give up all claim to the neutral islands of St. Vincent, Dominica, and Tobago." But St. Lucia, the most valuable of the neutral islands, was delivered in full right to France, and the French East India company were put in the same situation as after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle; by the restitution of Pondicherry and other places, with the single exception of erecting no forts in the province of Bengal. In return for so many indulgences, France agreed to destroy the harbour and demolish the fortifications of Dunkirk.

These preliminaries were approved, contrary to all expectation, by a majority of the British parliament, and the definitive treaty was signed at Paris early in the following year. About the same time was signed, at Hubertsburg, a treaty of peace between the empress-queen and the king of Prussia; by which it was provided, that a mutual restitution of conquests, and an oblivion of injuries should take place, and that both parties should be put in the same situation as at the commencement of hostilities.

Thus, my dear Philip, was terminated, fortunately for the general happiness of mankind, but prematurely for the grandeur of Great Britain, and without a due attention to her interests, the most active, splendid, and universal war that ever divided the human race; the most bloody between disciplined armies, and the most general in Europe, since that which was closed by the PEACE OF WESTPHALIA.

POSTSCRIPT.

BESIDES the general dissatisfaction in England, occasioned by the premature termination of hostilities, and the restitution of so many conquests without adequate cessions, it was strongly urged by some popular writers, that the British ministry had committed a still more dangerous error, at the peace of Paris, in the choice of the conquests they had thought proper to retain. "Martinico and Guadaloupe," said those writers, "would have been found more profitable possessions than Canada and its dependencies. Their produce would not only have augmented the royal revenue, while it increased our shipping, but have given us the command of the sugar-trade of Europe. France ought to have been compelled to make her sacrifices in the West Indies." It must, however, be owned, that as the war had originated in North America, and had taken its rise immediately from a dispute between the French and English colonies concerning their boundaries, its grand object on our part, the securing of our American colonies against future encroachments, seemed to be attained at the peace, in the cession made by France of Canada and Louisiana to Great Britain.

The security of the English colonies in North America, as well as their extension, was farther provided for, in the cession of Florida by Spain. But that security, it was insinuated by certain keen-sighted politicians, would prove the source of new evils. It would embolden our old colonies to shake off the control of the mother country, since they no longer stood in need of her protection, and to erect themselves into free and independent states. This insinuation, however, was generally considered as alike illiberal and unjust. And the humanity and generosity of the English nation, amid all the violent discontents provoked by the treaty of peace, found no small consolation in reflecting, that our American brethren would thenceforth be happily exempted from the annoyance of any European enemy, and able to keep the natives in awe.

Nor was this our only consolation. The magnitude of the British empire in North America, and the prospect of its growth in population and improvement, afforded a wide sweep for the projects of political ambition, and a boundless field for the speculations of commercial avidity. The undivided sovereignty of that vast continent, with the sole enjoyment of its exclusive trade, seemed to open to the citizens of Great Britain such sources of industry, and channels of naval greatness, as had never fallen to the lot of any VOL. II.-O o

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other people; and which the immensity of her conquests, and their towering hopes of farther acquisitions, with an ardent desire of finally humbling the house of Bourbon, only could have made them consider as beneath her haughtiest wish.

These conciliatory reflections are offered merely from a love of truth, not suggested by a desire of palliating the justly execrated peace of Paris; a measure that must eternally rouse the keenest emotions of indignation in the mind of every honest and enlightened Englishman. No human consideration should have induced the British ministry to give up Cuba, or to stop short of the reduction of Hispaniola; while our naval force enabled us to protect the one, and to subdue the other; as each promised a prodigious augmentation of that force, and also of the means of supporting it. We ought not to have left the French or Spaniards in possession of a single island in the West Indies. Hispaniola and Porto Rico alone remained to them.

