throne of empire; no doubt the faction of the Stewart family would have been little sparing of their abufe. But the trampling on that generous fyftem of equal liberty adopted and almost established by the republicans, with the triumph gained over thofe illuftrious patriots, very fufficiently reconciles his conduct and fortune to the prejudices of royalifts; prejudices which the ignorance of the times has rendered almoft univerfal, and, even in patriot characters, confined that averfion to tyranny which ought to be general to the averfion of tyranny in the elder branches of the Stewart family.

• The hyperbolical praises beftowed by his partizans on the unhappy Charles, have been fully refuted by feveral pens; but the yet more exalted commendations lavifhed on his fortunate fucceffor Cromwell, have, from an odd concurrence of circumftances, met with little contradiction. Did facts allow us to give credit to the exaggerations of panegyrifts, the power and reputation which Eugland acquired by the magnanimous government of the republican parliament entirely flowed from the unparalleled genius and virtue of the hero Cromwell: Cromwell imprinted throughout all Europe a terror of the English name: Cromwell was the conqueror of the Dutch; he retrieved the honour of his country in the business of Amboyna, and prescribed a peace to that infolent republic on his own terms: Cromwell was the fcourge of the pyratical states; the fcourge of the house of Auftria: every court in Europe trembled at his nod: he was the umpire of the North, the fupport of the reformed religion, and the friend and patron of that warlike Proteftant monarch the king of Sweden. In regard to his domestic government, Cromwell was ever ready to attend to complaints and redrefs grievances: Cromwell adminiftered the public affairs with frugality; filled Weftminster-Hall with judges of learning and integrity; obferved the strictest difcipline in his army; was the fupport of religious liberty, and a benefactor to the learned: under the adminiftration of Cromwell, every branch of trade flourished : in his court a face of religion was preferved, without the appearance of pomp, or needlefs magnificence: he was fimple in his way of living, and eafy and modeft in his deportment.

Falfe as is this reprefentation to the true character of the ufurper, it has been adopted by that party among us who call themfelves whigs, as a mortifying contrait to the principles, adminiftration, and conduct of the Stewart line; and the royalifts of all denominations are well pleafed to give to the government of an individual a reputation which was a one due to the republic, and to conceal from the multitude the truth of facts which must discover to vulgar obfervation that eternal oppofition to the general good of fociety which exits in the one, with the contrary fpirit which fo evidently fhone forth in the other. Hiftorians, either from prejudice or want of attention, have in general given into thefe illfounded encomiums fo prodigally beflowed on the ufurper; but a juft narration of the tranfactions of thofe times, fhews that it was under the government of the parliament the nation gained all its real advantages, and that the maritime power they had raised and fupported, with the skill and bravery of the commanders they had placed over the naval force, was the fole means by which Cromwell Tupported the reputation of his government.'

To this hiftory, Mrs. Macaulay has fubjoined a Differtation on the Political State of England, in which the endeavours to VOL. XXXI. April, 1771.

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represent the adminiftration of the parliament as the moft aufpicious both to the civil liberty and morals of the people. We have already fuggefted our doubts concerning the stability of public freedom under that democratical government; and the author muft excufe us, when we give it as our opinion, that the morality of the nation, if an external aufterity of manners deferves fuch a name, was owing more to the puritanical genius of the times than the influence of the legif

lature.

It was, fays fhe, juft after the battle of Worcester that the nation was arrived at the meridian of its glory and the crisis of its fate all iniquitous diftinction, all oppofition to the powers of de mocracy, were totally annihilated and fubdued; the government of the country was in the hands of illuftrious patriots, and wife legiflators; the glory, the welfare, the true intereft of the empire was their only care; the public money was no longer lavished on the worthless dependants of a court; no taxes were levied on the people but what were neceffary to effect the purposes of the greatest national good; and fuch was the economy of the parliament, that at this time, whilst they kept a fuperior naval force to any which the preceding fovereigns had maintained, with a land-army of eighty thousand men, partly militia and partly regulars, the public affeffments in Scotland, Ireland, and England did not exceed one million a year.

