"Rolla. Impoffible!-Com Come to my heart, Cora! be my breaft your shield, and

let my fword hew afunder thote chains!

"Ataliba. Rebel, do whatever you pleafe, whatever the gods will permit-bat know, that Ataliba will not pronounce fentence, till he cholds you kneeling dif armed at his feet. Never fhall it be faid, that you extorted mercy from the Kirg. (In a pathetic tone.) Ye people of Quito, liften to the voice of your Sovereiga! I ftand here, at this moment, in the temple, in the prefence of our God himself! For feven years have I now reigned over you-I afk, if any one can charge me, during that time, with a wilful injuftice? If any can, let him come forwardsHas any one been difmiffed from before my throne without affiftance, where affinance could be granted? If any can, let him come forwards!-I have conquered other countries, I have triumphed over other Kings; but that is little.--When, a few years ago, the anger of the gods had curfed the country with unfruitfulness, I threw open the doors of my full barns, fed the hungry, and revived the fick; while many a night I lay fleepless in my own bed, becaufe your mifery oppreffed my foul, and I had not power to relieve all. Ye people of Quito, your prefent conduct is undeferved by me! Seize that man, chain him, or I lay down my fceptre at this moment. (A confufed murmuring is heard among the crowd.)

Bolla. (turning to his followers.) You feize me! you put me in chains! which among you will do this?--You, perhaps, my old companion in battle, with whom I once fhared my laft morfel, when famine flared us in the face-or you, whofe life I faved in the field of Tumibamba--or you, whofe fon I rescued from the enemy's hands, even at the moment when the lance was pointed against his breaft? Which among you will feize me? Speak!

High Prieft. Rolla, my adopted fon, how am I bowed down by this scene! Would you fee me, miferable old man as I am, proftrate at your feet?

"Rolla. Forbear! I honour you as a father, but do not fpread out your hands to the stormy winds-it is in vain! (The High Priest is about to proceed in kis intreaties, but Rolla prevents him impatiently.) Uncle, no more! The lots are caft; and, whatever may be the confequence, I am refolved to fave Cora."

As Rolla had been determined to forfake every duty, and every principle of loyalty and patriotifm, from the paffion of love, for the fake of Cora, the fame caufe produces his return to allegiance. This proposed pattern of heroic virtue does not cease to be a rebel from reflecting on the wickedness of rebellion, against a Prince, acting according to the law of the land, but because his mistress defires him. His good acts, as well as his bad, refult from the paffion of love. In Kotzebue's hero we fee nothing of that real inagnanimity which conftitutes virtuous heroifm of character; but, having begun the confideration of Cora and Rolla, in the Virgin of the Sun, we fhall, in our next number, confider their characters and actions, as well as that of Alonzo, together with new characters, in his Peruvian Rolla; and afterwards examine Pizarro, as it came changed by the pen of Mr. Sheridan.

POLITICS.

ART. XVIII. Hiflorical and Political Survey of the Loffes fuftained by the French Nation, in Population, Agriculture, Colonies, Manufactures, and Commerce, in Confequence of the Revolution and the prefent War. From the French of Sir Francis D'Ivernois. To which is added, a Supplement. 8vo. Pp. 472. Price 7s. Wright. London. 1799.

THE

HE original work of Sir F. D'Ivernois was reviewed, at fome

us, therefore, to obferve, that the tranflation before us appears, as far as we have examined it, to be faithful at leaft, though not very correct. The facts contained in the fupplement or poftfcript, which is dated June 20, 1799, tend to corroborate the former ftatements of the author, and, as the additional matter does not exceed the bounds of an extract, we shall give it entire :

"Since the above was written, many important facts and confeffions have come out, which fhow that the late defeats of the French have, in a great degree, arifen from the exhauftion of their finances; which have neither admitted of their provifioning places of retreat in time, of their completing the recruiting of the armies, of remounting the cavalry, nor even of providing the fum neceffury for their pay; which the army of Italy complained of not having received when the campaign opened. The fame Garat, who appealed to their defeats as pledges of future victories, had fhortly after shown fomewhat more forefight, when, abandoning predictions, and confining himself to facts, he faid, on the 14th of February, 1799, I fpeak of what I have feen, and I have feen every where, throughout Italy, that our means are terribly difproportioned to our enterprizes. I have seen our armies in want of foldiers, and our foldiers in want of every thing requifite for armies.'

"It is to be obferved that, a few days after this fpeech, the antithefis of which, no doubt, made him forget its imprudence, this eye-witnefs of the privations of the army of Italy applauded, in unifon with all his colleagues, at the renewal of hoftilities; the meffage announcing which was only interrupted by unanimous cries of Vive la Republique! A few months before, the late Director Carnot, though exiled by the Councils, had, however, the generofity to warn them of the dreadful confequences of a new war, which he foretold would be the fureft means of again rendering the existence of the republic a problem; and although its duration never has been a very difficult problem to those who know the French, and reflect upon their hiftory, it is certain, that to recommence the war without finances, was wantonly to accelerate the diffolution of this problematical republic. It was in the character of one of its founders that he declared to the new leaders, that it was on the verge of ruin, unless they fpeedily opened their eyes to the fituation of the finances, and perceived that a fiate, whatever be its conftitu tion, cannot poffefs ftability, unless there can be an equilibrium between the display of its ftrength and the reproduction of its refources. He even added, that though, fince the treaty of Campo Formio, the French armies had no longer been at war with the great powers, he was convinced they would be reduced, at the end of the campaign, (that of 1798,) to about one half of their former numbers.'

