"Neither is there the fmallest room for the apprehenfion of danger from an establishment of this fort, when raifed upon the broad foundation of univerfal freedom; efpecially as the members of it are the judges, rather than the contrivers, of new measures. On the contrary, it must appear evident, when the weight of this body is balanced against the people, that the great danger will lie in the want, rather than the excefs, of its power; and that, at times, it will require all the affiftance, which the wellwifhers of the conftitution can pour in, to preferve its influence, and maintain it in its fituation. For if the people once become fenfible of their own ftrength, they will naturally grow impatient of oppofition, and, careless of the confequences, take the earlieft opportunity of throwing off the reftraint. Secondly, it is argued as a meafure replete with folly, to confer privileges in perpetuity, the exercife of which implies, and requires, a degree of ability, and information, fuperior to the ordinary class of men; feeing that the qualifications of parents by no means neceffarily defcend to their children. This argument, fo fpecious in appearance, becomes futile in the extreme, when the conditions of the grant are impartially investigated. It would indeed be abfurd, if the fon were compelled to take upon him the fame official fituation, in which the abilities of the father fhone forth confpicuously; if he were expected to conduct the fleets, or to command the armies of the nation.-But this is not fo; the nation is looking for no fuch active fervice at his hands; fhe requires only the faithful exercife of those functions, with which he has entrusted him, of protecting her rights, and defending her liberties. And to whom, I would ask, shall she look with greater confidence, whom fhall the find more deferving her efteem, than those who have bled in her caufe, or exerted their various abilities to the utmoft in her favour? And though, from the imperfections incident to humanity, her expectations may, in fome initances, be thwarted, yet, unlefs it can be fhown that they muft neceffarily fail in general, the purpofes of the inftitution will be fully obtained, a check will be given to the daring fpirit of individuals, and peace and tranquillity will flourish in the nation. "Thirdly, it is faid to be unjuft, and in fome fort oppreffive, to confer privileges upon one part of a fociety, from the enjoyment of which the remainder is utterly debarred. But that establishment, which is proved to be neceffary for the wellbeing of all, and the advantages of which are, from its nature, participated by a few only, cannot, according to the rules of found reafening, be unjust to any. And no man, ftrictly fpeaking, is oppreffed, who is not either deprived of fomething which he was legally enjoying, or to which he can make out a fair and indifputable claim. But this being incompatible with the nature of a privilege, the charge of injuftice falls inftantly to the ground." P. 141. A last defideratum now remaining, in the want of a power to repair and regenerate the Ariftocracy, expofed to change and even extinction, leads the author to the principle of Monarchy; and the argument in favour of an hereditary Arifto 5 cracy, cracy, he confiders as applying ftill more strongly to the hereditary office of the fupreme functionary. The neceflity of a juft balance between the feveral parts is then contended for ; and the conclufion is drawn with the animation of gemu and patriotifm. "Thus then, from the proper arrangement of the combinations, already defcribed, will refult a political machine, which, performing its actions, as it were, in a circle, and fuffering no abfolute waste of power in any part, what is employed in producing one, being amply repaid by its influence over others, will be perpetual; and poffeiling, at the fame time, the requifite properties in their fullest extent, may be deemed, in theory, perfect. "Should any one be anxious to contemplate thefe principles in action, he will find them tried and approved by the inhabitants of Great Britain; whofe conftitution-that model of perfection, has long been the pride of Englishmen, the glory of modern times, the envy and admiration of the whole world. In which, through the happy inequality in the diftribution of privileges, is maintained the moft perfect equality in the enjoyment of rights. May it ever endure unfhaken, unchanged! may it repel the daring efforts of innovation, and furvive the vifionary schemes of its enemies, which threaten the deftruction of all focial order! And may it ever continue, by protecting the liberties of mankind, to diffufe that univerfal happiness, which is unknown to any other nation on the globe. P. 158. Our analysis of thefe fketches has led us infenfibly into a detail not often allowed to treatifes of fo finall a bulk; but the merit of this writer, and the fubject of his difquifitions, will fufficiently juftify this deviation from genera! practice. In reviewing the particulars which the fketches contain, we find a large variety of ufeful matter, digefted in neat arrangement, and delivered in clear, logical, and eloquent terms. At a time when falfe and dangerous notions of government are circulated with fuch pernicious fuccefs, few things can be more important than to bring forward, to a fair and equitable examination, thefe opinions of an acute and original thinker, and to place his arguments before the public in that strong light which they fo well deferve to meet. ART. ART. II. Archæologia. Volume XI. (Concluded from our luft, page 169.) HAVING dwelt fo particularly upon the first of the three XVIII. Memoir on British Naval Architecture. By Ralph This is indeed an important memoir, very pregnant with information, and highly gratifying to curiofity. We therefore with to indulge our readers with fome extracts from it, and fhall endeavour to form the extracts into fomething like a regular history. It is to the reign of Henry VIII. that we must look for the establishment of a regular navy. Before his reign, fhips were hired occafionally from the Venetians, the Genoefe, the Hanfe towns, and other trading people. Thefe, with the others fupplied by the Cinque Ports, formed the ftrength of our English fleets.-Henry refolved to form a permanent ftrength at fea.