tainly defeated, and the entire honour of the victory remained with Deffaix; ftill, in every other refpect, connected with the character of a hero, he is a just object of extreme deteftation. The illuftrious Chieftains, the brilliancy of whofe exploits has rendered them famous in hiftory, poffeffed qualities, independently of bravery and conduct, which justly ennobled them in the estimation of mankind, They had a greatnefs and generofity of foul, a loftinels and dignity of mind, which not only rendered them incapable of any thing mean and base, but which fometimes impelled them to actions so grand and fublime, as to command the applause even of those persons who are most indignant at their infatiable ambition. They had also a fenfe of humanity, a compaffionate tenderness of heart, which made them ever ready to fly to the relief of a vanquished foe, and to alleviate, by kindness and fympathy, his misfortune and his fufferings. Until this day, fuch qualities have always been confidered as effential to true heroifm; and no perfon who was deftitute of them, however brave, enterprising and fuccessful, has been dignified with the title of great. Borgia was, perhaps, as bold and undaunted in the field as Julius Cæfar; but if he had gained as many triumphs as that renowned commander, he would still have been detefted as a monster, inftead of being admired as a hero. Who, then, will dare to prostitute the name of Greatnefs, by uniting it with that of BuonaparteMonftrum nulla virtute redemptum-of whom no one trait of generofity is recorded-who has, in no one inftance, used fuccefs with moderation-the bafenefs of whofe actions infinitely exceeds the fplendour of his victories-who is still more diftinguished by craft, perfidy, cruelty, and oppreffion, than by military atchievementswho, befides having fhewn himself, on various occafions, as prodi gal of human blood as Robespierre, is, in other refpects, an object of ftill greater deteftation to every virtuous and confiderate mind, than even that unfeeling monfter-who crouded into a fingle expedition, treacherously undertaken against a country, enjoying, without fuspicion of danger, a profound peace, and whofe Government was in perfect amity with France, more bafenels and atrocity than can be found in the life of any other man-who commenced that expedi tion with openly blafpheming his God, abjuring the Saviour of the world, renouncing the faith which he had till then profeffed, and, to facilitate the fuccefs of his enterprize, hypocritically affuming the religion of the people whom he came to enflave-who then unneceffarily affaulted a defenceless place, which he might have obtained by fummons, and, that he might strike a falutary terror, wan tonly and indifcriminately maffacred men, women, and children at the breaft-who, after caufing, by the orders which he iffued, the French Admiral to lofe his life with his fleet, calumniated his me mory by attributing his difafter to his own fault-who at Jaffa mur dered his Turkish prifoners in cold blood, three days after their capture-who, at Acre, fuddenly and treacherously affaulted the place, when, by propofing a ceffation of arms, for the purpofe of burying the dead, he hoped he had put the garrifon off its guard-who, having in vain attempted to affaffinate, traduced Sir Sidney Smith, by falfely and maliciously charging him with intentionally expofing

kis prifoners to the infection of the plague-and, finally, who bafely deferted his own army, and fecretly ftole away to France when he found his expedition defperate. Shall fuch a man be named with a Cyrus, or even with an Alexander; with a Vth Henry of England, or a IVth Henry of France; unless it be to heighten, by a dark and difgufting contraft, the luftre of their characters. If Mr. Sheridan were defirous of exhibiting human nature in the most odious light in which it has ever appeared, could he do this more effectually than by presenting on the ftage, without any exaggeration of the fact, his admired hero, at once cajoling and infulting the unfortunate Egyptians, by that miferable farce of Liberty and free Government, which his own General Boyer thus describes :-'I went yesterday to fee the installation of the Divan, which Buonaparte has formed. It confifts of nine perfons; and fuch a fight! I was introduced to nine bearded automatons, dressed in long robes and turbans; but whofe mien and appearance altogether put me ftrongly in mind of the figures of the twelve apoftles in my grandfather's little cabinet.'-Should Mr. Sheridan then be defirous of placing human nature in a more favourable light, he might change the scene to the tent of Darius, and there exhibit the true hero, who, after the battle of Iffus, difplayed a greatnefs of foul, a moderation in fuccefs, and an humanity towards the vanquished, which eclipfed the luftre of his victory, and which furnished one of those models, by which our youth are ftill taught to cultivate a tafte for the fublime and beautiful in human actions. But how, alas! will the taste of our youth be corrupted, if, deducing their models from Oppofition eloquence, they ceafe to difcriminate between moral qualities, confound the very extremes of virtue and vice, and, making fuccefs their only ftandard of perfection, lose their relish for true glory, and their abhorrence of whatever is fordid and detestable!"

