THE

Gentleman's Magazine:

For JULY 1762.

An Enquiry into the Origin of the Defpotif

of the Oriental Governments; from a Work lately published on that Subject

abroad.

HIS work, which is fuppofed to have A been written by one Boulanger, has been burnt by the hangman in almost every country in Europe: The curiofity of the English reader, may however B be gratified without any offence either to religion or government; we thall, therefore, exhibit an epitome of this performance, of which no tranflation has yet appeared.

The monarchs of the Eaft have been always reprefented as the arbitrary fovereigns of the fate of those whom they govern and their fubjects as: flaves deftined from their birth to an abject vaffalage, equally mortifying and deplorable. In thefe countries, .there has been for a fucceffion of many ages, no other law than, the will of the fovereign, who has been regarded as a vifible God, in whofe prefence the reft of mankind fhrink into nothing, and before whom they ought to proftrate themfelves in filence.

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In thefe unhappy countries, mankind inplicitly kifs their chains; they adore their tyrant without any affu- E rance either of property or life; and without any knowledge of human nature, or any exertion of human rea.fon; they feem to have no virtue but fear, and what is ftill more aftoniding, they pufh vaffalage into heroifm; they are almoft infenfible to life and death, F and with a kind of religious imbecility, they blefs the ferocious caprice which fo frequently puts an end to their existence.

The more we reflect upon this picture of Aljatic, tyranny, the more we

wish to discover how mankind, who were born free, and are naturally enacefs, could totally forget all their moured and jealous of liberty to exrights and privileges, and caft away that ineftimable jewel, from which alone their existence derives its value; by what events, or from what motives, beings endowed with reafon, could either be constrained or feduced to become the mute inftruments, or the infenfible objects of the caprice of an individual of their fpecies, with whom every other individual is naturally in a state of equality; and why in fuch a climate as Afia, where religion has always preferved a great inHuence, mankind fhould, by a kind of common confent, have rejected the faireft, the greateft, the deareft gift of nature, and renounced the dignity which had been conferred upon them by their creator.

Some have imagined, that to ac count for this ftrange degradation of human nature, it is neceffary to look back into thofe ages when mankind were favage and rude, when they wandered about without any fettled habitation, and when the weak were fubjected to the ftrong, firft by fear, and afterwards by force. But fuch a revolution was lefs likely to happen in thefe favage ages than in any other: the value of liberty was then beft known, and moft fenfibly felt: It was then the only treafure they had, and what could induce them to throw it away? It is at this day the only treafure of the Americans; and, it is too manifeft to be denied, that the attachment of the Americans to it, is the only reafon why the thunders of the Europeans, by which they have been so often terrified, have not yet fubdued them.

In that vaft continent, there are no flaves but the Mexicans and Peruvians, who had loft their liberty before Cortez and Pizarro came among them: it

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is,

305

An Enquiry into the Origin of Oriental Defpotism.

is, therefore, equally contrary to rea-
fon and experience to fuppofs, that
many would tubmit to an individual
voluntarily and implicitly, while they
continued in a rude uncivilized ftare; A
and, it is still lets probable, tlist fuch
a fubmiffion in fuch a ftate, fhould be
brought about by force: By what me-
thod, or by what arms, can a man be
reduced to a state of lavish subjection,
who is free to run away, who has no
local attachment, but has been used to
wander from place to place, and ha-
ving nothing but his liberty to pie-
ferve, can for that reafon preferve it
without difficulty. “Thoù pursuest
the Seithians in vain," faid their ambas
fador to the Conqueror of the World.
"I defy thee to overtake them, for their
poverty will always be too nimble for
thy ftrength."

Some have fuppofed, that Defpotifin had its origin among reafonable and civilized people; that fome ambitious fpirits begun it by force, and continued it by terror,but he who should fit attempt to bring his fellow beings into fubjection, would among a civilized as well as among a favage people, arm the hand of every other individual againft him before the firit conquest he could raife no army, for an army is the consequence of one conquest at leaft already made.