-To execute this plan, Henry eftablifhed building-yards at Woolwich, Deptford, and Chatham. He was at first obliged to hire foreign artificers; " Italian fhipwrights."If we confider the fhips that formed the navy in the firft year of Edward VI. as the navy left by his father; which I think we fairly may do; we shall be furprized at the ftate to which he had raised it. My own account ftates it at 11,005 tons, and that given by Mr. "But the form of building them Topham at 11,748 tons." P. 159. renders thefe fhips contemptible, in the opinion of perfons in the leak acquainted with naval architecture; for, if we could depend on the curious print given to us of the Harry Grace de Dieu, by Mr. Topham, it may fairly be pronounced that he was unfit for every purpofe of navigation, not only in the ocean, but in the lefs tempestuous waves of the Mediterranean, and hardly fafe out of an harbour any where.' P. 164. And, as the author fums up for this reign, at the close of the whole memoir, with a contradi&torinefs that is very apparent when the paffages are thus collated: "Henry the Eighth left a navy of 10,550 tons, confifting of feventy-one veffels, whereof thirty were fhips of burthen;" and one of them, the Regent, appears from a record before, to have carried feven hundred foldiers, mariners, and gunners.' "Edward the Sixth had fifty-three fhips, containing 11,005 tons, Queen Mary whereof only twenty-eight were above eighty tons. had only forty-fix of all forts. Queen Elizabeth's confifted of 17,030 17,030 tons, whereof thirty fhips were of two hundred tons or upwards. The pacific reign of James the Firft is not more brilliant in the fhips, than perhaps in the other parts of it, having added only 1596 tons to the navy left by Elizabeth." P. 198. Yet, with another contradiétion, the author has obferved thus before. A print of a large fhip, [that] published by Mr. Allen, and [his] fuppofed with fome reafon by Mr. Topham, to have been built in James's reign, is [exhibits a fhip] lefs uncouth' than Henry's though fil an unpleafant picture of the state of fhip-building at this time.' A note adds, very contradictorily again! that this is a valuable intermediate ftep between that fhip,' of Henry's, and the Royal Sovereign' of the next reign; " being," as a quotation from Stowe's Chronicle, fays, in the note, " in all refpects the greatest and goodlieft fhip, that ever was builded in England." "Charles the First added only nine fhips, befides the Royal Sovereign, But, in giving this laft, he did great fervice to the navy, by increafing the fize, as well as improving the form of building them. The Royal Sovereign, built by Phineas Pett in 1637, gives us the firft idea of any knowledge in the art," any extraordinary knowledge Mr. Willett means, or the previous hip could not be "a valuable intermediate ftep" between this and Henry's; and is really an aftonithing proof of the rapid grefs it had made; for he continued an ufeful and valuable thip in our navy, until the beginning of the prefent century. She was in all the actions at fea during the reigns of Charles the Second and William the Third, and did great fervice in the fight off La Hogue in 1692." "During the Ufurpation and Oliver's time, from what I have been able to collect, it fufficiently appears that the, fize of the fhips was not increased; and that the great naval officer, the gallant Blake, was more intent on making much and honourable ufe of the fhips he found built, than of adding much to their number, and nothing [any thing] to their magnitude.-As fome of Blake's fleets appear to be numerous, it is likely that many of Charles's fhips were ftill left, and formed a part of them.-We know particularly, that the Triumph, the James, and the Vanguard, that figured in thofe actions, were thips built by Charles;" when merely four pages before the author enumerates the "only" fhips built by Charles, and the James alone is among them. "We even find the Royal Charles, built by him," Charles the First, "fo late as 1684," the author ftrargely confounding the fecond Charles with the firit, as alfo the Victory and James;" the author returning to Charles the Firft again, who is faid before to have built the Victory as well as the James, but confounding (we believe) the Victory built by Charles, which was only two hundred and fifty tons, with the Victory of the preceding James, which was eight hundred and feventy tons; as he has certainly given before the Triumph and the Vanguard, of James's fleet, to the first Charles. "Charles the Second, in 1684, enlarged the number as well as the fize of them to 100,385 tons; one hundred fail of them thips] of the line. We fee with pleasure, therefore, the happy effects of peace and fecurity, in the powerful fleets raifed in this reign; fleets, that gave us truly the dominion of the fea, and especially as thofe of the Dutch, our only competitors at this time, decreased as rapidly as ours increafed. It was fome time after this before the French began to be formidable at fea." Charles's navy consisted in 1684 of "one hundred and five," only one hundred before, "line of battle fhips, eleven fifth-rates, fixteen floops, nine fmaller floops, eighteen yachts, eight fmaller ditto, and eight hulks. "In 1697 it [the navy] was increafed to 168,224 tons, one hundred and twenty-one line of battle.-It may be fufficient to obferve, that the ships built in the reign of William the Third, though they added very much to the number, did not very much add to the fize of them; for, except a new Royal Sovereign, built towards the end of his reign, [which was] of 1882 tons, and which remained a ferviceable fhip till about 1786, we find no other that equalled the magnitude of the Britannia, of 1715 tons, which was built by Charles the Second." P. 187. "At the end of Anne," a very incorrect expreffion for Anne's reign," it [the navy] was 147,830 tons, one hundred and thirty-one line of battle; in 1730, 160,275 tons, one hundred and twenty-fix line of battle; at the end of 1545, 165,635 tons, but, at the end of 1782, when the American war ended, during which Great-Britain had the united naval force of France, Spain, Holland, and the American States to contend with, and did it with honour and fuccefs, the exertion was indeed extraordinary; for our navy confifted of 491,709 tons, fix hundred and fifteen veffels, whereof one hundred and fixtyfour were of the line, although they had increafed nearly to their prefent magnitude." P. 189. To this magnitude, as Mr. Willett fhows, they had rifen flowly. From the reign of Queen Anne, "A long peace made us inattentive to the farther improvement of our navy. We idly imagined the neighbouring powers had been as remifs as ourselves; and that our own navy, ftill equal to what it had been, was ftill as able to combat theirs as ever. But the action that took place in the Mediterranean in 1742, when Matthews and Leftock commanded |