We know not whether this tragedy was offered to the ma nagers or not; but to fee fuch plays as this destined to the parlour, and the theatre occupied by *******s and *******s, gives us a strange idea of the taste of the times, with regard to dramatic productions.But, perhaps, like Johnson's Irene, Mifs More's performance wants that flage-trim and contrivance, the art of which is best understood by experienced play-writers; and without which, the probability of its fuccefs in the reprefentation, would not, in a skilful manager's eftimate, be great enough to raise his expectations very high whatever might be the merit of the work, confidered as a literary compofition. ART. III. Obfervations on the Power of Climate over the Policy, Strength, and Manners, of Nations. 8vo. 3s. fewed. Almon. 1774. S this title is calculated to attract notice, it is peculiarly A incumbent on us to reprefent the nature and contents of the performance. Befide thofe writers whofe judgments are misled in the choice of topics on which to employ their pens, it often happens that a person undertakes to treat a fubject to which he is very unqual; and with regard to the prefent Observations, whatever the Author might propofe to himself when he framed the titlepage, it has very little affinity with the work that follows it. We will honeftly confefs, for our own part, that on reading the advertisement, we anticipated the pleafure of perufing an ingenious philofophical train of reafoning, on a fubject that ap pears capable of affording much amusement to an inquifitive mind we foon found ourselves, however, bewildered among a rhapfodical croud of political maxims, to which any other title might have fuited as well as that which the Writer has thought proper to beltow on his performance, At his outfer, the Author fays fomething, darkly enough, concerning the influence and tendency of climates to produce national fuperiority; but he adds, Yet however great and overbearing these natural caufes may appear, Providence hath bestowed powers upon the mind able in every respect to controul them, I mean thofe of reason; but then an almost divine exertion of it becomes neceffary.? What the Author may intend by this almost divine exertion,' is as obfcure to us, as the influence of climates appears to be to him according to the limited view in which he fees it. Those who reafon on the influence of climate, not only conceive it to affect the bodily organs, but, in confequence of that operation, to communicate a bias to the mental faculties, Climate however is not all; there is a variety of natural circumftances peculiar to every country, the combination of which will either co-operate with, or tend to counteract the influence of climates : and when these are duly taken into the eftimate, we may in ordinary cafes account for the different. policies prevailing in different nations, under the fame or nearly the fame climates; and compare them with other nations under all the varieties of climate. That it may appear how foon this Writer lofes fight of his profeffed fubject, we fhall produce his fecond chapter verbatim z it is intitled : ་་་་་བས *Of those who neglected to correct original Defe&s; and of Trade. Carthage, on the other hand, fo long the rival of Rome, was Buch behind her in that policy which can correct the natural imbecility of ftates; the wealth which trade bestows will always mislead its poffeffors, who should therefore never have any concern in the direction of a great nation; too partial to their favourite object, they attribute to riches almoft omnipotence itself; fuch was the cafe of Tyre; its inhabitants wealthy beyond meafure, but confined in their ideas of government as in territory, totally given up to the accumulation of money, they neglected fuch an acquifition of land as may form a respectable ftate, for Hieram refufed the twenty cities of Galilee which Solomon offered him; they fuppofed no human' force could take a city which contained fo many opulent merchants; Wumbers with valour, however, were found to prevail, and Alexander defroyed it. Carthage, a fucker from Tyre, truck root in a fruitful foil, where by degrees. the might have flourished and extended her territorial branches; but relying upon trade and colonies too much, the had no attention to internal ftrength; like a thin body with trong and athletic limbs, but without either a reft or fupport; too proud for incorporating with her neighbours the would rule them by her fuperior wealth, To that inftead of Faithful fellow-citizen's 'fhe was in the time of distress surrounded by nations who rejoiced at her ruin, and having no refource in a native foldiery was obliged to put her truft in perfidious mercenaries; fuck are the fatal confequences of throwing the management of a state into mercantile hands. A profeffion founded upon felf-intereft must contract a mind otherwife well enough difpofed, but totally comprefs one which is originally indifferent; it leaves no room for the great idea of a whole; the