A government thus carried on on the true principles of public intereft, with the advantages peculiar to the island of GreatBritain, could not but be formidable to foreign ftates. They felt the prefent ftrength, and trembled at the growing power of England, which bid fair to be the second miftrefs of the world. The great fuccefs of the parliament's arms, with the other happy effects of their government, had to appearance totally fubdued domeftic oppofition. The rage of party had in a great measure fubfided, and the jarring factions were calmed into fo general an obedience, that the king of Scots, when he invaded England, was joined by a very inconfiderable number, either of the Cavaliers or Prefbyterians, whilft the parliament was with alacrity affifted by the whole force of the nation.

Such being the promising aspect of the times, it is not fur prifing that the commonwealth's-men fhould imagine that a people who had tafted the fweets of liberty, the benefit of equal laws, the numberless advantages of juft government, after being harraffed for fo many years with the oppreffions of king, nobles, and churchmen, would never again willingly return to their old state of vaffalage; but as the true love of liberty is founded in virtue, the parliament were indefatigable in their endeavours to reform to a ftate of poffible perfection the manners of the people. They have been ridiculed for a precifenefs in this article; but the defign was certainly laudable, and, during their thort reign, attended with the happieft effects; effects which would have fubifted to this day, if they had had fufficient caution to have balanced the power of Cromwell with an equal military command in the hands of the brave and honeft Ludlow, till time and opportunity had enabled them totally to destroy an influence, which, from the first establishment of the commonwealth, had threatened its existence.-. From

From this ftate of mifery and corruption, into which it was again fallen, England had a pleafing profpect of deliverance, by the death of the ufurper and the reftoration of the power of the parliament; but Cromwell's reign, though fhort, was fufficiently long to make a perpetual entail of thofe evils his wicked ambition had occafioned; the corruption of the major part of the army, and the restless ambition of the military leaders, which had been highly excited by the fuccessful example of Cromwell, prevented the honeft endeavours of the parliament, to fettle the government on the true principles of juftice and equity, from taking any effect. The paffions of hope, defpair, fear, and revenge, affected the tranquility of the public, and rendered the defire of a fettlement on any terms general. This impatience of the people, united to the restless prejudices of the cavaliers, and the peevishness of the Prefbyterians, who, misled by interested leaders, obviously hazarded the entire ruin of the juft interests of their party, to revenge themselves on those who had prevented their putting into execution their fa vourite fyftem of religious defpotifm, produced that fhameful, that fingular inftance of facrificing all thofe principles of liberty and juftice which had been established by the fuccefsful contest of the people with the crown, of voluntarily giving up all the advantages which had been gained by a long and bloody war, of not only admitting an expelled family into the power of their ancestors without limitation or conditions, but in receiving as a favour, from a poor, forlorn, and exiled individual, thofe neceflary ftipulations for the general fecurity of the public, which, according to the lowest principle of freedom, ought to have been established by the authority of its reprefentatives.

Thus, in a fit of paffion and despair, the nation plunged them felves headlong into a state of hopeless fervitude; for every other revolution in government had been attended with the profpect of relief. Thus they proftituted the exalted honour and intereft of their country not only to be trampled on by domeftic foes, but expofed it to the scorn and derifion of foreign ftates; and thus the mighty efforts which had been made in their favour by their il luftrious countrymen were not only rendered ufelefs, but ferved to complete the triumph and exalt the powers of tyranny; a tyranny which, in its confequences, for a long time obfcured the luftre of the brighteft age that ever adorned the page of history. That ob fcurity is now, in fome measure, happily difpelled: time and experience have abated the violence, and confined to narrower compafs the generality, of those prejudices which prevailed after the reftoration. The praise due to the illuftrious champions of the public caufe, many of whom paid the tribute of their lives and properties for the fervices they endeavoured to render their country, is a theme of delight among the few enlightened citizens; nor are their memories, with inferior characters, fome weak bigots excepted, branded with the ungrateful, the harsh terms, of "the bloody, the impious regicides." The poet Cowley is no longer preferred to the fublime genius of Milton, in whofe comprehenfive powers were united the highest excellencies of poetry, the acuteness of rational logic, and the deep fagacity of politic science. The recovered sense and taste of the nation can see and acknowledge that the works of Nevil, Sydney, and Harrington, are performances which excel even the antient claffics on the fcience of policy. In the character of Andrew Marvel are allowed to be united in an exalted degree the wit, the patriot, and the legiflator; and the keen