"At that very time I was urging precifely the fame opinion, and I endeavoured to show, that no confidence whatever could be placed in the army-lift which Scherer, the minifter at war, ufed from time to time to publish, in order to perfuade the coalefced powers, that the republican army actually amounted to above 400,000 men.

"No one member of the Councils was the dupe of thefe hyperboles; for they well knew that the pretended effective credits which they granted this minifter, would scarcely fuffice for the maintenance of 100 or 150,000 men. Yet they now pretend to call him to an account for his exaggeration with regard to the number of the troops, which, juft before the declaration of war with Auftria, he ftated to amount to 337,000 men. Among other things, Berlier reproaches him with having there reprefented the cavalry as confifting of 68,000 men, whereas, to make up that number, it would have been neceffary to purchase 40,000 horfes. If this be true, and if the cavalry are really reduced to perform their fervice on

foot,

foot, like the marechauffee, not only this new fpecies of deficit accounts for the prefent fuperiority of the coalefced armies, by very natural caufes, but it infures

them future fucceffes.

"In truth, we fcarcely know whether we ought to feel most difgufted at the bafe hypocrify or the ignorant fupidity of the French financiers, who have only fupplied the government with 161 millions during fix months, and who accufe them, as of a crime, for not being able, with fo trifling a fum, at once to provide for their own devouring indemnities, the purchase of 40,000 horfes, and the maintenance of 337,000 men under arms.

"But what crowns this inftance of hypocrify and injuftice, the Council of Five Hundred, not content with accuting the minifter of these mis-statements, have, on the 6th of June, addreffed a most threatening meffage to the government, in which they fay, Citizens Directors, every thing announces that the fafety of the nation is threatened from without, and that in this the internal tranquillity may be involved. Under thefe circumftances, we have a right to expect the communications required to be made to us by the conftitution.'

"The Directory, however, will, no doubt, reply, if, in fo critical a moment, they can continue tolerably collected, that if the safety of the nation is threatened from without, the Councils must attribute it to the renewal of the war, which they themselves provoked to the utmost of their power, declaring it was the only means of putting the finances in the road of melioration. The Directory will not fail to add, that the Legislative Body, who fo unanimously applauded this meafure, have, with equal unanimity, rejected every productive tax that has been propofed for carrying it on. As to the communications, which the Council of Five Hundred accufe them of withholding, the Directory will appeal to the innumerable meffages, wherein, ever fince the annihilation of the affignats and mandats, they have been continually repeating, that the receipts are daily becoming mare nml more infufficient for the various branches of the public service; that the deficit is an abyfs into which the republic will fall; and that it is condemned to perish, like the monarchy, by the exhaustion of the finances. They will point out, that the internal diforganization of the country arifes from the impoffibility of either paying the public functionaries, or finding men who are able and willing to discharge those offices gratuitoufly: and as to the defeats the armies have met with abroad, they will undertake to prove, that the Councils might have avoided, and might ftill repair them, by procuring fufficient funds for remount> ing the cavalry, and provisioning and paying the troops. In fhort, they will not fail to repeat, that with money the republic may be faved. But it remains to be feen, whether they will till dare alfo to repeat that its refources are entire.

"Such, probably, will this new communication be; and fuch would be a fufficient reply to the very indifcreet questions contained in the following addrefs of the inhabitants of Grenoble, read in the fitting of the 15th May Legifla tors and Directors, how is it, that in our camps the defertion of the troops is almoft univerfal, and that the feventh military divifion is not even ftrong enough to feize and arreft the deferters? How is it that the military administrations are rolling in money, while the troops are left utterly deftitute; infomuch that the confcripts who arrived at Milan, found neither bread to eat nor ftraw to lie on, and thus their defertion was provoked ??

"This addrefs having been publicly read and fent to the Directory, the inha bitants of Grenoble entered into a farther correfpondence with the Prefident of the Council of Five Hundred; and on the 6th June addressed a second dispatch to him, in which they fay, The wounded foldiers who have returned from the army, and the confcripts who happen to be fick, are left without fuccour, the hofpitals being unprovided with every thing neceffary for their comfort.-The defpondency is fo general, that there is reafon to fear a speedy and abfolute dif organization.

If, however, added thefe warm patriots, the administrations and generals of the interior had money at their difpofal, they might yet provide for the mott preffing wants: but, without rejources, what can be undertaken, what can be done? nothing but acts of defpair: and you know, Citizens Legislators, that delpair leads to the moji dreadful catastrophes."

