sovereign is to swear to govern, protect, and defend, the people,→ and the people to obey the sovereign. By this mutual oath, king and subject engage themselves towards God still more strictly than towards each other. Their mutual rights and duties assume a more august character. The interest of the public confounds itself with that of the chief, and of the members of the state. Rebellion and tyranny are no longer simple crimes of treason, which offend only men; they become sacrilege: rebellion, because it attacks God in attacking the person of his representative, and tyranny, because it employs for evil a power conferred by the author of all good. All power comes from God: Non est potestas, nisi a Deo :-A sublime maxim, on which rests the whole social system, of which the sages of antiquity half saw the truth, but which it was reserved for Christianity to elevate above the vain reasonings and uncertainties of philosophy. A power, which should have no foundation but the will of man, would be too precarious and too uncertain. The bestowers of it would every moment think that they had a right to resume it. In vain would be an appeal to the original contract, or to the interests of public tranquillity. Little scruple would be made of the breach of conventions, whch had only a human sanction. The factions would never want. pretexts, founded on what they would call the general interest and after all, rebellion would only be an imprudence,it would cease to be a crime.' The author's doctrine concerning establishments and toleration is to be found at p. 268. It is far more remote from that sacrilegious indifference which tolerates all religions because it despises all,' than from that barbarous and fanatical zealotry' which our author advises indeed his Prince to avoid; although (says he p. 297) if a new sect arises which divides the people, the Prince should neglect nothing to stifle it at its origin. He has a right to impose silence on preachers, and to punish them as seditious, if not as heteredox.' Neither under the Duke of Alba in the Netherlands, nor under Charles I. and James II., have these principles been found favourable to the stability of the authorities patronizing them: for, as Lord Bacon long ago observed, "when factions are carried with a high hand and barefacedly, it is a sign of decay of power in princes, and much to the prejudice both of their authority and business." ART. XXX. Considérations sur la France; i. e. Considerations respecting France. By M. DE MAITRE. 8vo. pp. 256. London: (a pretence.) 1797. Imported by Dulau and Co. Price 4s. 6d. sewed. THIS book is well calculated to produce in France an impression favourable to the restoration of royalty. It is written written in the spirit of a religious necessarian, who thinks it probable that a grand epuration of Christianity has been the single purpose of Divine Providence in the direction of this eventful period. In the conductors of the French Revolution, he discovers only the blind agents of an over-shadowing Divinity, pursuing no ends of benevolence, attaining no ends which they pursued, but irresistibly hurried by the unrelenting stream of circumstance into the commission of every crime, and into every enterprise, essential to the predestined reformation. A superstitious shudder may seize on some readers, while the author, speaking as with the tongue of fate, treats with sarcastic contempt the mighty coalition of kings against the infant republic, with the less weary hostile efforts of a vagrant clergy and a scattered nobility;-proceeding, nevertheless, to positively announce the ultimate downfall (after the return of peace) of the new institutions. The republic has not been consecrated by its lawgivers; there is nothing divine in its construction; therefore, instability shall be its lot.' This is the apparent substance of his eloquent declamations.-He displays much reading, however, of the higher kind; and he has evidently been led to his main inference, by the recent perusal of that part of Hume's history which concerns the Revolution in England begun under Charles I. and terminated by the Restoration. The writer thus describes (p. 154) the manner, in which the Counter-revolution is to take place : Four or five persons, perhaps, will give a king to France. Letters from Paris will announce to the provinces that France has a king; and the provinces will loudly reply, Long live the king !" Even at Paris, all the inhabitants, perhaps, (except about twenty) will only learn as they wake that they have a king. "Is it possible they will exclaim: "how singular! I wonder at what gate he is to come in! Well, we must hire windows beforehand: for the croud will be intolerably stifling." A courier brings word to Bourdeaux, to Nantes, to Lyons, that the king is acknowleged at Paris; that some faction gained the upperhand, which declares that it holds the public authority in the name of the king; that they have sent for him; that he is expected; and that the white cockade is every where worn. Fame catches hold of this intelligence, and tricks it out with an imposing 'pomp of circumstances. What would be done? To give due allowance to the republic, I will suppose it to have a majority in the nation, and that the army is in the usual state. These troops will at first assume a semblance of rebellion: but they will want to dine, and will soon begin to think of detaching themselves from the power which no longer pays. Every officer, who is without the consequence to which he thinks himself entitled,-and there are always many such,-will be very alert in perceiving that the first who cries "Long live the king!" must become a great personage. Vanity, hope, ambition, repeat in his ear the title of General to his most Christian Majesty, and paint before his mind's eye the homage which such a title once secured to its possessor in circles of no inferior lustre; with the look of scorn which he will cast on those who once summoned him to the bar of the municipality. These ideas are so natural, that they can escape nobody :-Every officer feels them ;-whence it follows that they are all suspected by each other. Fear and mistrust produce deliberation and coldness. The soldier, when not electrified by his officer, is still more discouraged; and thus the chain of discipline receives that inexplicable shock which suddenly breaks it: one turns his eyes to the royal paymaster, who approaches: another seizes the opportunity to return to his family. No one commands; no one obeys; cohesion is no more! It is otherwise with the citizens. One goes; another comes: each fears him in whom he would confide. Doubt consumes hours, when minutes are decisive: audacity attacks prudence: the old man wants resolution, and the young man needs advice. On the one side, are terrible dangers; on the other, certain amnesty and probable favor. Where are the means of resistance? where are the leaders? who can be trusted? There is no danger in being quiet: but the least movement may lead to irremediable error. "Let us wait, then ;"and they wait. The next day, comes an account that some fortress has opened its gates to the returning sovereign. Another reason for waiting. The news was false: but two other towns, which thought it true, were duped by it and really surrendered. They set an example which they thought they were receiving, and they determine the first fortress to do the same. The governor, who presented to the king the keys of this good city, is created on the spot a marshal of France! Every minute, the royalist party strengthens: it soon becomes irresistible. Long live the king!" exclaim affection and fidelity, on the tiptoe of exultation. "Long live the king!" replies the republican hypocrite, on the knees of terror. There is now but one outcry,-and the king is anointed.' 