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from fuch dependance and connection I fufpect fome aristocrafies have fince arifen; for an aristocrafy leems to be the natural effect of the parental power, qualified and rendered dependant up on fociety by the progress of families. But, I cannot conceive, how the parental authority can be the fourçe of a boundless and arbitrary power; or, how this authority, which acknowledges the law of nature, could produce Defpotifm, by which the law of nature is not acknowledged.

But there have been fome who fought the origin of Defpotifm in the natural difpofition which different people are fuppofed to have received from the climate in which they were born, which renders them more or less fenfible of the value of life, and more or lefs attentive to their interefts. We believe, upon the credit of hiftory, that Europe was always brave and jealous of its liberty; and that Afia bas been long abforbed in indolence and fervitude; and, it is not trange, that this difference of character, to conftant and uniform during a fucceffion of many ages, thould be imputed to D the difference of climate, as a caufe equally conftant, uniform, and lasting. But upon a careful review, it will ap pear very abfurd to fuppofe, that the nature of the foil, or the temperament of the air in Afa, should alone render its inhabitants flaves; this would be imputing to one fingle spring, which we pretend to know, all the effects of a

The domestic government of the fit age has also been confidered by many, as the principal origin of defpotifin. A father, fay they, the natural E head of a family, became intenfibly the defpotic king of it, and in proportion as that family extended, found himself the tyrant of a great people ; but even fuppofing that the parental power in the first age was abfolute, it must be granted, that children in their F turn came to be fathers, confequently lords of particular families, and would acquire the fame right which had been enjoyed by their common anceitor of prefiding each in his own dwelling. So that admitting the parental authority to be the first fource of Defpotifm, it would be fo far from forming thofe vaft focieties governed by one will, which are now diftinguished by the name of monarchies, that it would have produced only a number of little circles from different centers, independant of each other, and feparately go. verned upon the model indeed, but not by the law of the original circle. It is true, that their having a common fource might produce fome dependance and connection among them, and

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machine that must neceffarily have many other moving powers which we neglect to examine: but whatever effects the power of climate may produce upon the different inhabitants of the earth, it is certain that no physical influence can extinguish in the human heart, the natural fenfe of its dearest interefts; at least, if education and prejudice do not co-operate by impofing upon the intellectual debility of infancy, falfe principles with respect to our real intereft and true duty: every thing concurs to make a young Afiatic confider himself as a flave, and to be one; every thing concurs to convince an European that he is a rea fonable being; and the American, that he is free. Let us but make an exchange of principles, and we shall foon fee, independant of all virtue and "influence of climate, liberty in Afia; reafon in America; and flavery in Europe.

It is manifeft that the influence of climate does not produce freedom and Llavery,

An Enquiry into the Origin of Oriental Defpotifm.

Zor

be neceflary to investigate the causes of idolatry in the course of this examination, it will be found, that there is no falfe opinion, no prejudice, no ridiculous tradition or corrupt custom, which had not originally fome excellent truth for its bafis, or perhaps A some principle which does honour to human nature: It will alfo appear, that the principle caufe of this deviation, is an undue deference to the inftitutions of our forefathers, with out confidering the gradual corruption of them by time; an implicit venera tion of things without bringing them to the test of our own judgment, and a mistaken notion that we are following the laws and customs of our anceltors, when we follow only their phantom or ghost.

flavery, except it is combined with o-
ther causes; for Afia itself is of too
great an extent to be comprehended
in one climate, one zone, or one tem-
perature, and yet the inhabitants are
by fome fecret cause, subjugated to
the fame tyranny, as well in the North
as the South, the Eaft as the Weft:
There must therefore be in Afa, coun-
tries in which Defpotifm is not the ef-
fect of climate, but of the habit and
prejudices of its flaves; America also
produces the fame objection: It con-
tains two great defpotic ftates, fur-
rounded by free and vagrant nations ;
and it is the fame in Africa, where we B
fee a whimsical mixture of people who
are fubject both to great and petty ty-
rants, and of hords of barbarians, who
are continually wandering about from
defart to defart. The different ftate
of different nations, depends upon
their prejudices; and it is therefore
neceflary to trace thefe prejudices to
their origin to account for fuch dif-
ferences Y