The perfidy of this man, difplayed in his final inftructions to Kleber, on his departure from Egypt, next engages the author's attention; who fums up the whole by an accurate statement of his conduct, fince he feized the reins of government in France. "The Tree of Liberty is ftill his ftandard, and no fooner was he again triumphant in the North of Italy, than it was again planted at Milan. Even his proclamations are formed upon the Jacobin model. He comes, as formerly, to subject and enflave, with liberty and independence in his mouth. He announces his approach, not as an enemy and a conqueror, but as a friend, as a deliverer from oppreffion, as a restorer to freedom. He re-echoes thofe hacknied promises to respect both religious and civil rights, which were heretofore the precurfors of his most outrageous acts of pillage and cruelty, and he violates them in the fame manner as formerly."-Specimens of his proclamations are produced in fupport of these affertions and Mr. B. then proceeds to exhibit the most decifive proofs of the most scandalous breaches of good faith on the part of this regeneratea

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regenerated Jacobin; and of his moft fhameful difregard to the moft folemn treaties; fuch as his wanton infraction of the. armiftice in Italy ;-his invafion of Tufcany, the neutrality of which he had exprefsly guaranteed; the plunder of Florence and Leghorn; and the demolition of the fortreffes of Ulm, Philipsburg, and Ingoldstadt, in direct violation of a folemn engagement! Such flagrant and multiplied inftances of profligacy are not to be paralleled in the annals of Europe, previous to the year 1787. The author, having preffed the inference, drawn from thefe facts, very powerfully, upon his readers, laftly confiders the actual fituation of France, putting her deftructive principles entirely out of the question, folely as to the extent of her territorial power; and he infifts, that, at no period of our hiftory, would any Minifter have dared to make a peace with France, which would leave her in poffeffion of fuch an increased influence and population, as would be totally deftructive of the balance of power in Europe. This is a pofition which no Member of Oppofition can, without an utter abandonment of every principle which the leaders of that party have formerly avowed refpecting the relative fituation of England and France, poffibly attack.

Important as the political part of this book has been fhewn to be, the moral part of it is infinitely more fo. The author takes occafion, from the change of Century, to call the public attention to the relaxed state of religion and morals in this country; and he contends, with that truly Chriftian writer, and truly good man, Mr. BOWDLER, that no alternative remains but REFORM or RUIN. This is a fubject of the first confequence to every individual in the nation, inafmuch as it involves not merely their temporal welfare, but their eternal happiness; when fuch a fubject can be treated with indifference; when it ceafes to be an object of primary importance with the nation at large, that nation must totter on the brink of ruin. Well does the author obferve that, "As the near approach of a new Century has fo powerful a tendency to excite the mind to reflection, it ought to be a feafon of great religious and moral improvement. It might, indeed, be justly confidered as a general calamity, if fuch a period were to pass unnoticed, except as a mere chronological occurrence." Heaven forbid, that it fhould fo pafs! If the prefent state of Europe in general, and of England in particular, do not fuffice to rouze the minds of our countrymen to a proper fenfe of religious duty, to ftimulate them to deep reflection on the caufes and confequences of fuch ftate; to diminish their confidence in themfelves, and to acknowledge their entire dependence on a Supreme Being whofe protection is only to be obtained by an implicit fubmif

fion to his will, and a perfect obedience to his precepts; they must have lost all the diftinguishing characteristics of Chriltians; and have forfeited every pretenfion to virtuous and moral feelings.

In confidering the causes which have led to the laxity of principle, which he fo emphatically deplores, the author fhortly traces the progrefs of modern philofophy, and its inevitable fruits. In this part of his work, he pays a juft compliment to Mr. Mackintosh, whose acute and comprehenfive mind has well appreciated and eloquently unfolded all the horrible effects, of this deftructive peft of the present age.

