from the revolution now mentioned, fuch political doctrines as thefe, that the moft fatal of all maxims for fovereigns is that which engages them to accommodate the rules and principles of their government to the circumftances that occur, and that their ftrength, dignity, and confiftence, as well as the true happiness of their fubjects, depend on three qualities, the real fupports of the throne, beneficence, conftancy, and justice. The remainder of this volume contains a great variety of obfervations relative to the public tribunals,-magiftrates and magiftracy,the administration of justice under the feudal jurifdictions,nobility, and other fubjects of that kind.

The fixth volume opens a more fplendid and pompous scene: it exhibits the furprifing feats, it difclofes all the wonders, of the reign of Charlemagne, and amidst the contradictory accounts which different hiftorians have given of that great prince, reprefents him as a wife fovereign, a warrior, a conqueror and a legiflator, the greatest man of his age, and the laft hero of his race. Few have reprefented the character of Charlemagne in its true point of view; and, indeed, there have been, notwithstanding the contradictions that reign in the prefent aspect of human nature, few characters that exhibit fuch contrafts of shining qualities with odious defects. Voltaire has exaggerated the latter with a more than equitable degree of afperity, and without a proper indulgence for the fpirit of intemperate zeal, which fo generally disfigured the Chriftian religion in that period of fuperftition and barbarifm, which is not entirely extinguifhed in even our age of improved knowledge, and which never will be totally fuppreffed, while the paffions, pride, and ill-humour of men mingle themfelves with the caufe of truth. M. MOREAU exposes, with good humour, and good fenfe, the falfehood of Voltaire's reprefentation of the matter under confideration.-The lenity with which that writer judged of the conduct of the Roman general who invaded Britain and committed the Druids to the flames, and the feverity with which he condemns the conduct of Charlemagne towards the Saxons, do not escape him.

The difcourfe that follows the reign of this great prince contains a multitude of excellent reflexions and inftructive difcuffions, concerning the rights acquired by conqueft in general, and those of Charlemagne in particular,-concerning the influence of religion in foftening the ferocity and improving the manners of men, by the admirable leflons it gives of humanity and juftice, as alfo concerning the military art, and the state and manner of compofing the French armies in the eighth and ninth centuries.

The feventh volume, though not inferior to the preceding, fo far as the difplay of capacity and talent goes, pleases us much

P 4

lefs,

lefs, on account of the dry and uninterefting difcufions into which the fpirit of controverfy and the defire of demonftrating that the French have always been flaves, have carried our Author. Some modern writers of the firft rank have maintained, that, in the earlier periods of the French monarchy, the most absolute of its princes were no more than the first citizens or members of the republic, and that the present government in Great Britain is the image of the government of Charlemagne. This hypothefis, if it be an error, our Author is juftified in combating, from the regard he is obliged to pay to historical truth; but we are forry to fee him oppofing it, as an error faral to the glory and profperity of the French government, as if it could ever tend to the true glory and prosperity of any nation to be fubjected to the abfolute power of an individual, and as if it were not palpable that, in fuch governments, the intereft of the monarch (i. e. his pleasures, his avarice, or his tintel-glory) is promoted by the mifery and oppreffion of his fubjects. It is pleafant, indeed, enough to maintain that the well-being of twenty millions of fouls ought to be totally intrufted to the direction of an individual, in confequence of his being born of a certain man and woman.-The truth is, that M. MOREAU has here laid down his dignity as a virtuous and patriotic citizen, and put on a mask to appear at Court.

Be that as it may-he has, as it appears to us, clearly proved the fact. He had proved in the preceding difcourfes the monarchical power of the French kings, and he proves, in this, by new authorities, that fuch a power had always been poffeffed by Charlemagne; that the legislative power was vested in, and exercised by him alone; that this power was never lodged in the pleas or in the aflemblies, which were firft held in the month of March and afterwards in May; that the people had no reprefentatives in that affembly, and therefore that Charlemagne was not the first member of the republic, but the monarch of France, in the fullest extent of that term. Indeed abfolute power in excellent hands may render a people happy; but fuch hands are fo rare, and there is fo little probability of feeing a series of fuch hands at the head of any nation, that the people are authorised to fecure their liberties and property by the bulwark of a wife and a free conftitution; and it is in this, that the glory and profperity of a nation properly confift.

