antecedent to the 5th of April next, as by the faid act is henceforth ftrictly and abfolutely prefcribed." The ho nourable mover fpoke very difrefpectfully of Lord Shelburne, but launched out into a warm panygeric on the fplendid abilities and fuperior virtues of Mr. Pitt. Then he entered on the immediate object of his motion, he obferved that there was one penfion lately granted to which he had no objection; it was that of the Lord Chancellor; and it was his opinion that a claufe in favour of the perfon who fhould fill that high office ought to have been inferted in the act passed laft year. There was a clause in that act, leaving a power in the crown to give penfions beyond the extent specified to fuch perfons as had been employed in embaffles to foreign courts. He was afraid that fome abufes would arife from this claufe; to prevent them as much as poffible, and at the fame time to take the fenfe of the Houfe on that question, whether the fpirit of the act was binding now, though according to the letter it was not to commence till the 5th of April next, was the principal end he had in view in moving for an addrefs to his Majefty. He was feconded by Mr. Martyn. Mr. Pitt thought that the spirit and letter of the aft was the fame. The period in which it was to take effect was exprefsly limited; and the crown ought not to be deprived of its power of granting penfions till that period fhould arrive. He juftified the penfions that had been granted, and as he wifhed that every part of his conduct as a minister should be fully understood by the Houfe, he proceeded to lay before them a history of every penfion that had been granted fince he had been in office. The first, he faid, was a penfion of 2000l. a-year to Sir Jofeph Yorke, who had fpent thirty years of his life in foreign embaffy. Two other penfions, one of 700l. and the other of 500l. a-year, had been granted to two clerks in the Treafury, who long and faithfully ferved the public, but were fuperannuated. Another penfion of 350l. a-year was granted to Mr. Morgan, who went out fecretary to Sir Guy Carleton, and he believed it had been promised him before he went out. This in reality was not more than 300l. and was therefore within the letter, as well as the spirit, of the act; as was another of 200l. ayear to a clerk who had been taken from the Tax-Office to the Treasury, and who in a change of minifters might lofe his latter fituation, without being reftored to the former. The penfion of 2000l. a-year to Lord Grantham, who had for eight years been our ambassador to Spain, was in confequence of the royal promife; but this penfion is to ceafe when that noble lord should be provided for by a place of equal value under the crown. Mr. Fox fupported the motion. He faid the Chancellor's penfion ought undoubtedly to be totally out of the queftion,for it stood on grounds very different from thofe of ambaffadors to foreign courts. A Chancellor ought to be liberally recompenfed by the ftate, for quitting a lucrative profeffion for an office only tenable at the royal pleasure. When he moved for the claufe relative. to perfons employed in embaffies abroad, he had not in view fuch men as Lord Grantham-men in eafy or affluent circumstances; but merely thofe perfons of talents who having been taken from their friends and profeffion, and having long ferved in other countries, would find themselves deftitute when recalled; and the crown reftrained from making a decent provifion for them. After fome flight alterations, and fome uninterefting converfation, chiefly personal, the addrefs was agreed to. When the Houfe met March 7th, Lord Ludlow informed the members that the addrefs had been prefented to his Majefty, and was moft graciously received; and that his Majefty had ordered him to affure the Houfe that their requeft fhould be complied with. The main fubject of debate this day was the bill for establishing provifional regulations for an intercourfe with America. Mr. Eden objected to it, as it would introduce a total revolution in our commercial fyftem that threatened to overturn it. He faid it would effect the Navigation Navigation act which had been lately adopted, and made a part of the law of Ireland. This bill virtually repealed it. The two legiflators ought therefore to have prevented its having this effect, by going hand in hand in all regulations of trade and intercourse with America. But this was not his only objection. The American States lay fo contiguous to our West India Islands, and this bill giving the Americans leave to trade with them, there was no fhadow of doubt but they would fupply them with provifions from the Continent of America, to the utter ruin of the provifion trade of Ireland, which fupplies the British West Indies. The next evil to be feared from the bill, would be our dofs of the carrying trade. He apprehended alfo a detriment to the fugar refinery of this country. The Americans, being permitted to carry the raw fugars to manufacture in their own country, would be able to underfell us in every