movement of the grand machine is too large an object for that eye which hath been always rivetted to a fingle wheel; he who hath been labouring all the morning for narrow felf, cannot leave that felf behind him at the threshold of the fenate-house, nor can his mind bear an occafional fudden dilatation to the great patriot fize. Particular men may be cited against this general doctrine, but no cafe, however diftinguished for its fingularity, can be imagined which hath not occurred at fome one time or other: a mind might have been found most ftubbornly unapt to the bufinefs it had been turned to, and by its innate vigour, in fpite of all profeffional conftraint, might have retained its original liberality; but, if a merchant can be a ftatefman, fure I am that he is fo by nature and not education. The few merchants who have been diftinguished as ftatefmen ftatefmen are much spoken of because they were but few: the many venal wretches who have crept into parliament without either virtue or capacity have efcaped our obfervation, becaufe fuch characters, in their clafs, were neither rare nor unexpected. I well know that I write in the very teeth both of fashion and prejudice, for I have not long fince heard of a noble lord, at the head indeed of a board of, trade declare, in the upper houfe, the British nation to be merely a nation of commerce: that commerce to a moderate degree is very uleful to a people no perfon will deny; but to make every confide ration of honour and juftice give way to commercial policy; to put up with national indignities through a confideration of fome petty advantages in trade, which indignities are much more durable in their bad effects, than a felfish unfeeling minifter of a narrow department can forefee, is disgraceful to a nation, which has made a refpectable figure in Europe, and must fink the spirits of her people much lower than thofe of a brave people ought to be. I do not write against trade, 1 fpeak against its excefs, and if it should be faid in reply, that moderation is not attainable, I fhall candidly ac knowledge that I look upon a total abfence of trade as a leffer evil than that which must follow where a fordid commercial fpirit is fuffered entirely to predominate. To detail the tranfactions of the Eaft India Company would be to give a narrative of fundry monopolies, or of the most fhocking and horrid crimes; amongst them we fee the dreadful effects of letting a band of rapacious merchants, or those who affumed the mer cantile character, armed with the powers of fovereignty, loofe upon an innocent induftrious people, who could be charged with no crime by the British nation except that of being rich, cowardly, and therefore of eafy conqueft: we have feen them plunder, murder, and ; ftarve thefe innocent wretches with impunity. The Peruvians and Mexicans were only deprived of their gold, the produce of their mountains; the Eaft Indians were robbed of what they had acquired by their labour and induftry. We have feen reprobates go out to India whofe vices or incapacity made it impoffibie for them to be fubfifted at home, and within a fhort time we have seen them ré turn loaded with wealth and with iniquity; by bribery and corrup tion we have feen them deftroying the morals of the British conttituents, and placing not only themfelves in the feat of legislature, but carrying into the lower houfe a train of menial fenators under their abfolute direction; and we must know, notwithstanding the art which has been made ufe of to perfuade the world, that the Court was fincere and in earnest when L. C. was attacked by the Commons, that unless fome perfons very high in power had been corruptly ob tained, this arch delinquent, with many others, even in thefe days of avowed peculation, could never have escaped; but what is mot to be regretted, we now defpair of feeing any delinquent of magnitude fufficient to form an useful example, ever fuffer for these enor mities. These things have been caufed by trade, or under colour of trade, and they are not punished, because men either concerned. in like crimes, or who hope it may one day be their own turn to partake in emoluments of the fame kind, who forgive that they may be be forgiven, do conftitute too great a part of the fovereign or legiflative power. Every profeffion in a community fhould be fubject to fome kind of controul, and if a merchant wants controul, no perfons fo improper to be the controulers as merchants. A Roman fenator, we well know, was not fuffered to have a veffel at fea containing more than a certain fmall measure, enough for the fupply of his family. The profits accruing to a merchant ought to be fufficient to fatisfy him; let him leave to the enfuing generation the enjoyment of honours, when the fæculencies of trade fhall be purged away; for I am, and always thall be of Mr. Harrington's opinion, that no man was ever a legislator, who had not been a gentleman; a gentleman before he was a legiflator, not a gentleman becaufe he was a legiflator. I know the eftimation in which fome writers have held the legiflation of Mr. Penn, but were it not for the sword of the mother country, from the want of fome military ingredients in the government of Pennfylvania, which a gentleman would have infused, its inhabitants, paffive and inanimate, would be incapable of defending themselves." 