norance and depraved ingenuity combined to introduce into the Eastern Church. The Pope made frequent attempts to obtain the spiritual guidance of northern as well as western ignorance, but he had to combat a hierarchy of as determined ambition: as his own, though less extensive in its objects. Russia, sunk in profound ignorance, was peculiarly favourable to the domination of priests. These imposed fetters on mankind; they. prescribed what every one was to believe. They here likewise artfully maintained that the authority conferred on them by God extended even beyond the limits of this present life. If a metropolitan pronounced excommunication, then was every one damned to everlasting torments who ventured to do what was forbidden under penalty of the ban. In Russia too the clergy had the dexterity, by the same means that were practised in the western church, to acquire great riches, and especially by persuading wealthy sinners, previous to their death, to bestow a part of their possessions on the clergy, that by their intercession they might have an entrance into bliss, and be partakers of those unfading joys, to which of themselves they thought they had no pretensions. The majority of the clergy read mass, and were otherwise totally immersed in sensuality and ignorance; and the laic thought it enough for being a Christian to wear a crucifix about his neck, to be an assiduous frequenter of the ceremonies of the church, to fast, to confess, occasionally to attend the sacraments, and daily to read the prescribed formulary of prayers. As to literature among the Russians; in that respect they were, and continued to be, far behind the rest of Europe: and among the Russian monks there were not near so many men of letters as the cloisters of the western church could boast. So much the greater was the merit of one of these monks, named Nestor, of the Petscherskian monastery at Kief; who, so early as the commencement of the twelfth century, wrote a history in the language of his country: wherein, after giving a brief account of the remotest ages, he records the transactions of the Russian empire from the year 858, by way of chronicle, marking under every year the most memorable events that happened in it. These year books, which, after Nestor's death, were continued by other monks, are the main sources of Russian history.-The first printing press was set up by tzar Ivan in Mosco."

Prefixed to the fecond volume, there is a genealogy of the Princes of the house of Rurik until the line became extinct, and of the house of Romanof now reigning.

Mikhaila, the first prince of the new line, was well fitted for recovering Russia from the evils which she had incurred during convulsions and usurpations, and Russia resumed her weight with her neighbours of Sweden, Poland, aud Turkey. His son Alexey, besides aggrandizing his country without, with great ability provided for its improvement within. He attached to himself the gratitude of his subjects, by a reformation of the laws, in which he consulted the nobility, the clergy, and the class of burghers. He encouraged the trade of his country, and was attentive to advance the cultivation of the empire: whereas formerly the prisoners of war always belonged as slaves to those who had taken them, he acted far more wisely, by sending the captives from the enemy into uncultivated regions that they might be peopled by their means. The mildness of his government allured Germans, Dutch, Italians, and about three thousand Scotsmen into Russia. He had already formed the design, which his son

Peter

Peter afterwards put into execution, of making the Russians acquainted with the art of constructing ships and with maritime commerce, and resolved to keep merchant ships in the Caspian. Under Alexey the Russian empire made some progress in civilization, and this prince, in many respects, already trod the path which his son Peter afterwards pursued with more firm and certain steps."

در

(To be concluded in our next.)

A Complete Syftem of Practical Arithmetic, with various Branches of the Mathematics. By William Taylor, Teacher of the Mathematics and Land Surveyor. Birmingham. 2d Edit. Crofty and Letterman. London. PP. 519. Large 8vo.

THIS

a a HIS is a work of great labour and of peculiar utility to perfons whofe education has been neglected, and who wish to gain knowledge of arithmetic and practical mathematics without the help of a mafter. It is divided into nine parts: the three first comprehend the rules of vulgar and decimal arithmetic, with all the examples worked at full length. If the author had likewife annexed to each rule, queftions with answers only, they would be highly useful as an exercile for the learner: This want may be however supplied by the help of any common school book on arithmetic.

Part IV comprises much useful matter: it contains an introduction to practical geometry, with menfuration of fuperficies, folids, and artificers' work; and likewife the common rules of gauging, land furveying, and fpecific gravity. The three following parts comprehend introductory sketches of chronology, aftronomy and geography. Part VIII. contains a neat, fimple, and concise introduction to algebra, as far as quadratic equations, and the work concludes with inftructions in the principles of book-keeping both by fingle and double entry.