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Delpotifm was established neither by confent nor force, it was a fatal, but almolt neceflary confequence of that fpecies of government which men adopted in very remote ages, when they took for their model the government of the universe, regulated by the fupreme being: A magnificent, but unhappy conception, which brought on univerfal idolatry and flavery, because a great number of fuppofitious principles, which it became neceffary to admit, were afterwards received as in- E conteftible truths; and because men as foon as they had loft fight of the \true motives of their conduct below, fought for others which were supernatural, and which not being adapted to the prefent ftate of things, produced first delusion, and then mifery.

There is fearce any part of the terra queous ball that we inhabit, which does not bear upon its furface fome moCnument of calamity, fome traces of defolation and ruin; with these tradition and hiftorv concur to convince us, that there.ws a time when the order of nature was interrupted, when the course of the fun and the planets was changed, when the earth was convulfed, when one region was defoJated by volcanos, and another by inundations, when not only rivers but feas fometimes overflowed, and were fometimes left dry, when in the midst of the distress and horror, which events like thefe could not fail to produce, men confidered themselves as the objects of hatred and of vengeance; when the bands of all fociety being broken, they wandered about as chance directed them over the ruins of a world, without fuccour, without fubfiftence, and without confolation: if they fled to the mountains, Fthe mountains crumbled under their feet; if to the plain, they were swept away by a deluge; and if they took fhelter in the dens and caverne of the rock, they were buried alive under its ruins. Let us confider what we should feel and think in fuch a fituation, and we shall know what was felt and tho't by thofe who were in it. If the fea fhould now overflow the land, if the earth fhould be torn by earthquakes, if we should be furrounded by rivers of fire from volcanoes, if vaft portions of the Continent should be torn from each H other, and great part of them buried in the fea, we thould certainly conclude that the day of retribution was commenced, & that the diffolution of nature was at hand; we should expect every mo

It is neceflary, first to examine how fociety was led to adopt so lofty and fublime an idea of government, then what was the form of government which in confequence of this idea they chofe and established; and, it will at G length appear, how a series of the most deplorable mifery has gradually proceeded from a plan which had happinefs for its object, and how mankind have been debased and degraded by the confequences of a principle which it was their honour to adopt.

The infeperable and unhappy connection, between Idolatry and Defpotim, encreases the horror which that execrable government ought to excite; and to account for Defpotism, it will

ment

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An Enquiry into the Origin of Oriental Defpotifm.

ment to fee the fanreme judge call the universe to his bur, and pronounce that awful and final decree which the wicked have always feared, and the juft have always expected. Such therefore were the fentiments of our forefathers, when they firit beheld the order of nature interrupted.

A very flight knowledge of the hu man heart will convince us, that in the times that immediately followed these awful phænomena, mankind was very religious, and from this fource, probably, proceeded the multitude of rigid and austere institutions, of which we find fo many traces in the hiftory of all nations famous for their antiquity. From this fource alfo proceeded thofe admirable regulations which we find established among the nations of antiquity, with refpect to agriculture, labour, industry, population, education, and whatever elfe is in. cluded in civil and domestic economy.

fupply their wants, having, before them the greatest and most awful object that can be conceived, the universe destroyed and restored, and having allo impreffed deeply on their minds thofe facred tenets which were infeparably connected with that ohA ject, they established a religion, of which the fundamental principles were unbounded gratitude to the Supreme Being, who had preferved them in the wreck of nature, and the defire of tranfmitting the knowledge of it to pofterity.