14. There is in this chapter a ftrange mixture of abfurdity and good remarks; but to what do they all relate? Not to the influence of climates, but to the bias of traffic; and even this is not feen by the Author in a clear point of view. A legislative body would be very ill felected, if compofed wholly either of men of landed eftates, or of merchants Landed men have one grand object conftantly to promote,their territorial power and opulence; of which we have formerly had fevere experience in our feudal times: merchants, however this Writer may defpife them, are actuated by more extenfive and more liberal notions; it was trade that extricated the common people from feudal tyranny, and brought the villain within the letter of Magna Charta, as a free man, as well as his lord. There are, nevertheless, extreams, in all things, and all extreams are prejudicial; nations may certainly over-trade themselves as well as individuals, and therefore the landed and trading interefts fhould unite in the management of our national affairs, that the exceffes of either may be corrected. But what is the magic which this Writer fuppofes to be contained in the term Gentleman? A man who raifes himself from a low ftation by laudable means, gives fo far better evidence of his talents, than another who claims rank from the mere circumftance of birth: and to take the merit of the latter upon truft, is no evidence of penetration, whatever. respectable name may be drawn in to fanctify the position. In another place, and in an exprefs chapter, our Author has not given us the moft exalted defcription of our nobility and gentry; and the authority of another great writer may be cited on this fubject, who says, "What can ennoble fots, or flaves, or cowards? Nor Nor are the peculiar principles of a fectary, fufficient ground on which to establish a general principle. In brief, this chap-. ter neither leads to any found principles of legiflation, nor bas it any affinity with, the profeffed fubject of the tract. If the nature of climates, is any where incidentally hinted, that a nation lies northerly or foutherly is thought to be a fufficient defcription. Two countries only are particularly spe=' cified and treated of; but not even thefe in the manner which the title promifes. There are Poland and South Britain. As to Poland, the principal points advanced, are, that the conftitu tion of its government is tyrannical and turbulent; and that the people will poffibly reap advantage from the violent dismemberment and partition of the country by their powerful neighbours: pofitions which our Readers may either recollect or turn to in the Review, vol. xlvii. p. 375. England is the principal object throughout, fo that the performance, inftead of general, is rendered of partial or local application. We are furnished with a crude review of our hiftory, from which, if any conclufions are to be extracted, they are, that our climate is favourable to the growth of every virtue; bow, we are not informed, but that the fertility of our foil, and the fecurity afforded by our infular fituation, tend to destroy thefe virtues. We are told, that Cæfar found us a parcel of cowardly barbarians that the Saxons and Danes degenerated by fettling here; that the Normans made an eafy conquest of us; that intestine wars kept up a military fpirit for fome time afterward, but that this fpirit never arofe from a juft fenfe of civil liberty. We are told, that the tyranny of the Tudors proceeded from the pufillanimity of the English; that the Reformation was a meafure tamely submitted to by the people; that the English would never have taken arms against Charles I. had it not been for the afliftance of the Scots; and, finally, that James I by rousing the jealousy of the ecclefiaftics, thereby gave the English the credit of hav ing made one feeble effort more, in favour of liberty.' The chapter following this depreciating character of our country, is intitled, State of national Self-prefervation in Britain' which, with what we have already produced, will, we prefume, be confidered as fufficient specimens of this heterogeneous rhapfody, in which the Writer, inftead of reafoning clofely, draws us hither and thither like an ignis futuus, until we are all loft as well as himself. ་ It being clear that the bravery of fuch a nation as ours is inverfely as the power which the enervating effects of foil and fituation is permitted to exercise over its people, it is no lefs certain that the bravery of fuch a nation may degraduate into rank cowardice: to fay the English are fallen fo low would be unjust, and to deny that they are much beneath the fame key of real courage, at which they formerly |