meet with any thing very desirable except Juncus Jacquini; and in the boggy fides of a little rivulet, in the very highest part of the mountain, a little Carex of great rarity, the juncifolia of Allion's Flora Pedemontana. This is certainly the fame fpecies as Lightfoot's C. incurva, though on the Alps, its ftem is feldom curved. I have it alfo from Iceland. Juncus triglimis grew along with it, and in other parts of the hill Carex fætida of Allioni, and C. atı ata, with Antirrhinum multicaule.

Before the poft-house are some remarkable white limestone rocks, on which grow Dianthus virgineus, and the real Feftuca Spadicea (fee Tranf. of Linn. Soc. vol. i. p. 111.) Below these rocks by the lake I gathered the most beautiful Gentiana afclepiadea, and in the furrounding pastures Agroftema Flos Jovis, Senecio Doronicum, After alpinus, Centaurea uniflora, Arnica montana, and the Rumex arifolius of Linnæus's Supplement, which laft is, I prefume, more certainly a native of the Alps than of Abyffinia. Immediately before the hofpital is great plenty of Rumex Alpinus, and a little farther on I joyfully waded up to my knees in a swamp to gather Swertia perennis. All the plain abounds with the beautiful, Dianthus alpinus, the leaves of which differ fo much in narrowness and fharpness from the Auftrian one, that I have fometimes fufpected them to be diftinct species. Nothing however is more common on Mount Cenis than Dryas octopetala, forming thick tufts many feet in breadth, covered with its elegant flowers and feathery heads of feeds. On this elaftic alpine couch we frequently repofed when tired with walking, and the delicious temperature of the air made any fhelter perfectly indifferent.

Such are a part of the botanical riches of this interesting mountain, not to mention numerous fpecies of Arenaria, Silene, Archillæa, Aftragalus, Juncus, and grafies of various kinds. Of all thefe treafures I laid in as large a ftock as I could well bring away, multiplying my own enjoyments in the anticipation of the pleasure I should have in fupplying my friends at home. The selfish dealer in myfteries and fecrets, the hoarder of unique fpecimens, knows nothing of the best pleasures of science.'

But we must leave the Alps to attend our traveller to Ge

neva.

The first thing I heard here was every body in the streets finging airs out of Rouffeau's Devin de Village, which is often acted here; and his portrait, with various honorary devices, is to be found in every house and fhop. What do we learn from hence? That the more public opinion is mifled for a time, and made the tool of unjust perfecution; it afterwards, with the more violence, takes a contrary bent, when once it finds itself the dupe of designing villainy or bigotry; especially as cruelty is the most deteftable of vices, all focial crimes being black in proportion as they partake of it.

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And

And as power combined with cruelty is the moft odious form in which human nature in fociety can appear, whoever fuffers from its malignity, naturally obtains our pity and indulgence, and we exaggerate all his merits. Hence fome characters acquire celebrity with very weak pretenfions; and hence even the beft perhaps have often providentially derived a fplendour and authority which human virtue and wifdom are in themfelves feldom unmixed or exalted enough to deferve, and ftill more feldom confpicuous enough to the "fwinifh multitude" to obtain. Let it be remembered, therefore, by all whom it may concern, that difcuffion can never finally injure truth, nor perfecution root out error; that the way to ren der a people truly religious and truly loyal is to make them intelligent and happy; and the government which does this in the greatest perfection, whatever its form may be, need fear neither atheists, revolutionists, nor levellers; while all those which fail in thefe points, have fo far in themselves the feeds of their own destruction.'