market. He thought the hat trade would alfo receive a very great injury from the bill. The provifional treaty had given them the fur of a great part of Canada; and as the materials were at their very door, they could manufacture them cheaper, and would probably monopolize that branch of bufinefs in the Weft-India Iflands. He mentioned another objection to the bill, which weighed with him more than any of the others which he had produced: the Americans on their return from our ports might export our manufacturing tools; and our artificers emigrating at the fame time, we should run the rifque of lofing our manufactures. This would be a stroke which the commerce of this nation could not poffibly furvive. On the whole, he confidered the bill as of a very dangerous tendency. It placed the United States on the footing of the most favoured country, without fecuring a reciprocal advantage. The advantage at prefent was all of one fide; and of a fide too where fo much generofity was totally undeferved! perhaps in time we fhould fee ourerror, and be drawn to the difagreeable and dangerous neceffity of repealing what we were now going to enact. LOND. MAG, July 1783. Sir Grey Cooper and Mr. Pitt thought the bill ought to be referred to the com mittee, where objectionable claufes might be amended. The latter wished that we might meet with a reciprocity of advantage from the Americans: but he would not flatter himself or others with too fanguine expectations of it. Mr. Burke arraigned the minifters for neglect in fettling the terms of commerce at the time that the negociation was carrying on at Paris; he went over the terms of the peace, and reprobated them afresh. However, confidering the neceffity of the times, he would fupport the principle of the bill, though he difliked fome of the claufes: nor did he apprehend that fuch evils would refult from it as Mr. Eden was fearful of. Mr. Fox concurred in fentiments with his friend, and the bill was ordered to a committee, where the most exceptionable parts might be expunged or rectified. In the fame Houfe March 11th, Lord Newhaven rofe, as he said, for the third time to call the attention of the members to the treaty with America. He wifhed to know if Congress had used their influence, as ftipulated in that. treaty, or were likely to use it, in behalf of the Loyalifts. In order to come at the defired information, he moved for a copy of the last difpatches received from Sir Guy Carleton: and was feconded by Mr. Rosewarne. The Chancellor of the Exchequer faid, that the difpatches contained no information on the fubject, for when they were fent off the Preliminaries of Peace had not reached America. Lord Newhaven was not fatisfied with this declaration, but infifted on taking the fenfe of the House. On a divifion there appeared for the motion 2; against it 80. When the report from the committee of Supply on the Ordnance eftimates was brought up. Mr. Rofewarne ob jected to it, principally on account of the fum of between 4 and 500,000l. appropriated in the estimates to the completion of the fortifications at Portfmouth. He faid, if the peace can be defended at all, it must be on the fuppo fition of our finances being in a ruined C ftate, ftate. And yet the prefent reduction of expence is very fmall; and the military establishments are fuch as can only be fupported by a flourishing empire. Sir Cecil Wray obferved that the eftimates for the Ordnance for the prefent year exceed thofe of 1763 by upwards of 112,000l. The number of troops belonging to the artillery was to be double to what it was in 1763; and this too at a time when we have fewer dominions to defend! He moved for the recommitment of the report. Mr. Steele accounted for the difference between the ellimates of this year, and thofe of 1763, by obferving very pertinently, that Nova Scotia lying now at what may be called the door of an enemy's country, fortifications which would have been needlefs at the conclufion of the laft war, became, through a change of times and circumftances, abfolutely neceffary at prefent. As to the lands on which fresh works were to be erected at Portfmouth, the estimate included every thing, the purchafe money as well as the expence of building the fortifica tions. The question for the recommitment of the report was negatived without a divifion; and the Houfe agreed to it without any further debate. March 12th. Sir Henry Fletcher brought up the report of the committee to whom the Eaft-India Company's petition had been referred, which having been read a first and a fecond time, Sir Henry obferved, that as the adminiftration was not adjusted and settled, he would move that the report do lie on the table. At the fame time he thought it neceffary to ftate that if the report were not taken into confideration, and fome refolution formed upon it, before the ft of April the whole circulation of the company, about the fum of between 3 and 400,000l. would be ftopped. He hoped that as foon as a new administration was formed, they would not delay taking it into