:

Such is the plan of this work with refpect to the execution, it certainly deferves praife, efpecially when allowance is made for the very narrow limits which the author has prescribed to himself in his explanations and illuftrations of each branch, fome of which would require whole volumes if fully treated. To enter therefore into any elaborate inveftigation of each branch would be nugatory, as it would be pedantic to enter into any verbal criticism on the ftyle or compofition. The author has introduced an uncommon portion of questions in verfe; a fpecies of poetry better calculated to affift the memory than to aid the judgment or delight the imagination.

Upon the whole we cannot but admire this author's industry and fkill in compreffing fo much useful knowledge in the compafs of a fingle volume, and in rendering it fo clear, and, in fome parts, fo amufing. The number and variety of plates and figures with which he embellishes and illuftrates his work, greatly augment its utility and enhance its value,

.

The

The Speech of the Right Honourable William Windham, delivered in the Houfe of Commons, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1801, on the Report of an Addrefs to the Throne, approving of the Preliminaries of Peace with the Republick ef France. 8vo. Pr. 80. zs, 25. Cobbet and Mor

gan.

M

1801.

R. WINDHAM began this fpeech, which difplays the fpirit, the temper, and the wifdom of a true ftatefman, of a genuine patriot who loves his country and underftands her real interefts, with lamenting what appeared to him the probable confequences of the preliminary treaty of peace. He confiders the fubftance of the argu. ments advanced by minifters and their fupporters to be this-that France has the power of destroying us, but they hope fhe will not have the inclination. He then, very naturally, burfts out into the following exclamation: That I fhould have lived to fee the day, when fuch arguments could be used in a British houfe of commonsthat I fhould have lived to fee a houfe of commons, where fuch arguments could be heard with patience, and even with complacency!" Mr. W. collects, from the fpeeches on the other fide, that minifters reject the fuppofition of any actual neceffity to make peace, but that they make it in order to anticipate fuch neceffity; and thence he con-tends, that we have acted as Menou acted at Alexandria, and are, confequently, like him, conquered! for, he adds, " I know not what other definition we want of being conquered, than that a country can fay to us, We can hold out, and you cannot; make peace, or we will ruin you and that you, in confequence, make peace, upon terms which muft render a renewal of hoftilities, under any provocation, more certainly fatal than a continuation of that war, which you already declare yourselves unable to bear."

The idea of making the conclufion of peace a mere queftion of arithmetical calculation, and fo regulating the most important concerns of a great empire, by the narrow contracted notions of a counting-houfe, is most pointedly and fuccefsfully ridiculed. Mr W. readily admits that if the mere pecuniary value of the territory actually conceded to us by the peace, or of that to be acquired by a continuation of the war, were to conftitute the only ground of confideration, the peace would have his approbation; but, he truly ftates, that a statesman ought alfo to confider" the effect which peace, made in fuch and fuch circumftances, is likely to have on the character and eftimation of the country; a fpecies of poffeffion, which, though neither tangible nor vifible, is as much a part of national ftrength, and has as real a value, as any thing that can be turned into pounds and fhillings, that can be told by the fcore or hundred, or weighed out in averdupoile.”—This language, no doubt, founded oddly to the frigid calculators of revenue and expence, but it will be perfectly intelligible to ftatefinen and politicians, properly fo called.-As to the eftimation of the country in the minds of foreign powers, we have heard that a nobleman of great information and talents, who has re

cently

cently returned from the continent, reports, that before the peace they feared us, and fince the peace they defpife us. The fubfequent remarks on the value of national honour are excellent:-thefe are ftrengthened by the authority of Mr. Fox and of Junius; the latter of whom, fpeaking of the bufinefs of the Faulkland Islands, faid To depart, in the minuteft article, from the nicety and strictness of punctilio, is as dangerous to national honour, as it is to female virtue. The woman who admits of one familiarity, feldom knows where to ftop, or what to refuse; and, when the councils of a great country give way in a single inftance, when they are once inclined to fubmiffion, every step accelerates the rapidity of their descent."-When it is confidered that fuch was the language ufed by a writer who courted the favour of the people; and contraft it with the arguments now employed for the fame purpofe, what a lamentable inference muft be drawn from the comparison! If France can appreciate fuch a ftate of things, we are, indeed, a conquered people!

In the next branch of his argument, Mr. W. examines whether we are left in a better fituation by the peace than we should have been placed in by a continuance of the war; and for this purpose he takes ą view of the terms of peace.