An armament planned in the East Indies, and fitted out in the port of Manilla, would have enabled us to become masters of the rich but defenceless kingdom of Peru; and by holding, in the port of Havana, the key of the gulf of Florida, we might be said to be actually possessed of all the treasure of Mexico. No ship could pass from Vera Cruz to Europe without our permission, nor any European vessel thither. Deprived of the articles which they had been accustomed to receive from the mother country, and which are necessary to their accommodation, the inhabitants of New Spain would readily have submitted to that power, which alone could supply their wants; and which would have offered them the free exercise of their religion, with a more indulgent government, and a more advantageous market for their produce.

But let us moderate our ideas; let us confine our views solely to the places we had positively taken, and we shall find (admitting Belleisle to be equal in importance to the island of Minorca, which it certainly is to France or England), that we gave up, at the peace of Paris, without any equivalent, except the sandy promontory of Florida, not only Martinico, Guadaloupe, and St. Lucia, but the principal part of the large and fertile island of Cuba, with the Havana, its almost impregnable port, the Gibraltar of America; and eventually the rich city of Manilla, and the whole range of the Philippines; to say nothing of the restitution of Pondicherry, Chandernagore, and many other places in the East Indies, with the island of Goree, on the coast of Africa.

If it was necessary to grant some indulgence to France, in order to quiet the jealousy of other powers (though I am not sensible that Great Britain, considering her insular situation, had occasion to be afraid of giving umbrage to any European power), France might have been allowed to retain, along with the town of New-Orleans and its territory, her settlements higher on the Mississippi, and the province of Canada, confined within its natural boundaries, the four great lakes; or if, instead of Canada, she had wished to possess a sugar-island, in addition to her plantations in Hispaniola, Martinico or Guadaloupe might have been indulged to her, without the liberty of erecting fortifications. A suspension of the blow hanging over the remaining dominions of Spain in the West Indies, with the provincial restitution of the Philippines, was all that she could reasonably have demanded.

By such an equitable treaty of peace, the haughty family of Bourbon would have been effectually humbled and held in awe, and the sinews of their naval strength so completely cut, as to prevent them from again becoming formidable by sea. By such a peace, England, without farther acquisitions, would have established, beyond the possibility of dispute, that dominion which she has long claimed over the empire of the waves; and have established it for ever, by building it upon the keels of a rich and extensive commerce, which the unrivalled command of the ocean, and the produce of the principal islands in the West Indies, would have rendered perpetual..

The apparent cause why so glorious an opportunity of humbling our ambitious enemies was neglected has already been assigned:-"the INFLUENCE

of tory counsels!" alike discernible, whether we regard the inadequate treaty of peace, or the premature termination of the war. The fatal effects of those counsels and of that influence I shall have farther occasion to show, in describing the convulsions and the dismembering of the British empire; subjects less pleasing to Englishmen, but not less interesting, than its struggles in advancing towards aggrandizement. In the mean time, I must carry forward the progress of society, to this grand era in the HISTORY of MODERN EUROPE.

LETTER XXXVI.

The Progress of Society in Europe during the present Century.

I HAVE brought down, in a former letter, the progress of society to the close of the last century. And if we look back on the history of the present, and compare it, as far as it had advanced, with the annals of modern Europe during any preceding period of the same extent, we shall find much cause to congratulate mankind on the improvements in the social system; which have, with a happy conformity, at once diminished the miseries and multiplied the enjoyments of human life.

If enlightened reason, after ascertaining the interests of nations and the rights of individuals, has not been able wholly to restrain the ambition of princes, it has at least introduced into the operations of war a spirit of generosity and fellow-feeling unknown to our ferocious forefathers. Persecution has ceased to kindle the fagot for the trial of orthodoxy, or to water the earth with the blood of the unbelievers; and the peaceful citizen has seldom been disturbed in his industrious pursuits, or ingenious labours, by the ravages of intestine war.

