peated disappointments. Yet, in the present state of things in Germany, when the minds of men have been blunted by the daily renewed spectacle of triumphant crimes, wearied by calamities, and dejected by fears of the future,' he who would, with any hope of success, resist the formidable enemy, but cannot oppose in every respect the same powerful means which the other employs, must avoid even the appearance of an attempt to cope with him in the use of weapons to which the hand of political power can give much additional strength. If a conqueror, at the head of an army, descends to calumny and virulence in manifestoes and newspapers, the private individual, who attempts to defeat his purposes by exposing the falsehood of his assertions, ought to trust entirely to the sure effect of plain truth and moderation. We are, however, very far from insinuating that Baron G., in the work now under review, has substituted invectives for argument, or adopted the tone of a writer in the Moniteur; it is only occasionally that his expressions have a more personal application than, we think, is conducive to the effect which he wishes to produce.

In giving this Authentic Statement of the Relations between Great Britain and Spain, to the public, its author had principally two objects in view; 1st, to vindicate England against the allegations of bad faith and selfishness, which at the commencement of the war with Spain were made against her: and 2dly, to expose, in one very remarkable instance, the falsehood and vile intentions of the political articles in the French official journal. To make a fair representation of the facts that led to a rupture with Spain was highly meritorious on the continent; where, perhaps, never before prevailed so general and at first view so well founded an indignation at the conduct of the British ministry; which seized even the warmest friends of England, and which, when carefully nourished by the arts of French representation, made the treacheries of France appear the less dark by the side of the apparent faithlessness of her opponent. It is to be regretted that this statement of the real nature of the case appeared so late as the year 1806: but this delay has arisen from the difficulty of finding a publisher in Germany; for it was written in the beginning of the year 1805, but no German censor ventured to let it pass through the press, and its author disdained the idea of suffering it to steal into the world in the dark, like an anonymous libel.-The second object of this publication appears likewise highly important, when it is considered that almost all the political pe riodical publications of the continent have been, for a long time, under the controul of France, and copy the articles of the Moniteur, without venturing to add a single remark that

might lead to a fair appreciation of their merits. So important in M. GENTZ's estimation is that sort of newspaper warfare which the French government has now for years been carrying on, and in which a sovereign is himself an avowed writer of political articles, that he devotes fifty pages of his introduction to a digression on that subject; and they form not the least interesting or least useful part of the volume. He gives an historical account of the origin of this new practice; shews how the French revolution destroyed that desirable external complaisance which, till then, governments had almost always preserved towards each other; and marks the period at which the head of the French nation began, after having laid heavy fetters on the press in general, personally to make use, in the midst of peace, of weapons which formerly were regarded only as the resort of the weak against a powerful oppressor. These considerations lead to a vindication of the British government against the reproach of similar practices in ministerial papers; and the author endeavours to convince his countrymen that the articles in these papers are by no means to be compared to the official communications of the Moniteur, but must be viewed as merely private reports or opinions. After having commented on the matter and form of the French official journal, he adds:

• If this unnatural state of things, this dangerous mixture of power, this extreme abuse of literary licentiousness, engrafted on military force, a sovereign entering the lists with the writers of news. papers, a writer of a newspaper, before whom kings tremble ;-if this perverted and perverting system cannot be entirely annihilated, Europe cannot hope for peace. At present, when all is shaken and torn, when insecurity and confusion universally prevail, anxiety respecting the future is so great, that the heaviest and most pressing evil conceals from our view that which seems to be subordinate. But if a more fortunate constellation should arise, or the antient spirit and strength of so many nations, now humbled and degraded, shall once more be roused, and a way out of this labyrinth be discovered ;— should the dignity of states be re-established, and the balance of pow er restored; then let those, whom Providence may select to produce such a glorious regeneration, not forget that their work will remain incomplete, while a sovereign in Europe can with impunity be a writer of libels.'

The Statement of the Relations between Great Britain and Spain is an examination of, and reasoning on, the correspondence which was laid before parliament; and a translation of which, chronologically arranged, forms almost the second half of the volume. It is endeavoured to shew that, in every stage of the long and frequently intricate negociations which prece ded the rupture, the British government acted not only with

justice,

justice, but with great forbearance and moderation. Not in a single point does Baron G. admit that either of the administrations, which acted a part in those negotiations, gave reason for reproach; and he regrets that, even in the British senate, a doubt should have been expressed respecting the propriety of their conduct. The charge of temporizing he repels in their name by referring to the impossibility that any person, except the ministers themselves, could judge fairly on the propriety of submitting for a time to what would be a just ground of war; a principle which, if extended to its full length, would be little relished in this country. The seizure of the register ships, which was the principal cause of the cry against England, is defended with great skill; and we shall rejoice if all the readers of this publication should be as strongly convinced by the author's arguments, as he himself was, that not one of the many reproaches on that subject is found to be consistent when examined before an impartial tribunal.

