miffion of an univerfal fluid, compofed of elaftic molecules, in direct and immediate contact-thefe are doctrines that cannot pafs unnoticed.-Well-fo much the better:-Truth, we hope, will gain by the conteft. There is no lafting peace among philofophers; but it is only THEIR wars that can ennoble and improve humanity.

ART. V.

Difcours fur l'Hiftoire, le Gouvernement, les Ufages, la Literature, et les Arts, &c. i. e. Difcourfes on the Hiftory, Government, Cuftoms, Literature, and Arts, of several European Nations. By the Count d'ALBON, Member of many Academies. 4 Volumes in 12m0. Price 12 Livres. Paris. 1782.

FH

OUR of thefe difcourfes, whofe fubjects are, England, Holland, Switzerland, and which occupy the first, and a part of the fecond volume of the work now before us, were reviewed fome years ago. Our lively, ingenious, and not illiterate traveller, was then treated without much ceremony, as youthful levity, and the fever of an enthusiastic partiality, had betrayed him into feveral egregious blunders, both of reafoning and narration, in his account of England. We, however, did juftice to his capacity, parts, and literary merit; and these appear to more advantage in the prefent work than in his former publication. It contains five difcourfes, three of which relate to Italy, the fourth to Spain, and the fifth to Portugal. The whole is the fruit of ten years employed in travelling, with a keen fpirit of obfervation; and the high-mettled, young Author feems, in his progrefs, to have corrected confiderably the pertness and prefumption of his tone and manner, though here and there we find veteris veftigia flamma.

Rome and Naples are the fubjects of the first of our Author's difcourfes concerning Italy. Much has been faid by various authors of the afcendant, which papal Rome gained by the dexterity and intrigues of a fine-fpun policy, and the talent which its pontiffs poffeffed, of bending the paffions of men to the accomplishment of their ambitious purposes. Our Author rejects this account of the matter, and fhews, by a long, verbose, and (in a matter fo clear, we think, ufelefs) detail of arguments, that papal Rome owes nothing to its politics, but derived all its influence from the ignorance and fuperftition of the dark and barbarous ages. He obferves, moreover, very juftly, that the fpirit of enterprize in papal Rome terminated in a mere phantom, which kept kings and princes in terror, without producing any addition of real power to its Pontiffs. Thefe men, with the hold they had upon the minds of mankind, by the thunder of the Vatican, might have extended their empire,

by

by bulls and excommunications, as far as the Cæfars had enlarged their dominion by policy and arms. But, in effect, they accomplished nothing of this kind. To fee them permitting the Portugueze to fail round the Cape of Good Hope, and the Spaniards to make conquefts in America, was a phoenomenon that feemed to proclaim them mafters of the globe; and yet, fo far was this latter from being the cafe, that they had neither influence nor authority, but in the public opinion. They neither afpired after univerfal monarchy, nor prepared the way for obtaining it; and, instead of acquiring territory, and raifing formidable armies to infpire terror and overturn empires, they were fatisfied with blind adulation and vain titles, and embraced a fhadow of dominion, without fubftance or reality. Accordingly we find, that whenever Rome made any real ftrides towards temporal dominion, fhe was always repulfed with lofs and difgrace, and the princes concerned, while they kiffed devoutly the Pontiff's toe, were efficaciously busy in tying his hands.

In process of time, both princes and their subjects began to open their eyes upon the unfubftantial nature of this imperious phantom; and the period came when Rome, inftead of encroaching upon the rights of other states, was reduced to the humble and unfuccefsful bufinefs of defending her own. Such is her fituation at this day, confidered in regard to her relations abroad.