A fuperior account of the celebrated tomb of madame Langhans' to that of Dr. Smith, vol. III. p. 176, may be found in Coxe's Switzerland. The following fiberal remarks deferve

attention:

I have always wondered at those who made the cafe of the French fo much our own, whether they thought our government wanted a reform, or not. It feems more peculiarly injudicious in the latter clafs to have done fo, as the neceffity for the French to amend their condition was undoubted, and we had long held them in contempt for not attemping it. Exclamations of danger toourfelves from their attempt (to long as they kept to their own affairs) implied, therefore, a confcious weaknefs and error at home. On the contrary, I believe fome of the first Englifhmen who exulted with manly opennefs at the beginning of the French revolution, never thought of any dangerous application here, till it had been made for them; and when that application was made, all the really turbulent and defigning fpirits were glad to fhelter themfelves under fuch refpectable banners, while the truly good and honeft bore all the odium, and their enemies gladly took advantage of it. A bellua multorum capitum, afwinifh multitude" of all ranks, is always ready at hand to be directed by one party or another, now against Catholics, now againft Diffenters, according as it may happen to fuit the politics of the day.

I conceive the public mind might have been with more certainty kept quiet from the beginning, by temperate intelligible publications, commending the zeal of our neighbours for liberty, and encouraging the hope that by their obtaining a rational government like ours, instead of the tyrannical and intriguing, one they had before, a lafting alliance might originate between us, without fear of thofe bloody wars, in which fo many human beings have been facuced,

facrificed, at the whim of a favourite or a courtezan, and without the bulk of either nation knowing why they were undertaken. If alarms had arisen at home, it might have been fuggefted that we had already gone through what the French wanted, a revolution in government and a reformation in religion; and whether we had reached perfection or not, prudence required waiting at leaft till our neighbour excelled us. When that vigorous flep was fet, of abolifhing all nobility, inftead of childish declamation and lamentations, it would have been more to the purpofe to have fhewn what the French nobility as a body really were, how infinitely numerous, how abfurdly privileged, how proud, idle, and diffipated; furely it was a great injuftice to our own nobility, who are legislators, or a determinate part of the government, to confound them with those of France Whatever the latter might have been originally, they had long loft all beneficial powers and privileges, for which the court had compenfated them, at the expence of the nation, by allowing them all manner of noxious ones, fuch as no manly rational people ought to bear. On this fubject I cannot refer to better authority than Mr. Arthur Young's Travels, to prove the mifchief of thefe privileges relative to the important article of agriculture.

As to the order of nobility, in itself abftractedly confidered, much may be faid for and against it. When it has no pernicious powers, independent of thofe great laws of a ftate, by which even fovereigns are bound, it has many advantages. It is an economical way of rewarding merit, and its very exiftence as a thing of value depends upon its not being made cheap. It is at its own peril too that it debafes itself by any means, and the main intereft of the whole order jointly and feparately confits in its members not difgracing their rank. I speak of nobility now as a thing whose fole value depends on opinion, as mere titles. When exemptions from law are connected with thefe, the cafe becomes different.

• Disputes about forms of government too are endless. Some are undoubtedly bad, as an abfolute monarchy; but that a limited one fhould, therefore, be bad, is very far from the truth. At first fight an hereditary monarchy of any kind appears ineligible, and, perhaps, fo much fo, that human reafon might never have contrived it. On this ground it has been cavilled at, and the cavillers answered over and over again; for it is a fufficient answer that this plan is found to be attended with fewer inconveniencies in practice, than many others more fpecious in appearance. Upon thefe fubjects thinking men may fpeculate, and their difcuffions be as free as air, that the world may profit, as it always muft, by the exercise of reafon. It ill becomes thofe who differ in opinion to defcend to the illiberality of fanatics, and call one another names. Neither is it adviseable for

them to force their experiments upon mankind. Rational beings should be guided by reafon. When a new government is recommended, or an old one defended, let the arguments be laid down

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plainly

plainly and fairly, void of all declamation, fatire, or wit. The one scheme is not to be tried because it is new, nor the other retained because it is old; but if the former be evidently much better than the exifting state of things, and, therefore, would compenfate for the great difficulty and trouble of a change, then alone could it deferve any attention; or if, on the contrary, the old establishment should appear to anfwer its purpofe well, or to be capable of amending itself, the hazard of fupplanting it by another is by no means ad-' vifeable.