If the most exact regulations of police have not hitherto proved altogether effectual to suppress private violence, or the strict execution of justice to banish fraud from the transactions of men, both have been rendered less frequent. Property is become more secure. The comforts and conveniences of life are more equally enjoyed. Pestilence and famine are kept at a distance. Asylums are every where provided for poverty, and hospitals for disease. Private festivities are enlivened by public entertainments. The pleasures of sense, refined by delicacy, are heightened by those of imagination and sentiment; while taste, in contemplating the beauties of nature and art, may be said to open new sources of satisfaction to the soul, and to offer new delights to the heart.

And if there are some speculative visionaries, under the name of philosophers, who represent Man as more happy in the savage state than when furnished with all those social enjoyments and elegant delights, their arguments are too futile to deserve a serious answer: and it would be but a just punishment for their impertinence, to shut them out from the pale of polished life, and condemn them to reside among those barbarians, whose manners they affect, and whose condition they pretend to admire.

In support of this representation, my dear Philip, I shall exhibit to your view some leading circumstances, which could not readily enter into the general narration.

Russia, altogether rude and barbarous at the beginning of the present century, has made rapid advances towards civilization. It has experienced the most sudden and fortunate change of any country of the same extent in the history of human affairs. But that change, as I have had occasion to remark,(1) has not been attended with such beneficial consequences as might have been wished to the body of the people, whom Peter I. found and left in a state of slavery. And notwithstanding the more generous policy of Catha

(1) Letter XXV.

rine II., who endeavours to revive a spirit of liberty among the lower classes, and extends encouragement and protection to her subjects of all degrees, the liberal and ingenious arts of Russia have been hitherto cultivated chiefly by foreigners; or by such natives as have been initiated in them abroad, and with whom they die. They are still in some measure exotics in that great and flourishing empire; not, as Raynal insinuates, on account of the coldness of the climate, but because the mental soil is not yet sufficiently prepared for their reception. The influence of example, however, daily extends itself; and the general progress of improvement is even now very considerable. Many of the Russian nobility and gentry have acquired a relish for polite literature, and are not only exempt from barbarism, but distinguished by humanity to their vassals, by polished manners, and elegant conversation. The citizens have tasted the sweets of industry, and prosecute successfully the mechanical arts. Many valuable cultures, both for trade and consumption, have been lately introduced. And Russia, which has already produced generals and statesmen, will soon, it may be presumed, give birth to poets, painters, historians, and philosophers; who collect in their train the whole circle of the arts, sciences, and amusements; and, alleviating the inconveniences of life by its enjoyments, perfect the system of social happiness.

Of the progress of improvement in Poland, where, besides other adverse circumstances, the feudal aristocracy still reigns in all its austerity-where the king is a shadow, the people slaves, and the nobles tyrants, little can be said. Sweden and Denmark have declined in their consequence, as kingdoms; but the sons of the North do not seem to be less happy, though they appear to have lost, with their political freedom, their ancient spirit of liberty and independence. They enjoy more equally the means of a comfortable subsistence. Manufactures, commerce, and agriculture have made considerable progress among them; and we may lay it down as a general maxim, which will admit of few exceptions, that every people, taken collectively, are happy in proportion to their industry, unless their condition is altogether servile. Nor are these countries without their men of genius and science. Sweden, in her Linnæus, who has arranged the animal and vegetable systems, and discriminated the genera and species of each, with all the accuracy of Aristotle, boasts the honour of having given birth to the most profound naturalist in modern times.

Germany, during the period under review, has perhaps undergone less change than any other country of equal extent, notwithstanding the frequent wars by which it has been shaken. These wars, by keeping up the ancient military habits, and the little intercourse the body of the people have with strangers, in time of peace, by reason of their inland situation, have preserved the general manners nearly the same as at the close of the last century; and the constitution of the empire has varied little since the peace of Westphalia. But agriculture, manufactures, and the mechanical arts have, in the course of the present century, made great progress in many parts of Germany; especially in the dominions of his Prussian majesty. There the sciences and the polite arts also have flourished, under the protection of the illustrious Frederick, at once the model of all that is elegant in letters or great in arms; the hero, statesman, historian, and philosopher. He has collected around him learned and ingenious men of all countries, whose liberal researches have been directed to the most valuable ends. And the generous spirit of the prince who at present fills the imperial throne, leaves us no room to doubt but the court of Vienna, long distinguished by its magnificence, will soon be as polished and enlightened as that of Berlin, of London, or Versailles. The German tongue is already adorned with works of imagination and sen timent, and the writings of Gesner, Klopstock, and other men of genius have been translated into most modern languages.

