when these two conditions are compared, none but madmen would chufe the latter.

THAT it is the real intereft of princes to preferve their dominions in peace, cannot be doubted and it is, if rightly confidered, not lefs their true glory.

CAN a prince obtain more substantial glory than by preferving, as much as in him lies, the lives of his people, and rendering them as eafy and happy as poffible? Or can he more justly merit the greateft reproach and infamy, (I had like to have faid punishment alfo) than for destroying or making miferable multitudes of those who are put under his care and protection?

A CERTAIN truth it is, tho' a melancholy one, that few princes have attained, or indeed at all fought after, this real glory of being the prefervers of their people; but that great numbers of them have richly deserved the reproach and infamy of being their deftroyers. Among the very few who have fo well deferyed of their fubjects, and indeed it may be faid of mankind in general, two inftances fhall be here given, one ancient and the other modern:

THE ancient example is that of Hiero king of Syracufe, who, tho' not a great king, refpecting his conquefts, or the extent of his dominions, which was only about half the

island of Sicily, yet well merited that title by his wisdom and conduct. The author from whom this prince's character is taken, having bestowed great praise upon him for maintaining his alliance with the Romans for near fifty years, till his death, with the utmost fidelity and honour; and particularly after the fatal battle of Canna, when that people were in apparent danger of ruin, and deferted by almost all their allies: my author, I fay, having given him great praise on this account, proceeds as follows:

Quand il (Hieron) fut parvenu, &c. When Hiero became poffeffed of the fovereign power, his chief defire was to let his fubjects fee that he thought himself placed on the throne only to render them happy. He endeavoured not to make himself feared, but beloved. He looked upon himself much less as their master, than as their protector and father.

ONE of his principal cares was to preferve and increase the natural fertility of the country, and cause agriculture to be esteemed an honourable employment. He might have entered into war, gained battles, made conquests, and enlarged his dominions; for he wanted not courage, of which he gave mani

feft

M. Rollin, in his Hiftoire Romaine, T. V, 1. 16. P. 273. et feq.

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feft proofs before he afcended the throne. If he had engaged in thefe foolish and ambitious projects, and fucceeded, as, many circumftances being much in his favour, he very probably might, then in the opinion of moft men he had paffed for a hero. But with what heavy taxes muft he have loaded his people? How many husbandmen must he have forced from their lands? How much blood would have been spilled to obtain these victories? And what advantage would they have been to the ftate? Hiero, who knew in what folid glory confifted, placed his in wifely governing the people under his charge, and making them happy. Instead of seeking by force of arms to conquer new countries, he endeavoured to increase the number of his

fubjects by peace and plenty, which he secured them the poffeffion of.

WHEN Syracufe, through the wife conduct of Hiero, was feen to enjoy this happy tranquillity, whilft Africa, Italy, and evena part of Sicily itself, and all the countries around his dominions, were distreffed by a violent and cruel war, who could withhold from faying with admiration, Happy the people thus conducted by a wife king! and more happy ftill the king, who seeks the welfare of his people, and places his felicity in doing his duty! Suppofe, on the contrary,

this fame Hiero, after feveral campaigns, entering victorious into his capital, amidst the acclamations of the public; but finding at his return the people unhappy, exhausted by taxes, reduced to extreme poverty; the lands for the most part uncultivated, and some even deferted if he had any remains of humanity, could he take the leaft fatisfaction in a glory that had coft his people fo dear, and not deteft laurels ftained by the tears and the blood of his fubjects? Such is, in part, the character given of Hiero by M. Rollin, and fuch are his obfervations upon it.

THE worthy author feems to have been so delighted with the character of this prince, which is indeed moft amiable, that he has drawn it at full length: the above is but a fhort extract. The reader cannot fail of being much pleased, if he peruses the whole in the original, where it takes up, including Mr. Rollin's judicious obfervations, about ten pages. In the mean time it may be proper to add, that Hiero lived to upwards of ninety years of age, and reigned fifty-four years; and that towards the latter part of his life he defigned to have restored the Syracufians to their liberty, that their ruin, which he forefaw they were in danger of from the government of a young king, might be prevented: but failing in this excellent intention, what

he apprehended came to pafs; for the ill con duct of his fucceffor occafioned the deftruction of this kingdom.

THE modern inftance of a prince, who merited true and folid glory for preferving peace in his dominions, and doing all the good he poffibly could to his subjects, shall be taken from Voltaire's Siecle de Louis XIV, and, as it is not long, in his own words, but fomewhat abridged: Il eft à fouhaiter, que la derniére pofterité apprenne, qu'un de plus petits. fouverains de l'Europe (fays this author, fpeaking of Leopold duke of Lorraine) a été celui qui a fait le plus de bien à fon peuple. Il trouva la Lorraine désolée & déferte: il la repeupla, il l'enrichit. Il la confervée toûjours en paix, pendant que le refte de l'Europe a été ravagé par la guerre. Il a eû la prudence d'être toujours bien avec la France, & d'être aimé dans l'empire. *** Il a procuré à fes peuples › l'abondance, qu'ils ne connoiffaient plus. Sa noblesse, réduite à la derniére mifére, a été mife dans l'opulence par fes feuls bienfaits. Voiaitil la maifon d'un gentil-homme en ruine, il la faifait rebater à fes depens: il paiat leur dettes; il mariait leurs filles; il prodiguat de préfens, avec cet art de donner, qui est encor audeffus des bienfaits; il mettait dans fes dons la: magnificence d'un prince & la politeffe d'un

q Tom. I. p. 307, 308.

ami.

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