It would appear by our Author's account of things, that Charlemagne did not proftitute his power to the purposes of tyranny and injuftice, but employed it in eftablishing order and union among all the departments and members of the ftate.The tranfactions of the council of Francfort may be alleged as an objection to this favourable account of the reign of Charlemagne, but our Author calls what happened at that

council

council a dark moment, a tranfitory error, occafioned by the ignorance of the times, or rather by the feduction of fome falfe politicians. This prince (fays M. MOREAU) was the friend and protector of learning, and learned men: letters were cultivated in his dominions; morals were refpected, and his fubjects were happy. Not lefs admirable in the minute details of his domeftic economy, than in the general adminiftration of his vaft empire, he turned an attentive eye to all thofe objects that could be employed as inftruments or means of promoting the public good. He appeared as great when he ordered his ftewards to fell the eggs of his hen-roofts, or the fuperfluous produce of his garden, as when he diftributed among his subjects the riches of the Lombards, and the immenfe treafures of the Huns, who had plundered the universe.

In the fecond part of this volume, which is disengaged from the dry polemical difcuffions that rendered the firft fomewhat lefs interefting than the preceding difcourfes, our Author unfolds the principles that animated and directed the government of Charlemagne, and fhews the bafis on which he founded his plans of reformation. His plan is expreffed in three words, which convey a pretty clear idea of it,-union in all the parts of the ftate-liberty in them all-and authority over them all. This was the great defign which Charlemagne formed, and carried into execution. He reftored peace and union between the clergy and the nobility, and conferred upon the French a degree and kind of liberty (according to our Author) which they had never enjoyed or known, either in the marshes of Germany, or under that tyrannical administration, by which the kings of the first race provoked the feditious licentioufnefs of the grandees, and trampled on the rights of the people. The kind of liberty, meant by our Author, confifted in this, that the courts of juftice were multiplied, that nothing was tranfacted in the councils of the prince, in the courts of the higher magiftrates, nor in thofe of the cities, without the most mature deliberation; and that a new order of inspectors called miffi, or envoys, were appointed to fet limits to the arbitrary power which the magiftrates had ufurped. But this kind of liberty was, indeed, no more than a wife and beneficent application of abfolute power, and M. MOREAU deftroys the precifion of language and confounds the nature of things, when, in confequence of all these regulations, he fays, that Charlemagne. rendered the French free, in the only fenfe that man ought to be fo. No nation is free, that has not, in the privileges of the people, the means of providing for and fecuring the continuance of their well-being, and the permanent enjoyment of the effential rights of human nature.-Thefe may be maintained by the abfolute power of a good prince, and may be destroyed by

the

the abfolute power of his fucceffor, fo that abfolute power is, properly fpeaking, incompatible with true liberty.-Nothing, indeed, can be more eloquent, more beautifully faid, more pathetically expreffed, than our Author's defcription of the liberty which a wife government procures to a nation; and if all monarchs were models of wifdom, we might fubmit to his fervile fyftem, and fay-come-we will accept of happiness and well-being, from whatever hands it may proceed.-But as men -and more efpecially as monarchs are fo palpably far from being what they ought to be, all the eloquence of M. MOREAU on this fubject is nothing more than the impertinent froth of a fervile courtier, who is blowing gorgeous bubbles to dazzle the multitude, and that, with objects before his eyes, which fhew the odious fallacy of his doctrine in the ftrongest light.