66 Far be it from us to grudge the luxury of such hopes to the emigrants. There is, however, one great difference between the present state of France and that of England in 1660, which leads us to doubt the eventual fulfilment of these expectations. Cromwell had in 1657 dissolved the parliament of the commonwealth, and had not suffered its re-election: so that no body of national representatives existed to marshal the republican against the royalist party: the one was without and the other with a leader. Besides, the parliaments of the commonwealth were never founded on a system of extensive suffrage: the members represented the scanty and not the numerous classes of the people, the proprietors and not the traders they consisted chiefly of those individuals of the landed aristocracy, who patronized presbyterian and independ ent chaplains, and thus secured some popular adherents. Townsmen 14 Townsmen were in general very indifferent to their ascendancy." In France, the national representation is not liable either to interruption or to dissolution; a majority always continues empowered: it is founded on very extensive suffrage, and must therefore perpetually involve the allegiance of a majority of the people it represents townsmen rather than countrymen; and. it possesses, therefore, more completely than did the English commonwealth, the choice of the impulse to be given to the principal accumulations of populousness.-To a change from without, the constitution of France opposes the stronger obstacle. ART, XXXI. Nosographie Philosophique, &c. i. e. Philosophical Nosology, or the Application of the Analytical Method to Medicine. By PH. PINL, Professor in the Medical School of Paris. 2 Vols. 8vo. Paris. 1798. אן his classification of diseases, this writer has followed the plan of modern chemists and lithologists, which gives his nosology a decided superiority over all preceding books of the same nature. The work is divided into six parts, forming so many particular treatises ca that branch of practical medicine, which is the subject of each class. Fevers constitute the first class, the divisions of which are not assumed from the doctrine of humours; which is rejected by the author, as contrary to obstion and medical philosophy. He assumes, as the basis of his division, the different lesions of sensibility in the arteries, in the membranes of the stomach, in the glands, and in the whole system according to the diminution or irregularity of the vital forces. From these principles, he deduces the following five orders in the class of - fevers: 1. Angio tenical. 2. Meningo-gastrical. 3. Adeno-meningical. 4. Adynamical. 5. Ataxical. In the description of each particular fever, he prefers the characters given by those eminent practicians who have had opportunities of seeing them under every form, and in every aspect, especially in epidemics. The second and third classes contain the phlegmasiæ and hæmorrhages. The fourth treats of the affections of the nervous, system, or neuroses. The author is particularly explicit and interesting respecting all the different disorders belonging to this class; which, by so many concurring causes, are continually produced in large and opulent towns, where civilized manners prevail. His parallel of the state of mind of Lewis APP. REV. VOL. XXVII Rr the the XIth, and of the Emperor Tiberius, and his description of the periodical mania, will strike even those readers whose attention is not particularly engaged on medical subjects. The fifth class embraces all the lymphatic diseases; and the sixth contains all other disorders which, not being well known and defined, could not with propriety be placed in any of the preceding classes. The introduction, and the observations which terminate the volume, may be considered as containing useful outlines of the whole of medical science, and are very proper to guide the choice of students who are exploring the labyrinth of medical productions; which, if not properly selected, would waste the time of their readers, and encumber their minds with false or undigested ideas. ART. XXXII. Vie de Lazare Hoche, &c. i. e. The Life of Lazarus Hoche, General of the Armies of the French Republic. By ALEXANDER ROUSSELIN. Followed by his public and private Correspondence with Government, Ministers, Generals, &c. With three Plates, representing the Affairs of Dunkirk and Quiberon, and the Theatre of War on the Rhine. 8vo. 2 Vols. pp. about 500 in each. Paris. 1798. THIS life is drawn up with considerable skill, but is rather eulogy than biography. Its main object is to take from Pichegru as many laurels as possible, and to transfer them to the brows of Hoche. This is often, but not always, accomplished on convincing grounds. The author appears wellinformed of the minutest circumstances which he has to narrate; and he quotes, with the confidence of honesty, the authenticating testimony of many living witnesses. An emphatic and laconic style, aromatic with maxims of democracy, and stuffed with the jargon of equality, is every where affected by the truly republican pen of citizen ALEXANDER ROUSSELIN. This abrupt, sententious, and oracular manner, aped from Tacitus, is no doubt less graceful than the plainer ease of an unstudied historian: but it is fit for the public for which it was designed, and is well adapted for circulation in the garrisons and barracks of France. Men of a neglected education,-and among the military there must be many such,-usually attribute no. merit to simplicity in composition; they think that any body can write naturally; and they suppose that he is no scholar who chuses to be no pedant. Great natural strength of body and mind seem to have been Hoche's principal endowments. As his reply to a denunciation by Hudry, which occurs at p. 65, is very characteristic of him, will display his style, and contains his own account of his arigin, we shall quote it in the original terms. |