"If this be fo, I was not far wrong, when, four years ago, I ventured to predict, that when the French government should be no longer poffe ied of a paper circulating medium, when their neighbours fhould no longer fuffer themielves to be pillaged with impunity by their armies, the defertion of the republican troops would be provoked by the utterly deftitute condition to which they would infallibly be reduced; that their leaders being then left without money or refources, and nothing being done to relieve their most prefling wants, defpair would fhortly lead them to what they would call the most dreadful catastrophe, to that of the imperishable republic perishing by the exhauftion of the finances. I ftill perfift with increafing confidence in this conjecture, though ftill adding the fame indifpenfible condition with which I fet out, namely, that the death of the monster depends, above all things, on the Allies perfifting in the war, and on the extent of their facrifices to prevent the republican armies from feizing the refources of one conquered country after another, in order thereby ftill to grasp at the refources of other nations." Pp. 467-472.

DIVINITY.

ART. XIX. Religious and Philanthropic Tracts. By James Cowe, M. A. Vicar of Sunbury, Middlefex. 8vo. Pp. 131. Robfon. London.

ΤΗ HESE tracts confift of "A Difcourfe on the Principles, the Temper, and Duty of Chriftians- An Effay on the State of the Poor, and on the Means of improving it by Friendly Societies, &c. and Rules for forming and managing Friendly Societies, with a View to facilitate their general Eftablishment."

The firft of thefe tracts is a fermon delivered at an anniversary meeting of two friendly focieties of poor tradefinen and day labourers at Sunbury, on the text, "Only let your converfation be as becometh the gospel of Chrift." To explain and recommend this duty he thus manages his fubject;---Firft, he confiders what ought to be the rule of our conduct towards mankind in general. Secondly, what particular duties the gofpel requires of men who live in the fame city or neighbourhood. Thirdly, how we ought to behave towards thofe who differ from us in religious opinions. Fourthly, how we should conduct ourselves in our refpective families. And laftly, he points out thofe duties which we owe to each other as the members of friendly focieties, and how their interefts might be best promoted. These are all fubjects of high importance, and Mr. Cowe has treated them in a manner that is entitled to much praife. The ftyle and arguments are well adapted to the audience he was addreffing; the motives urged for the performance of the various duties of life as christians and men, are placed in a ftriking point of view, and enforced with fuch ability and zeal as are highly creditable to him.

His fecond tract, "On the ftate of the pour, and on the means of improving it by friendly Societies, &c." has afforded him an opportunity of offering his opinions on a fubject which has engaged the atten tion of many wife and benevolent men. That the prefent fyftem of

NO. XIV. VOL. III.

Gg

g

Our

our poor laws ftands in need of alteration feems to be the unani mous opinion of the country; but what that alteration is to be, and how it is to be effected, not even the abilities of our first Minister have yet fatisfactorily determined. To thofe who have devoted their time and talents to the illuftration of this very important branch of national polity, a nation's thanks are due; and more particularly to the ingenious and learned author* of that laborious and fingular production, in three 4to volumes, entitled, "On the State of the Poor," which, for profound research, accuracy of information, admirable deduction of historic fact, combined, at the fame time, with an elegant, nervous, and animated ftyle, we have feldom feen equalled, and never excelled. Though this excellent work was given to the world long before our labours began, we could not país by the opportunity which Mr. Cowe's tract fo clearly gave us, of fpeaking of it as we think it merits.

Mr. Cowe is decidedly of opinion that the neceffity of the poor laws might, and would, be removed, by the univerfal adoption of "Friendly Societies;" and, from the circumftances which have come to our perfonal knowledge, we are inclined to think that the evils now arifing from them might, by fuch means, be greatly decreased. He enumerates number of caufes that are productive of distress to the poor, and at the fame time fuggefts what, in his mind, would be found an adequate remedy. We are not inclined to enter into any conteft on the utility of fome of his fchemes, or whether they would, or would not, increase the portion of human happiness; let it fuffice that, upon the whole, we think extremely favourable of the ability and obfervation he has fhewn in this tract, and moft highly of the benevolence, piety, and patriotifm, from which it originated.

The third part of this little work, which confifts of rules for the formation of a Friendly Society, will be found very ufeful in any neighbourhood, where fuch eftablishment may be in agitation.

ART. XX. On the Advantages which refult from Chriftianity, and on the Influence of Chriftian Principles on the Mind and Conduct. By the fame Author. Svo. Pp. 58. Robson.

London.

"THE fubftance of this difcourfe was delivered in several fermons at Sudbury, more particular to the Friendly Societies, and is now enlarged and published, with a view to diffufe more widely religious fentiments and moral principles among those who have little leisure for the ftudy of theological fubjects." Such are the very praifeworthy motives given by the author for this publication, and we most fincerely hope that all his pious purposes may be accomplished by it. The language of this production is plain, perfpicuous, and forcible, and its doctrine unexceptionable; and we moft cordially recommend both these articles to the attention of our readers.

*Sir F. M Eden, Bart.

ART