To those who plead for Spain on the ground of compassion for her dependent situation, this able writer replies by the following general reasoning:

It is clear that it would be strange political philosophy to suffer Great Britain to be ruined because Spain is fallen. But the mistaken humanity of those who diffuse such a maxim deserves, wherever it is found, much severer criticism. In the misfortune of a state, those evils only can justly attract pity which unavoidably befall it; and those which arise from weakness of conduct must excite very different feelings. Contempt is not sufficient. It may in. deed be adequate to imbecility in private life: but when the imbecile man has the temerity to appear on that important scene on which every step affects the whole, and every step is decisive of the fate of nations, even to distant generations, he becomes as amenable to our hostility as the villain; and if, conscious of his weakness, he conducts the state to its ruin, he becomes the most execrable of human beings. That a state, in the situation of Spain, should immediately enter into a war against superior power, like that which the enervated policy of courts and the contemptible supineness of the age had thrown into the hands of France, nobody can expect: but when we see the sovereign of an antient and venerable monarchy, the head of a high minded people, the possessor of half a quarter of the globe and of all the treasures which it contains, draw his own shackles closer, and offer his hand to his oppressor,-when none of his motions remain free,-when the nod of a French agent is his supreme law, when before the omnipotence of the foreign lawgiver the last attributes of an independent government vanish,-shall we still speak of due regard? shall his ministers still be treated with tenderness? and was it fair that England should forego even the smallest advantage, because men like these did not possess the courage to set bounds to the ruin of their country?"

APP. REV. VOL. LII.

LI

M. DE

M. DE GENTZ is of opinion that a formal declaration of war, under the persent circumstances and relations of the nations of Europe, is an optional ceremony. not at all times either practicable or necessary; so that it should now be proved, not why such a declaration might have been omitted, but why, from the peculiar nature of the case, it ought to have been made. The charge brought both in this country and abroad, against the British ministers, that they had mixed hostilities with peaceable negotiations, is turned into a subject of approbation, and gives rise to these remarks:

It is an undoubted truth, the result of history, that the boundary which divides peace and war is the most abrupt among nations which are in the lowest state of civilization, and becomes smoother as they rise in refinement and as the science of politics advances more towards perfection. Among the nations of antiquity, peace and war were separated as it were by a brazen wall; and no idea could have been formed in Greece or Rome of a congress for peace, commenced under the din of arms, and continued for years within the view of bloody combats. The dawn of a more liberal intercourse between all the nations of Europe, in the middle ages, notwithstanding innumerable occasions for war, had already created a lenient and conciliating principle, and a more gentle transition from hostilities to reconciliation; for in the midst of contest, common maxims and manners, the prescriptions of a common religion, and the spirit of a common chivalry, invited the princes and heroes of those times to: an amicable approximation, and established a mutual understanding calculated to shorten hostile feelings, and to facilitate the return of peace. But to preserve, during the whole duration of hostilities, the prospect of accommodation, to place diplomatic negotiations constantly by the side of military operations, to arrange even these with an uninterrupted provident view to the interest of the state after. the restoration of tranquillity, in short, to melt peace and war together as far as this is possible, was left to the great perfection which the art of policy has acquired in modern times. By this ingenious union and interweaving of things apparently incompatible, war has, in a much higher degree than formerly, been subject to a regular calculation, less blind, less violent, and less hopeless; and whatever apprehension of injurious effects, in some points of view, this important invention may excite, yet on the whole it was undoubtedly one of the most extensive and powerful steps in the progress of general civilization. After it had been proved by experience that a negotiation for peace might begin in the midst of a war, without a previous suspension of hostilities, it could not escape the attention. of the rulers of nations, that negotiations arranged before the commencement of a war might also be continued notwithstanding hostile operations. The idea of beginning hostilities without breaking off mutual intercourse and communication, to commence a partial war only, and to use a first success merely to support pacification, this idea has not in the present case been applied for the first time;

and

and if it had originated with the British ministers, they would have no reason to be ashamed of their invention.'

The readiness with which the calumnies of the Moniteur were received and credited almost throughout Europe, and the eagerness with which political writers on the continent joined in painting English policy in the darkest colours, appear to this author to betray the spirit of the period; and to confirm the malancholy truth, that in times like the present, when a colossa! tyranny, embracing and penetrating every thing, crushes individuals as well as nations, fetters thoughts as well as motions, and is intent on destroying for ever all that is fair and just in opinion and sentiment, as it has destroyed it in resolution and in action,-that in such times of despair nothing can be gained by moderation and forbearance.'

We have thus furnished our readers with a view of the object and reasonings of M. GENTZ. Much scope might be taken in commenting on them, and the pour and the contre would often be urged by contending politicians. Our multifarious duty, however, calls us to other objects; and we must conclude the article by observing that in this work we every where perceive the man, who, far above common writers on politics, takes a comprehensive view of his subject, with which he is intimately acquainted; that he reasons on general and liberal principles; that he has acquired great diplomatic ingenuity; that he states his argument in a plain, simple, and, in general, a fair manner; and that, if his style cannot always bear the test of strict examination, it is free from the common though opposite faults of compositions of this nature, heaviness on the one hand, or affectation of elegance on the other.

ART, IX. Eschyli Dramata que supersunt, et deperditorum Fragmenta. Græcè et Latinè recensuit, et brevi annotatione illustravil, FRIDERICUS HENRICUS BOTHE, Magdeburgensis. 8vo. Lipsia. 1805.

ΤΗ

HIS work comprises, in the following order, the Greek life of schylus, and the paurav xaтdhoyos; the tragedies, with a Latin translation at the bottom of the page; the frag ments, also translated; short notes to the plays and fragments; a conspectus metricus, i. e. the metrical name of each verse; and a short Index Rerum. The whole is contained in one moderate octavo, the typography of which is executed with decent correctness, and some neatness, if allowance be made for a few fopperies, such as are common in German printing:-the fine paper copies are even handsome.

L12

M. BOTHE'S