dwelling on circumftances of fmall importance. Such, in a great measure, is the trifling fubject of the prefent article. Works of this nature are below criticifm. The attempts to impofe on the public, however, by faying it is written by a gentleman well versed in modern agriculture, deferves the fevereft reprehenfion. A man of this defcription, who could write fuch a performance as the prefent, would well deferve a much higher degree of chaftifement than the feeble lash of our cenfure; as, in that cafe, he must have deliberately intended to mislead the ignorant.

ART. 40. Thoughts on the different Kinds of Food given to young Silkworms, and the Poffibility of their being brought to Perfection in the Climate of England; founded on Experiments made near the Metropolis. By S. Bertenen. 8vo. Is. Bew. London, 1789.

Mr. Bertenen is decidedly of opinion that filk-worms cannot be reared with profit on any other kind of food except the mulberry leaf alone; but this opinion is not fupported by any decifive experiments recorded in this effay. He is alfo firmly convinced that this delicate infect may be reared very well in the climate of England; and that the black mulberry is preferable to the white as a food for filkworms. Thefe two facts are fupported by experiments, which, though not carried the full length of demonstration, give great reafon to think he is well founded in this judgment. Many ufeful obfervations occur in this tract which thofe who are inclined to profecute the rearing of filkworms in Britain will do well to attend to. It contains, however, no more than useful hints, and not complete directions for rearing filkworms here; many particulars of great moment being entirely omitted.

HE French nation having not a law, are a law unto them

peaceable, fo moderate an anarchy. This is one of the features that will diftinguifh the character of the end of the eighteenth century. In all civil diffenfions and contefts, during times of rudeness and barbarity, an appeal is quickly made to force. In this enlightened period, the most refined nation in Europe ap5

peals

peals to reafon, to general expediency, to the great and immutable principles of truth and juftice. Though the fate of a few individuals, as that lately of the chief magiftrate of Troyes, is deeply to be lamented, yet the blood of those unfortunate men is no more than a drop of water in the ocean, compared with the carnage which, in other periods, conftantly accompanied and followed civil infurrections and revolutions. In the prefent inftance, a body of twelve hundred men difcufs the great and complicated affairs of the monarchy with fpirit, but with moderation; and while they are anxious to fix a civil conftitution, with all poffible dispatch, they are ambitious of conftructing a fabric that fhall be a monument, to future generations, of the virtue and wifdom of France. Men of different education, habits, and interefts, facrificing the efprit du corps to the public good, vie, in real patriotifm, with the ancient Romans. He to whom every eye is turned, and who from the eminence of his ftation contemplates, at one view, all the people; he who is the first in rank, is not the fecond in public spirit and patriotic virtue. The King of France does not, in reality, appear to indulge a wish that is incompatible with the happiness of his people. He is ready and defirous to furrender all of the royal prerogatives that are inconfiftent with the welfare and dignity of his fubjects; while he watches for the general intereft with paternal folicitude and wifdom. The people of France, in the course of the prefent commotions and deliberations, have had repeated proofs of the advantage of having a king, as well as a national affembly. The king and council have reminded the affembly, on many occafions, of particulars which they had overlooked, or concerning which they had been mifinformed. We fhall quote one, but a very important inftance.

It had been fettled by the States that there should be an abolition of tithes, and that reasonable stipends fhould be paid to the fecular clergy in money. Here, however, many unjust facrifices were to have been made of the rights of individuals, fubjects of France as well as others; while the public in general were to have gained nothing, and all the faving would have formed a partial acceffion to landed property. The king points out the inequality of fuch proceedings. He recommends a due regard to the claims of individuals, and that the furplus tithes, after the payment of minifters ftipends, fhall be applied for alleviating the public burthens of a people already too much oppreffed, to the exigencies of the ftate. If this be not, what is the language of genuine patriotifim? The king is not afraid to encounter, for the good of his people at large, the murmurs and difcontents that might be apprehended among the moft powerful and diftinguished clafs of his fubjects. The appropriation of the furplus tithes to the expences of government is no lofs or

injury to the nobility and gentry; and to the poor and indus trious part of the nation it will be a great benefit.

DIGRESSION.

Had fuch a furplus revenue as this fallen into the hands of fome other minifters, they would immediately have proposed to expend it in the conftruction of fortreffes, or in an annual finking-fund, or in any other way except in the reduction of taxes. Yet the reduction of oppreffive taxes, or, what is the fame thing, obviating new ones, is the wifeft as well as the most generous object on which it could be expended. To what point of elevation may not the people of France arrive under the foftering influence of liberty and moderate and equal taxation? Indeed, moderate and equal taxation is the natural fruit of liberty.

ENGLAND.

In England, though all ranks of people enjoy the most per-fect civil liberty, they have but little fhare in the legiflation, or in political liberty. Were the people more equally represented in parliament, means would be found, of fome kind or other, to restrain the propenfity of all minifters to the impofition of

taxes.

FRENCH AFFAIRS-TITHES-RESUMPTION OF BENEFICES.

