a foreign ftate?"

** Whea

"When the French fay to other nations, our conftitution is the most perfect which the world ever faw, and we exhort all to adopt itcivility may require us to thank them for their advice; but interest, honour, and duty, the fuperintending principles of human conduct, demand of us to think before we act, to confider maturely, whether the proposed innovations be agreeable to juftice, and give reafon to hope that they will promote the happiness of fociety. We ought alfo to confider attentively, whether our character and fituation may not be very different from the character and fituation of the French; whether we require the fame changes; or whether our circumstances will admit them. It is a well known maxim in education, that different tempers and capacities require different kinds of difcipline. It is no lefs true in politics, that different nations require different kinds of government. Rude favage tribes cannot be governed by the fame laws as civilized nations; nor are a dull phlegmatic people fitted for the fame government as thofe of a brifk, lively, and volatile character. A Frenchman is as different from an Englishman as if he were an animal of a different fpecies. The country, the cuftoms and manners, the modes of thinking peculiar to each, are very diffimilar. It is therefore not improbable that the two nations may require different forms of government. M. Bertrand de Moleville, a Frenchman of diftinguished abilities and of refpectable character, who was well acquainted with the ardent temper of his countrymen, declared as his opinion, after examining the British conftitution, that the French do not poffefs fuch a coolness and degree of moderation as to fit them for fo free a government as we enjoy. If this opinion be well-founded, we fhould be led from it to fufpect, that every government established in France might have fome tendency either to oppreffion or licentiousness. When then we borrow any improvements from France, we must be on our guard not to copy in a fervile manner, left we adopt what may be inconfiftent with our character and ruinous to our happiness. I beg leave, therefore, to folicit the attention of my countrymen to the new principles which have been lately introduced into France. Let them be examined fairly and candidly, and with all the ftrictnefs and rigour which an honeft mind, zealous in fearch of truth, and fearful of falling into error, would think it neceffary to employ upon a fubject of the utmost importance. If thefe principles be founded in reafon, and if they be calculated to produce a high degree of happiness, the more strictly they are examined, the more confpicuous will their excellence and utility appear," Pp. 4—6.

With thefe temperate and candid reflections our author introduces his book to the public. It is divided into thirteen chapters, in which are confidered the French Declaration of the Rights of Man; the End of Government; Liberty; Equality; the Law; Security; Property; the Sovereign People, Effects of the new Principles on the Character and Situation of the French Nation; Effects of the new Principles on the Conduct of the French Government to the Allied and Neutral States; the Confpiracies

S3

Confpiracies which have been formed by the Jacobins, and their Affociates, in thofe Countries with which France is engaged in War; and the Means neceffary to check the ambitious Projects and dangerous Principles of the French.

In the chapter which treats of "the declaration of the rights of men," our author, after obferving that the faid declaration was intended to comprehend all the principles of a free government, and after noticing the deteftable and inhu man arts which were employed to compel the unfortunate Louis to give it the fanction of his authority, proceeds

thus:

"The conftitution of 1791, which had been ushered in with the greatest pomp and rejoicing, foon gave place to the conftitution of 1793. The conftitution of 1793 was folemnly placed among the ar chives of the nation, and that moment was called the most important epoch of the human race. But the conftitution which had been unanimously approved in 1793, was unanimoufly rejected in 1795, A new fyftem was formed by a committee of eleven in 1795, which was received with the most unbounded applaufe. I think it was upon this occafion that the minister of the interior came to report, that the inhabitants of Angouleine had, in their ecftacy of joy upon the arrival of the conftitutional act, embraced the man who brought it, and the horfe who was fo highly honoured as to carry the happy meffenger, All thefe political fyitems were founded upon the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was, therefore, prefixed to each of them.

This declaration has undergone confiderable changes as well as the conftitution. Whether it has been improved it is not my province to determine; but it is neceflary to mention, that a new right of man, namely, equality, was added in 1795, which had been overlooked in 1791. All attempts to difturb the public order established by law had been forbidden in the firft declaration; but the most entire liberty of fpeaking and writing upon all fubjects is granted by the prefent." Pp. 9, 10.

The rights of man in fociety, according to the fecond article of the French declaration, are liberty, equality, fecurity, and property; and, in the third article, liberty is faid to confift in the power of doing that which does not injure another.

"It is not ufual (fays our author) for thofe who poffefs any refpect for religion, either natural or revealed, to clafs the Supreme Being under the general indefinite term, another; therefore liberty, according to this definition, does not require men to abstain from committing crimes against God; neither, furely, can the word another comprehend one's felf. Liberty, therefore, does not prohibit men from committing crimes againft God, or from doing injuries to themfelves. Hence it follows, according to the ideas of liberty taught in France, that a free man may be an infidel, a blafphemer, an atheift, a glutton, a drunkard; be inay be idle and difipated, may perpetrate fuicide; nay, there is

no

no crime which it may not be lawful for him to commit, provided he does no injury to other men. Yet may there not be a propriety, as far as it can be done, to reftrain individuals from ruining themselves? A father always thinks it fo much his duty to preferve his children from ruin, that he is feldom averfe to use feverity, if no other means can be effectual. There are few men, perhaps none, who would not wish to fave their neighbour from deftruction. If you faw a man going to throw himself headlong from the top of a precipice, would you not think it your duty to do every thing in your power to fave his life? In like manner, if you faw a man going to take a dofe of poifon, would you not endeavour to prevent it? Now every man of the leaft obfervation knows, that intemperance and debauchery, and feve ral other vices, will bring down the conftitution, and cut a man off in the midst of his days as certainly as poifon. Is it not then huma- ́ nity, nay, is it not the bounden duty of every government, to stop men in the road to deftruction?

"By our laws, a vagrant, who has no apparent way of fupporting himself, is liable to be apprehended. It may be faid, that this is done to prevent men from injuring others. Be it fo: it is not the lefs true, that the best way to prevent men from injuring others, is to prevent them from injuring themfelves. British liberty may, therefore, be defined, the power of doing every thing which is not offenfive to God, injurious to our neighbour or to ourfelves. This is the liberty of the molt perfect beings; the liberty of angels cannot be greater. It furely, therefore, cannot be too limited for frail and imperfect man." Pp. 64, 65.

Our author, treading in the footsteps, of the Abbé Barruel and Dr. Robifon, traces the French notions of equality from mafon lodges, and the dens of the illuminati, and then obferves

that

ge

"In whatever sense we employ the word equality, it is difficult to It has not been perceive how it can be one of the rights of man. nerally admitted by philofophers, nor known to the common people. It is not, therefore, a felf-evident principle. God has not made men equal; fociety has not made them equal; neither can any laws nor education preferve men equal. What, then, does equality mean, when confidered as a right of man? Not, furely, equality of underftanding; for men are born with different capacities; and no standard has yet been invented by which the understandings of men can be reduced to one fcale. It is, indeed, furprizing, that the French, who have lately made the wonderful difcovery, that mind is compofed of a fine fpecies of crystals, fhould not alfo have found out fome process by which thofe crystals could be reduced to one standard.

"Equality cannot mean equality in knowledge and virtue; for fome men will be wife, and fome men will be fools; fome will be good, and fome will be wicked, whatever new laws and forms of government fhall be devised.