"The fallacy and the baneful tendency of this scheme of philo fophy have been moft ably expofed in a courfe of lectures on the Law of Nature and Nations, lately delivered in Lincoln's Inn Hall, by a gentleman, who, having changed his original views of the French Revolution, has not only had the manliness openly to avow that change, but has alfo laboured with great industry, and, there is reafon to hope, with much fuccefs, to counteract the pernicious principles on which that Revolution is founded. The publication of the above lectures is much to be desired by every friend to Social Order, as well as by every admirer of found learning, profound refearch, and of eloquent illustration.”

The progrefs of this philofophy and its infeparable companion infidelity, has been greatly facilitated by the increase of wealth, and its offspring, luxury; a thirst for gain, and a love of pleasure. On this topic Mr. B. expatiates with equal energy and feeling; with equal ability and effect. While he congratulates himself upon the fuperiority which this country ftill enjoys, on the score of her religious and moral character, over all the other nations of Europe, he ftill deeply laments the growth of irreligion and vice among us.

"While the great causes of human depravity have had a very different operation in different countries, their effect is every where vifible, in a moft dreadful corruption of principle and degeneracy of practice-in an extreme licentioufnefs of manners-in a prodigious and ftill progreffive encrease of the most pernicious vices, and particularly of the most pernicious and deftructive of all vices, that of adultery-a vice hoftile to an inftitution, which is the parent of every other institution, the fource of every focial affection, and which is raifed to the highest degree of fanctity, and guarded with the moft diftinguished care, from even the remotest danger of violation, by that Holy Religion, which confults both the present and future happiness of mankind. It cannot excite furprife that the decay of that religion fhould be accompanied with a great encrease of a vice, the very approaches to which it is ftudious to prevent, and which, at the fare time, takes it's origin from the Atrongest impulfe of our nature. But when it is alio considered,

that

that the modern enemies of that religion, that the infidels and philofophers (as they call themfelves) of the day, have, with an infernal depth of policy, employed their main effort to render the marriage tie contemptible in the eyes of mankind;* and when it is further confidered, that the diffipated habits of life which have obtained, in a most extraordinary degree, are peculiarly fraught with temptations to a criminal indulgence of the paffions, (which is, in fact, their great recommendation to the votaries of unlawful pleafure); when these confiderations are taken into the account, it would only appear furprifing if the vice of adultery had not encreased to a very great extent.

"The most unerring teft of the morals of fociety, at any given period, is the degree of respect and attention which is paid to the nuptial engagement. In proportion as that engagement is viewed with reverence, and obferved with fidelity, an age may, with certainty, be denominated virtuous. But it is impoffible to find a more apt defcription of a corrupt, profligate, and vicious age, than to fay, it is diftinguished by a disregard to the marriage vows. Such defcription is unfortunately applicable to the prefent times; and a ftronger proof cannot exist of extreme and general depravity."

Apoftacy from the doctrines of Chrift, and "a ftill more alarming lukewarmnefs" in his profeffed followers, are truly ftated as diftinguifhing marks of the prefent times. Other prominent fymptoms of depravity are here brought forward as fit objects of cenfure on the one hand, and of repentance on the other; foremost among these ftands the debility visible in. the moral fenfe of the public mind, which renders it almoft incapable of that energy without which misfortunes cannot be fuftained with dignity, attacks refifted with effect, or a perfect reformation of principle be produced,

"In the room, however, of that moral fenfe, that falutary indig. nation against vice, which conftitutes the grand bulwark of virtue,. the prefent age has fubftituted other qualities, which, by cafting a mantle over guilt, feem intended to afford fome apology for the indulgence with which it is treated. There qualities have affumed the fpecious names of Candour, Liberality, and Moderation. But what a vile counterfeit do they display of thofe amiable principles of feeling and judging, to which fuch appellations really belong. Inftead of confifting in a difpofition to make due allowances for the imperfections of human nature;to incline to a favourable judgment of actions, whenever they can bear a favourable conftruction-to allow every man credit for good motives, when there are not fufficient grounds to fuppofe him actuated by bad ones; and, even in cafe of delinquency, to exercife lenity whenever, without injury to the public intereft, it Jay reasonably be expected to promote reformation, instead of ope

"One of these philofophers in this country, felt it due to his principles to apologize for having entered into the marriage state, which he had before termed anodious monopoly !"