"The description of thefe is fimple and eafy :-France gives nothing, and, excepting Trinidad and Ceylon, England gives every thing. If it were of any confequence to state what in diplomatic language was the bafis of this treaty, we must say, that it had no one bafis; but that it was the ftatus quo, on the part of England, with the two exceptions in its favour, of Ceylon and Trinidad; and the uti poffidetis, with the addition of all the other English conquefts, on the part of France. But what may be the technical defcription of the treaty, is, comparatively, of little importance. It is the refult that is material, and the extent of power and territory, now, by whatever means, actually remaining in the hands of France. The enumeration of this, liable indeed in part to be difputed, but upon the whole fufficiently correct, may be made as follows:

"In Europe,-France poffeffes the whole of the continent, with the exception of Ruffia and Auftria. If it be faid that parts of Germany, and the Northern courts of Denmark and Sweden are not fairly defcribed as being immediately under the control of France, we must balance this confideration by remarking the influence which France poffeffes in these governments, and the commanding pofition which the occupies with refpect to Auftria, by the poffeffion of Switzerland and Mantua, and thofe countries which have been confidered always, and twice in the courfe of the prefent war, have proved to be, the direct inlet into the heart of her dominions.

"In Afia,-Pondicherry, Mahê, Cochin, Negapatam, the Spice Inlands. "In Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, Goree, Senegal.

"In the fea that is inclofed by these three continents, which connects them all, and furnishes to us in many refpects our best and fureft communication with them, the Mediterranean, every port and poft except Gibraltar, from one end of it to the other, including the impregnable and invaluable port of Malta; fo as to exclude us from a fea, which it had ever before been the anxious policy

of

of Great Britain to keep in her hands, and to render it now, truly and properly, what it was once idly called, the Sea of France.

In the West Indies,-St. Domingo, both the French and Spanish parts, Martinic, St. Lucie, Guadaloupe, Tobago, Curacoa.

In North America, St. Pierre and Miquelon, with a right to the fifheries in 'the fullest extent to which they were ever claimed; Louisiana, (so ir is fuppofed,) a word dreadful to be pronounced, to all who confider the confequences with which that ceffion is pregnant, whether as it acts northward, by its effects upon the United States, or Southward, as opening a direct paffage into the Spanish fettlements in America.

In South America, Surinam, Demerary, Berbice, Effequibo, taken by us and now.ceded;-Guiana, and by the effect of the treaty fraudulently figned by France with Portugal, juft before the fignature of thefe prelimina ries, a tract of country extending to the river Amazon, and giving to France the command of the entrance into that river. Whether, by any fecret article, the evils of this ceffion will prove to have been done away, time will discover. In fact, (be that as it may,) France may be faid to poffefs the whole of the Spanish and Portuguese fettlements upon that continent. For who fhall fay, that the has not the command of thofe fettlements, when fhe has the command of the countries to which they belong; cum cuftocht ipfos cuftodes? She has, in truth, whatever part of the continent of South America fe chooses to occupy; and as far as relates to the Spanish part, without even the neceffity, a neceffity that probably would not cost her much, of infringing any part of the prefent treaty.

Such is the grand and comprehenfive circle to which the New Roman Empire may be foon expected to fpread, now that peace has removed all obftacks, and opened to her a fafe and eafy paffage into the three remaining quarters of the globe. Such is the power, which we are required to contemplate without difmay! under the fhade of whofe greatnefs we are invited to lie down with perfect tranquillity and compofure! I fhould be glad to know, what our anceflors would have thought and felt in this fituation? what those weak and deluded men, fo inferior to the politicians of the prefent day, the Marlboroughs, the Godolphins, the Soxers's, the King Williams, all thofe who viewed with fuch apprehenfion the power of Louis XIV., what they would fay to a peace, which not only confirms to France the poffeffion of nearly the whole of Europe, but extends her empire over every other part the globe Is there a man of them, who would not turn in his coffin, could he be fenfible to a twentieth part of that which is paffing, as perfect matter of courfe, in the politicks of the prefent moment?

of

"But to all these mighty dangers we have, it feems, one great fecurity to oppofe; not that degrading and baftard fecurity to which I have before adverted, and to which, I fear, I muft again recur,that France is lafata, if not fariata; that having run down her prey, he will be content to fpare it, and be willing for awhile to leave us unmolested;-but a rational, fober, wellfounded fecurity, applicable to the fuppofition that he may not be wanting in the will to hurt us, but will happily not poffels the power. This great fecurity, we are told, is our wealth. We are, it feems, fo inmenfely rich, our profperity stands on fo fure and wide a bafis, we have fuch a pyramid of gold, fo beautifully contructed, ard fo firmly put together, that we may fafely let in all the world to do their worst against it; they can never overturn