M. MOREAU knows very well, and he has the candour, at leaft, to own it, that, by all the regulations above mentioned as fo friendly to French liberty, Charlemagne augmented inftead of diminishing his perfonal power and authority; for he was the main-fpring which directed thofe eftablishments that were formed for the good of his fubjects. It is alfo true, that the well-being of thofe fubjects attaching them by bonds of gratitude to their prince, who made them feel the comfortable effects of (what we may call) a temporary liberty, must naturally have given a high degree of well-acquired confiftence and folidity to his government and authority. All this gives our Author an opportunity of fhewing in a very beautiful and affecting manner, that a fovereign cannot difpenfe with the attachment and co-operation of his people, whofe liberty (truth will out even in contradictions) is neceflary to the purpofts of the most abfolute monarch, if he means to reign with dignity and true glory.Good M. MOREAU-Naturam expellas furca licet ufque recurret.

In treating of the legislation of Charlemagne in its connexion with all the departments of the ftate, and all the fprings of the political machine, which he had under his direction, our Author fhews what this prince effectuated with respect to religion, its doctrines, worship, difcipline and minifters, and alfo with respect to the inftruction and morals of the nation; the part of this ninth difcourfe, that relates to the laws of Pepin and Charlemagne, is referved for a fubfequent volume,-with other interefting materials.

II. Recherches Hiftoriques et Critiques fur l'Adminiftration publique et priveé des Terres chez les Romains, &c. i. e. An Hiftorical and Critical Inquiry into the public and private Administration of Lands

*We are at fome lofs for an English term, equal to the comprehenfive fenfe of the word Adminiftration in the original; which feems to include

Lands among the Romans from the Beginning of the Republic to the Time of Julius Gafar, in which their Commerce, as far as it related to their own Productions, is incidentally treated, and also the little influence that agriculture had on their manners and morals is fully proved. By the Author of the Theory of Luxury. 8vo. 528 pages. Paris. 1779.-This author is M. DUMONT, and the work here announced obtained the prize propofed by the Royal Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres for 1776. It is a very learned and inftructive publication, and throws light upon fome objects, of which hitherto confufed, vague, and imperfect ideas have been generally entertained, and, among others, upon the ftate of agriculture among the Romans in the different periods of the republic.-The work is divided into three parts. In the firft the Author treats of territorial property and poffeffions, and of the laws, cuftoms and fettlements relative to that object in the fecond he treats of the labours of the field, of all the forms and branches of rural economy; the third contains an account of the commerce founded on the produce of lands, and of internal circulation; and concludes with an inquiry into the influence of agriculture on the manners of the Romans.

III. Nouveau Syfteme de Mineralogie, ou Effai d'une nouvelle Expofition du Regne Mineral, &c. i. e. A new Syftem of Mineralogy, or an Attempt towards a new Explanation of the Mineral Kingdom: To which is added, A Supplement to the Treatife concerning the Diffolution of Metals, and Remarks upon the Dictionary of Chemistry. By M. MONNET, Inspector General of the Mines in France, &c. 12mo. pag. 605. Paris. 1779. The ingenious Author fets out with an inftructive fummary of the progrefs which the fcience of mineralogy has made in France, and with appreciating the refpective merit of the writers who have contributed to its improvement, fo far down as the year 1773. This is followed by a definition of mineralogy, and a compendious account of the fituation and characters of minerals, of the primitive and effential principles of bodies, and of the primitive and fundamental earths, with their diftinctive properties. He then divides mineral fubftances into four claffes. In the first he places earths and Stones-uniting these two objects, because the former is, for the most part, derived from the ruins of the Jatter. This clafs contains 21 genera and 112 fpecies. In the fecond he places metals and femi-metals under 13 genera and 78 fpecies. In the third, falts under 4 genera and 15 fpecies. In the fourth, inflammable fubftances in 4 genera and 9 fpecies. These four claffes are treated in a very masterly manner by M.

include tenures, laws, cuftoms, &c. as well as the cultivation of landed property.

MONNET,