With respect to the internal state of the Roman government, our Author obferves, that the Pope might be an abfolute fovereign, if he did not prefer the influence of a father before the dominion of a tyrant. It is accordingly become the reigning maxim of papal policy, to govern with a mild, moderate, and beneficent power. Notwithstanding this, the ecclefiaftical state languishes under poverty; its cities are almoft depopulated; its fertile plains are neglected and uncultivated; its inhabitants exprefs, in their countenances and their raiment, affecting marks of dejection and want. In travelling,' fays our Author, along the coafts, it is surprising to fee excellent harbours deftitute of ships, rarely frequented by ftrangers, never enlivened by commerce; an induftrious and ingenious people, unacquainted with the useful arts, and only ftudious of excelling in the frivolous arts of mere amusement; a beautiful country without agriculture, trade, or manufactures; a fovereign, fatisfied indeed with a moderate income, but who, notwithstanding his prudent œconomy, is unable to fupply the wants of unhappy multitudes who implore his affiftance; a mild government, fincerely intent on the public good, and yet fubjects, whofe condition excites pity; opulence in fome illuftrious houses; eafy or middling circumftances obfervable among a fmall number of citizens;

citizens; but the multitude a prey to all the horrors of indigence.' A dismal picture indeed! The reftraints laid upon commerce, and the monopoly of grain, which has been long ufurped by the Apoftolic chamber, are the principal causes to which our traveller attributes all these calamities.

In the thirteen provinces, which form the ecclefiaftical state, or the Pope's dominions, the gentry, as well as the nobles, are exempt from all impofts, real or perfonal. The revenues of the fovereign do not exceed two millions of Roman crowns, which make fomething less than 50,000 pounds Sterling. The Datary's office is not fuch a rich fource of gain as is generally imagined; and our Author does not rate at above 25,000 pounds annually all the product of annates and inveftitures for the kingdom of France. He eftimates the number of inhabitants in Rome at 170,000, and the fecular and regular clergy at 7000. The Romans, according to him, are obliging and affable to ftrangers, and remarkable for the compaffion they fhew to the unhappy. In other refpects, his account of their characters and morals is not favourable. He appreciates, with judgment and tafte, the men of letters and artifts that have flourished in the Roman territory; and he thinks that the arts have loft their luftre in that country by the very means that fhould feem adapted to maintain and perpetuate it, even the multitude of those who profeffionally cultivate them. There is certainly fomething very plaufible in this reflection; and it is but too true, that both arts and learning fuffer, when they become a trade. As long as true genius can monopolize them, they may preferve their luftre; but when the trade becomes open for every adventurer, and adulterated productions find buyers at market, the bufinefs is fpoiled. This has been palpably the cafe with the arts in Italy. Whole swarms of painters overfpred that country; and when the profits of the trade came to be diminished, by its being dealt out among fo many hands, the artists began to work for low prices, to obtain more employment, by underfelling their competitors; and then what happened? they wrought with precipitation: they neglected the ftudy of the noble models of antiquity which they had before their eyes: they flattered the falfe and capricious taste of the multitude, and thus degraded the art to gratify avarice, or anfwer the sharp demands of indigence.

NAPIES is the next object that occupies our obferver. Under its present degradation (fays he), it ftill bears fome marks of its ancient grandeur, of which he gives a pompous and animated defcription. At prefent, all the riches of that country are ablorbed in the capital; and that capital, with all its beauty and magnificence, exhibits a motley and afflicting spectacle of fplendor and mifery. After giving an hiftorical fummary of

the

the revolutions, through which this part of Italy has paffed, both in ancient and modern times, our Author obferves, that there is a profpect of its recovering, in a great measure, its former luftre. The work of reformation, fays he, is already begun under the late reign many abufes, introduced under the government of the Spanish viceroys, have been removed; the court has refumed the prerogatives of fovereignty; the peafants and farmers are delivered from feudal fervitude; the great Barons can no more encroach upon the property of their vaffals; and one part of the nation continues equally opulent, without having in its hands the lives, the liberty, and the property of the other. But ftill much is yet to be done in the way of reformation. The city of Naples is fuppofed to contain 450,000 inhabitants; but no where, perhaps, in Europe are there fo many idle hands; forty thoufand robuft, lufty vagabonds (the Lazaroni), who live without profeffion, occupation, cloathing, or dwelling, difhonour its police; fleep in the open air, and reject the comforts of an easy fubfiftence, rather than purchase it by a few hours labour. The prefent minifter (the Marquis della Sambucca), by gentle and beneficent meafures, has made a laudable attempt to engage these wretches to better their fituation, by diftributing among fuch as are willing to work, portions of land at San Leuci, and furnishing them with the inftruments and materials that are neceffary to render their induftry fuccefsful. Our Author beftows high encomiums on the poets of Naples. Among other favourites of the Mules, he celebrates particularly the Duchefs de Vafto Girardi, and M. Campo Lungo, both famous for their Lyric ftrains, and the Duke de Belfort, who is confidered as the Anacreon of Italy.