confideration; but fubmit it as foon as poffible to the House. He General Smith faid that the urgency and importance of the Eaft-India affairs was fuch, that it would force itself on the attention of the Houfe, in fpite of all attempts to thrust it back. waited for the arrangement of a new adminiftration; and infifted that the fubject now proposed to the attention of the Houfe was of fufficient magnitude to demand the earliest and most particular deliberation. Mr. Burke confidered the matter as of the last importance to this country. The intereft of the company is fo interwoven with the intereft of the public, that they will be mutually affected by each other's profperity or diftrefs. But at the fame time that the distresses of the company deferved relief, there was as great a call for the reformation of abufes. The Company had flown in the face of parliament at the very time that parliament had been engaged in applying remedies to check the progrefsof thofe evils which had long leffened their credit, and threatened the total ruin of their interefts. [He here alluded to the Company's refufing to acquiefce in the recal of Mr. Hastings, and their infifting on maintaining a right of controul over their fervants in India.] Heconfidered this part of their conduct as audacious in the highest degree, and meriting the fevereft correction. His having been a member of the committee which had taken the affairs of the company into particular confideration, added to his general obfervations on the fame fubject for near twenty years, gave him confidence when he spoke on it; for he knew he fpcke from the best information as well as the fteadieft and calmeft conviction. The report was ordered to lie on the tabie; and Sir Henry Fletcher moved that it should be printed; which was agreed to without oppofition. The fame day, the American trade bill was refumed; and Mr. Orde the chairman, was, after a number of ob fervations of little confequence from different fides of the Houfe, directed to report progrefs, and afk leave to fit again. AN AN ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. N TATURAL Philofophy is a fcience that relates to thofe appearances which are obferved in the mutations to which inanimate bodies are fubject. Its extent and utility are fo great that it cannot be doubted but that it has existed almost as early as the human race itself. The conveniences, or more properly speaking, the neceffities of life demand an exertion of the arts, and all the arts are dependent either on mechanics or chemistry. It would, therefore, be a fruitless attempt to endeavour to ascertain the inventors of many of the arts, and the correfpondent practical knowledge which muft accompany them. We shall not, therefore, enter into the obfcure enquiry, whether the Affyrians, Chaldeans, and Egyptians were ever in poffeffion of any confiderable fhare of philofophic fcience, or whether those mysteries which were concealed from the vulgar eye by hieroglyphics, were in reality things whofe lofs is at all to be deplored. But, haftening over thofe ages which remote antiquity or their rudeness has made inacceffible to our refearches, we fhall endeavour to trace the rational philofophy, that is to fay, the union of theory with experiment, from its dawn to the flourishing ftate it now poffeffes in all the nations of cultivated Europe. Among the philofophers of ancient Greece and Rome, whofe opinions and doctrines are to be found in the writings of Diogenes Laertius, Plutarch, and others, we find many inftances of great genius and penetration, accompanied with the moft admirable induftry. There are very few of the modern metaphyfical doctrines refpecting cofmology which have fo much awakened the public attention during the laft century, but may be found among thofe of the Greek and Italian fchools; and from the vestiges of folid fcience which appears, though disguised, either in the narration, or from other caufes, there is reafon to prefume, that if the liberty of Greece had lafted, the true philofophy would have appeared up wards of two thoufand years before the eftablishment of the English Royal Society, which, without any national partiality, may be regarded as the time of its unequivocal difclofure. It feems to be even a reflection on the human understanding, that the experience of many ages have been neceffary to convince mankind that they are incapable of walking without fupport in the path which leads to the investigation of nature. In proportion as we truft to our powers of reafoning we find ourselves bewildered, and the best conftructed fet of inferences refpecting natural phenomena cannot be depended upon till the deduction is rendered authentic by the fanction of experiment. A want of the proper confideration of this has long induced mankind to receive fallacious fyftems whofe complicated ftructure and apparent agreement of parts feemed too great to be the mere produce of fancy. Difcoveries can only be made by reafoning from the effect to the caufe, but it is more flattering to the imagination