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To perpetuate the memory of the revolutions they had feen, they inftituted commemorative feafts, celebra ted with fuch particular rites as might warn all nations of the inftability of their condition, and apprite them of viciffitudes to come, by fymbolical Creprefentations of thofe that were paft. At these folemnities, the judgments with which God might one day visit the earth were inculcated, from those with which he had visited it already.

It was, without doubt, at this time, when mankind were reduced to a imall number, and preffed by the fame neceffities, that the first doinetic Jaws became the laws of fociety. As war forms generals and foldiers, and D as internal troubles and confation produce great orators, fo the extrem diftrefs and milery of mankind, and the urgency of their neceffites, produced the moft fimple and fagacious institutions, and all the primitive legiflations which have no other object than the good of maukind. In thefe critical moments men became wife and reasonable by their misfortunes, and were not the creatures of custom and hanit, as they probably were before, and have been fince; they were then rouzed, and compelled to think for themfelves, and to provide for their well-being by judicious and uteful inftitutions.

Thefe inftitutions feem to have been beft preferved among the Chiefe and Egyptians, who were let, by their reverence of them, to faut out foreigners from all their states, and were in a fituation beft adapted for the purpole. And it feems that the original legislation has been corrupted in other countries chiefly by wars and invafions, which, in their confequences, changed the face of the earth, and the fate of nations.

But, however this be, when the convulfions of nature were past, and what remained of mankind formed new focieties, reciprocally to affift each o ther to fupport their calamities, and

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Thefe commemorations at length produced the acherontic books, and y iniline oracles; but the people among whom thefe writings were found had no knowledge of their true origin, because they had been obfcured and corrupted.

The deicent of the Almighty, as the judge of nature, became a uni verfan doctrine, and was received with correspondent fentiments of venera. tion and awe; this idea was recalled by all the accidental phænomena of nature, and was the cause of all the trange and extravagant cuitoms which were at length practifed, without knowing why, at the appearance of a comet, or an eclipfe, or any other pha nomenon out of the common course of nature. As the original motive of fear on thefe occanons was forgotten, they imagined a variety of fable in its ftead; and when the fable did not perfectly coincide with the custom, they changed the cultom to make it coincide with the fable; and thus many inftitutions, which were at firft, and in themfelves, wife and religious, were corrupted into licentious, abfard, and idle vanities.

But the primitive religion, when it had, by the commemora ion of thefe awful events, inspired a kind of inH tructive terror, never failed to foothe the mind with the pleafing profpect of another life, in which the just should for ever enjoy abundant felicity and honour, and be no more expofed to

juder.

The Schemer's Project for the Increase of Honesty, &c. 303.

fpeak politics in a coffee-house, or nonienfe on a bench, or before a bench. No. 1

SUCH a quantity of abufe mult no

longer remain unanswered; it calls loudly for the pen of the Anfwerer, and will not be itill till I appease its venom, and oppofe its fcurrility: Do you ask if I am a Whig? I answer, No. Am I a Tory? I anfwer, No. Am I a Scotfman? Í anfwer, No. Ministerial? Ianfwer, No. Myfterious? No. All authors write to make it anfwer, fo do I.

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One whose name was Anfer once faved the capital of Rome, and I am more than Anfer, more abundant, more loquacious, and can folve more questions than Bacon's brafen head, or Quixote's enchanted oracle. Delphos was darkness to me, and the leaves of the Sybils a myfterious jargon.

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Gain and again, I fay, why are our ears and our eyes to be filled with fuch paltry trafh. Silence, thou bawling Monitor, haft thou not yet by thy long difinal periods compofed thyfelf and thy readers to eternal fleep? Mutt lafh fucceed lath, and criticism criticifm, and till thou art alive? I tell thee, thou Hobgoblin nurfe, my countrymen have nothing to fear, our ar mies are triumphant, our fleets victorious, and our fenators filled with wifdom and prudence.