When we accompany our traveller to VENICE, we find his observations on that republic often folid and judicious. He is far from being an admirer of its government, and he deferves a hearing on the fubject. The Venetian government (according to him) does not tend to the general happiness, by methods recommendable for their mild nefs and fimplicity; it maintains order by infpiring terror; it diffeminates mutual fufpicion and diftruft among the citizens, by rendering them fpies on each other; it uses ftricter and harfher precautions against the infurrections of its fubjects, than against the attempts of its enemies; it always menaces, often punifhes, and never rewards; it is jealous of genius and talents, is afraid to employ them, nay, discourages and fuppreffes their exertions; it has recourfe to foreigners for its defence, from a fufpicion of the facility that natives may have to ufurp authority; it is lefs employed in wife operations for the public good, than in artful devices to difguife the movements of the political machine; finally, to mainAPP. REV. Vol. LXVIII.

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tain

tain its independence it impofes an iron yoke on the necks of all its fubjects, and puts a bridle in their mouths, to fupprefs the utterance of their complaints.-Thefe lines of the Venetian government are ftrongly expreffed, but we cannot pronounce them fallacious; and, furely, under fuch a government the fweets of liberty cannot be enjoyed. We are not of our Author's opinion, that of all the different forms of government, an aristocracy is the worft; but we think he proves, with irrefiftible evidence, that of the ariftocratical forms, that of Venice is very far from being the beft. He enters into an ample detail of arguments on this fubject, for which we refer the reader to his work. But we think the matter too clear to ftand in need of a laborious difcuffion. If it be an avowed principle, that in the conftruction of any fyftem, whether philofophical or political, the farther we depart from fimplicity, the lefs we approach towards perfection, the conclufion deducible from this principle must be very unfavourable to the Venetian republic; for nothing can be more complicated than the form of its government. It is an aggregate of combinations without end; and in fuch a labyrinth both thofe who govern, and those who obey, are rather objects of compaffion than of envy.

TUSCANY, in its prefent ftate of progreffive improvement, furnishes good materials for an obferving traveller. The state of diftrefs and mifery in which it was at the acceffion of the prefent fovereign, compared with the afpect it now exhibits, forms a contraft that does great honour to the government of LEOPOLD. He found, at his acceffion, the government loaded with debt, the fubjects exhaufted, and incapable of paying new taxes; the cities almoft depopulated; the country in a miferable condition, from the great decline of induftry and population. This is our traveller's account of the matter, abridged and foftened; and he adds, that in the space of twelve years, the Florentines had counted feven of famine. All this feems now changed, through the public-fpirited vigour and activity of the prefent fovereign, and yet the Florentines murmur, not at their profperity, it may be well thought, no-but at the perfons that are employed in promoting it. They cannot help refpecting the Prince; but they approach the throne with painful feelings of envy and jealoufy, because they see it furrounded with ftrangers; and they do not like to receive even happinefs from the miniftry and counfels of Germans. This difcontented fpirit is confined to the capital-and even there principally to a certain number of noble families.

Our Author's reflections on the government of Parma, Modena, and other fmall Italian ftates, where agriculture, manufactures, and all the useful arts, are fuffocated under a load of unneceflary regulations and prohibitions, are fenfible and judi