to affume a caufe, and behold the vaft variety of effects which a fruitful brain may affix to it. The progrefs of fcience has been retarded likewife by the indolence of the many who are ready to admit facts without fufficient evidence. It is but the other day that the hiftory of the tarantula, and the power of mufic in curing the effects of its bite, was believed, and many ingenious theories invented for explaining the appearance. The ancients feem to have been much more defirous of amafling facts than examining them, and it appears to have been a thing of more confequence with them to give a plaufible reafon for an event, than to be affured that it really came to pafs. It is not, on thefe accounts, fo much to be wondered at, that the ancients not being arrived at the poffeffion of thofe requifites which are effential to the true method of philofophifing, fhould place the most valuable opinions Ca in the fame rank with those which are now known to be unworthy of notice. Thus Plutarch de placitis philofophorum, lib. 3. cap. 13. gives an obfcure account of the opinions of Philolaus, Heraclides, and Ecphantus, from which it is probable that thofe philofophers were acquainted with the true fyftem of the world. Copernicus, in his preface to his celebrated work De Revolutionibus orbium cæleftium, quotes the paffage and another of the like nature from Cicero; but it seems rather strange that he should have overlooked another paffage in Plutarch's imperfect treatife De facie in orbe Lune, in which the theory of gravity is very clearly expreffed. As the paffage is curious, a tranflation may be acceptable: "But the moon is prevented from falling by the violence of the motion by which the revolves, upon the fame principle that ftones or other weights are kept from dropping out of a fling by the fwiftnefs of their motion while they are whirled about. For every body will be carried according to its natural motion if not prevented by fome intervening caufe. The moon, therefore, does not move according to the action of her weight because her tendency is overcome by the violence of the circular motion." Thales of Miletus is regarded as the founder of the Ionic fchool of philofophers. Most of the opinions which are recorded of this great man are fuch as do him great credit. By travelling into Crete, Phenicia, and laftly Egypt, which was then the refidence of the best geometers, he acquired all the knowledge which thofe times poffeffed, and is faid to have made very confiderable difcoveries. He is affirmed to be the first who gave any rational account of the caufe of eclipfes, and even proceeded fo far as to foretell them. The fucceffors of Thales attended chiefly to the ftudy of nature till the time of So crates. Socrates, according to Cicero, was the firft who called the attention of philofophers from the heavens, and fixed it upon the ftudy of morality. An intimate acquaintance with the fciences of the age he lived in, fhewed this ex cellent man how little they contributed to the advantage of mankind when compared with the knowledge and practice of thofe duties which become the man and the citizen. Without entirely ne glecting them, he exerted his endeavours to make his scholars more worthy of esteem than admiration. It is a blot both on his character and that of his contemporaries, that he found it neceffary to have recourse to artifice, in order to procure that refpect and atten tion which his upright life and easy conversation deserved. It was not enough that Socrates was the first of moral philofophers, but fupernatural communications were pretended to. He affirmed he had a demon, or familiar fpirit, that directed him to good, and taught him to avoid evil. While philofophy was chiefly converfant among natural things the minds of men appear to have been calm, and the common ftudy of nature seemed rather to unite than divide them. But the ftudy of morality foon created di vifions. We can much more readily al low the fuperiority in learning than in morality. An acknowledged pre-emi nence in virtue either creates a laudable emulation, or the moft rancorous envy. The example and precepts of the divine Socrates produced both these effects. Many of his fellow-citizens became more virtuous, but those who-beheld him without amendment faw with anxiety that his conduct was a continual reproach to their own. They became his enemies, and as the offender is always more implacable than the injured perfon, their hatred was not fatiated but with his life. He was accused of fubverting the religion of his country, and condemned to drink poison. Immediately upon the death of Socrates, the Grecian fchool became divided into parties. It has been a difficulty in all ages to determine the ori gin of moral obligation, and the world is not yet agreed upon the fubject. Indeed the queftion itfelf has fo many complicated relations, and fuppofes fuch a confiderable knowledge of metaphyfical habitudes, that it is not at all to be wondered, that both the ancients and moderns have found it very per plexing. |