A few plain fober confiderations of the above complexion, free from all political cant, fuperftition, party aggravations, and interefted deceptions, would, I am perfuaded, have kept old England perfectly fafe from the beginning, without having recourfe to dangerous palliatives, fuch as raifing a horror of innovation, and oppofing the rage of party against party, and sect against fect, which have so often been tried with fuch very bad and even fatal fuccefs. And well they may, for they are only making ufe of the follies of mankind. What a reproach is it upon our fpecies that we fo often addrefs ourfelves to thefe follies, rather than to our nobler faculties and principles !

I little thought I fhould ever have written fo much upon any political fubject; for the finall benefit I have always perceived to be derived to the wifdom, happiness, or honefty, of thofe who intereft themselves much in thefe matters, has rather deterred me from the ftudy of partial politics. The general great interefts of truth and humanity are, indeed, a worthy and exalting enquiry. Hiftory, as it ferves to develope thefe, is a noble ftudy; and a good man may in fome measure be indemnified for fullying his mind with the contemplation of court intrigues, and wearying his patience with the fquabbles of heroes, to learn why all his fellow creatures are not happy, and how they may have a chance of becoming fo, even in fpite of their own miftaken endeavours.'

At the end of the third and laft volume is given an Appendix, containing a catalogue raifonné of guide-books, and general works on Italy. Amid the latter, it might have been remarked, that Addifon's quotations from the claffics, in his Remarks on Italy, are borrowed from Alberti. The character of Mr. Young's agricultural travels in France, we shall transcribe, after reminding the reader, that a place is a sovereign receipt to convert a democrat into an aristocrat.

Full and intelligent upon every thing relative to agriculture, the profeffed object of the work. It is moreover one of the strongest publications in the English language against all forts of ariftocratic tyranny, and undue authority of every kind, being founded at every ftep, not on fpeculative theories, but on actual obfervation. We meet with peculiarly warm remarks of this kind.

"A grand

"A grand feigneur will at any time, and in any country, explain the reafon of improveable land being left wafte." p. 43.-Again, fpeaking of wars between France and England,

"What a fatire on the government of the two kingdoms, to permit in one the prejudices of manufactures and merchants, and in the other the infiduous policy of an ambitious court, to hurry the two nations for ever into wars that check all beneficial works, and spread ruin where private exertion was befied in deeds of profperity!" p. 47. This, indeed, is fomewhat paradoxical, as the "prejudices of manufacturers and merchants" are generally against wars.

"What have kings, and minifters, and parliaments, and ftates, to answer for their prejudices, feeing millions of hands that would be induftrious, idle and ftarving through the execrable maxims of defpotifm, or the equally deteftable prejudices of a feudal nobility !” p. 84. "The deftruction of rank" is faid (p. 151) "not to imply

ruin."

The author, though generally an enthufiaft for his plough, is fometimes in danger of becoming a cicifbeo. p. 204 and 208. He is every where entertaining, always inftructive in his own line, and Sometimes in other walks of knowledge.'

Good indexes, fo rare in works publifhed in Great Britain, are added: 1. an index of natural hiftory: 2. a general index. We need hardly repeat our opinion, that the work does honour to the author; and will ever be claffed among the most ufeful and entertaining books of travels.

Hiero; on the Condition of Royalty: a Converfation, from the Greek of Xenophon. By the Tranflator of Antoninus's Meditations. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Robinfons. 1793.

XE

ENEPHON, from the elegance and fweetnefs of his language, has been called the Attic Mufe, and the Bee of Greece. His character as a writer is fo well known, that we hold it unneceflary to attempt a delineation; and fhall leave the tranflator to introduce the prefent work to the public in his

own words.

Hiero, from whom this dialogue takes it name, was king or tyrant of Syracufe, the capital of Sicily, one of the moft towrithing republics, and most beautiful and magnificent cities of Greece. They had conferred the lovereign power on Gelon, the elder brother of Hiero, after his victory over the Carthaginians, which refcued them from the yoke of that tyrannical and fangainary republic. Hiftorians are divided about the real charaéter of Hiero, though their different opinions ma, easily, I think, be reconciled.

On his first acceffion to the throne, he was avaricious, haughty, vindictive, and cruel. And having not fuficient confidence in the

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affection