It is probable that the National Affembly of France, having once tasted the sweets of ecclefiaftical reformation, will not cease with this good work; but proceed from the livings of the fecular, to the monafteries and territorial poffeffions of the regular clergy. Wherefore have they not taken these under their management at firft? Is it that the regular clergy are more reverenced by the people? Henry the Eighth of England was not afraid to attack the regulars within their most facred intrenchments. Indeed, it was the uncomplying aufterity of the regular clergy in England that proved their ruin. They oppofed the king's capricious and unjust divorces: the bishops, however, indulged him, and faved their mitres.

Though it would be cruel and unjuft to deprive any parish minifter, or even an idle dignitary of the church of a revenue, on the public faith of which he had been led to rest his whole dependence, it is neither inconfiftent with justice nor found policy, to let incumbents in cathedral churches, monafteries, and universities, to die out, and in this manner gradually to reannex their revenues to the ftate. It was, in fact, to the public fervice that a confiderable portion of them was originally appropriated. A king or other powerful chieftain made a vow to build and to endow a church, in cafe his arms fhould prove victorious over his enemies. His vow animated his troops, and futtained

8

fuftained his own courage. The prayers put up for him and his followers, elevating the monarch above the fear of death, rendered him brave and intrepid in the field of battle. The times of fuperftition are no more. A fmaller number, and in fomeinftances perhaps, a clergy lefs opulent, may be fufficient, in our days, for all the purposes of civil fociety. We do not call in queftion the importance of religious opinions; but religious opinions are little influenced, at least in the more northerly nations of Europe, by the circumstances of wealth and external magnificence. The fun of truth has arisen on the nations with healing under his wings. Under the benign influence of such a light there is no occafion for fo many footy lamps and waxen candles. We return from this digreffion to that great and luminous object that perpetually recalls and arrefts our attention.

FRANCE.

The progrefs of the National Affembly of France, in the great business in which they have been now for fome months engaged, has been uniformly favourable to liberty. They have made a formal declaration of the rights which mankind inherit, independently of political conftitutions, from the hand of God and nature; they have fixed the permanency of the legiative body by perpetual and uninterrupted fucceffion; while they have at the fame time limited the exiftence of the different legiflatures, or, as we ought to fay, the different and fucceffive parliaments of which this permanent legiflation is compofed, to the shortest period that is confiftent with the urgency of public business in such a country as France, and with the public fafety; they have refolved that the reprefentatives of the three different orders of the ftate fhall verify their powers, and fit, and vote, not in two or more, but in one affembly; and that the VETO, or royal negative, on the acts of the legislative body, shall not be final or abfolute, but only fufpenfive; that is to fay, if the States General shall infift on the ratification of any law within a given time, and under certain circumstances to be specified, the king must ratify it.

Thefe arrangements, particularly that refpecting the royal veto, seems, at first view, almost to annihilate the royal authority, and to convert the French government into a republic. There are some confiderations, however, which are to be thrown into the oppofite scale, and which fhew that the power of the French king is, or will be, yet very confiderable. His demefnes, revenues, and patronage, civil, military, and ecclefiaftical, will always give him a great influence in the ftate. And with refpect to his negative not being abfolute, but conditiona! and suspenfive only, this circumftance will in fact give him more actual,

though

though lefs nominal power than if it were decifive and final. The King of England poffeffes, according to the abstracted mo del of the conftitution, an abfolute veto; but when did any British sovereign, fince the revolution, think it adviseable to use it? But had this veto been only fufpenfive, it would have been ufed often, because it might have been ufed with fafety. We cannot fuppofe that any king or minifter of France will refufe his affent to any act framed by the legislature with perfect, or with very great unanimity. But if the parliament fhould be divided, and if contentions run high between the oppofite parties, can imagination itself conceive a fituation that may be more easily improved to the advancement of the royal authority? Court intrigues are not indeed greatly to be apprehended at the prefent crifis and from Lewis the Sixteenth; the fpirit of whose management is no other than my beloved people, I am ready to act as you pleafe; only let me entreat you maturely to con⚫ fider whether what you would have me to do be really for your advantage.' The French nation could not have a king more. fitted for the prefent occafion than the prince upon the throne; nor is it poffible to conceive that they fhould entertain the most diftant idea of fetting him afide, unless, like the Athenians, they should refolve entirely to abolish the regal power, and to proclaim that there is none worthy to be king of France but JuPITER. Thus far we have indulged, for the prefent, a defire to fpeculate on the fituation of France; a fubject that is inexhauftible, but we are reminded that our own space in this publication very limited.

is

THE OTHER NATIONS OF THE WORLD.

There has little occurred in the courfe of this month, after contemplating objects so new and fo grand, that will appear interesting. The flame of liberty continues to extend itself eaft ward into Switzerland and Germany. From feveral appearances it is probable that the emperor is defirous of a pacification with the Turks, and that a' negociation has been opened for this purpose.

樂

Communications for THE ENGLISH REVIEW are requested to be fent to Mr. MURRAY, No. 32, Fleet-ftreet, London; where Subfcribers for this Monthly Performance are refpectfully defired to give in their Names.