The Swiss, so much distinguished by their love of liberty and of their country, and so long accustomed to sell their blood to the different powers of Europe, as other nations do the produce of their soil, have fertilized with culture their barren mountains, and acquired a knowledge of the necessary arts;

and now, instead of hiring themselves as soldiers to ambitious princes, pour forth their surplus of population upon more wealthy states in useful artificers and industrious manufacturers, and preserve at home their plain and simple manners, with their ancient independence and military character. Happy without wealth, they are strangers to luxury. Domestic duties among them supply the place of public amusements, and public virtue conceals the defects in the form of government.(1)

The Swiss are still in possession of all the patriotic qualities that gave birth to their republic: while the Dutch, formerly no less zealous in the cause of freedom, who acquired its full establishment by greater and more vigorous efforts, and exhibited to mankind for a century the most perfect picture of a flourishing commonwealth, are now become degenerate and base; dead to all sense of a public interest, and to every generous sentiment of the soul. The lust of gain has extinguished among them the spirit of patriotism, the love of glory, the feelings of humanity, and even the sense of shame. A total want of principle prevails in Holland. Riches, which the stupid possessors want taste to convert to any pleasurable use, are equivalent, in the opinion of a Dutchman, to all the talents of the mind, and all the virtues of the heart. Avarice is the only passion, and wealth the only merit in the United Provinces. In such a state, a sordid and selfish happiness may be found, like that which the miser enjoys in contemplating his hoard, or the glutton his meal; but there the liberal arts cannot thrive, and elegant manners are not there to be expected.

Italy has acquired new lustre in the present century from the splendid courts of Turin and Naples, where arts and literature have been encouraged. If painting and architecture have continued to decline, music and poetry have greatly flourished in this classical country. Metastasio, perhaps inferior to none of her modern bards, has perfected her serious musical drama. This drama, distinguished from the old Italian opera, and from the mask, by rejecting marvellous incidents and allegorical personages, is certainly the finest vehicle for music that ever was invented; as the airs are all sung by real actors, strongly agitated by the passions they express: whereas the chorus in the Greek tragedies, so much celebrated for its musical effects, was sung only by cool observers.

But the Italian opera, even in its most perfect state, has been represented as unnatural, as well as fantastical, though, I think, very unjustly. All our fine old ballads, which so exquisitely paint the tender passions, are supposed to be sung by persons under the immediate influence of those passions; and if the stage is allowed to be a picture of life, there can be nothing unnatural in an actor's imitating on it what is believed to have happened in the great theatre of the world. In order, however, to do as little violence as possible to probability, Metastasio has contrived to throw chiefly into airs or odes, those parts of his musical tragedies, that would otherwise evaporate in soliloquy, in fond complainings, or in frantic ravings. The lyric measure is admirably adapted to the language of passion; and surely that mind must be very unmusical, which would prefer simple articulation to such enchanting melody, as generally communicates to the heart the soul-dissolving airs of Metastasio.

The state of society in Spain has been greatly improved under the princes of the house of Bourbon. The ladies are no longer excluded from company by an illiberal jealousy. The intercourse of the sexes becomes every day more general and easy. A taste for agriculture, for arts, manufactures, letters, and even a passion for arms and enterprise, has been revived among the Spaniards.

A similar taste is said to have extended itself to the neighbouring kingdom of Portugal, since the expulsion of the jesuits. If this taste should ripen

(1) The most striking feature in the political character of the people of Switzerland is that fraternal harmony which has so long subsisted, not only between the inhabitants of the several cantons, which are independent of each other, governed by different laws, and profess different religions, but between the citizens of different religions in the same canton.