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termines me in every future year to form fimilar ones, that the real value of fuch methods may be clearly known.

That our readers may judge better of the contraft, we shall next relate as many experiments of the new method. But here it will be neceffary to premise the author's introduction to that fection, in order to obviate the objections which might be raised against the juftness of the comparison.

Culture and Produce in the New Method.

The reader can scarcely expect that any experiments in this mode of fowing are upon as large a fcale as thofe of the preceding fection; my fortune would by no means allow me to venture fo far into the road of ideal husbandry; for as to experiments for my guide, never had I read one that was the leaft fatisfactory when I began my own trials, nor do I think they abound much at prefent. However, this feries of trials will prove much more useful in their accuracy, than the experience of a whole farm could poffibly allow. Large experiments are certainly very important; but if a man throws 30 or 40 or 100 acres at once into the drill culture, I will anfwer for it, whatever may be his fortune, that the method will not have that genuine and complete advantage neceflary for experiments that are to be laid before the publick. The object is too large, the number of hands neceffary (and dextrous ones) too great, and the conftant requifite attention too fatiguing. I can affure the reader, that I do not infert one experiment, however fmail, but is as clear in every particular, and in many more fo, than would iog acres be; and the conclufions to be drawn as applicable to common practice. It may be faid that there are variations in the foil, which do not come into the account of fo fmall a piece as a rood, or half acre. Allowing this may be the cafe, is it not the fame with the largest field? If the conclufion be clear from a trial of 20 acres, will it be attended with the fame confequences in another, although contiguous, 20 acres? In a well-cultivated country, fcarce a field is to be found that has its exact counterpart.

The foil exactly of the fame level, depth, and nature.

The expofition precifely the fame: an high hedge in one field may intercept a mildew coming with a wind; the other field da maged for want of it.

The preceding crops, tillage to each, manuring, &c. &c. &c. all to have been the fame, and performed at the fame time.

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Thefe circumftances, it is evident, might be infinitely multiplied; and it is equally plain, that the larger the experiment, the lef accurate it mult he and that for very obvious reafons. It is much easier to find 2 acres alike than 200: indeed 10 or 20 acres can fcarce ever be found the fame; fo that a large experiment may be conclufive for the land alone it is conducted on; which is just nothing, becaufe a change of year is another variation, and of the most important kind: nor is it poffible in large experiments for all the works to be performed at the fame time.

Suppofe a gentleman tells me, that in order to be particularly genuine he will reject all finall pieces of land, and try an experiment of feed or tillage, &c. &c. on 40 acres of barley all ready for fowing; he divides it into 10 pieces of 4 acres each, for fo many variations; now in this cafe he muft either have 10 teams, ploughs, harrows, &c. &c. and men equally skilful to all, or his trial will not be worth two pence: if he does a part at a time, letting 6 hours intervene between one field and another, a heavy shower of rain upon

the

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the fine climates of Greece, they fettled in fixed abodes; while yet their rude brethren to the North wandered after their cattle or game over the face of Europe. Improving their navigation by degrees, they failed to the Weft, feized upon the nearest coast of Italy, and moving into the heart of that country, met with the Umbri, and rofe into a mixed nation under the name of Latins. Extending their navigation still further into the Mediterranean, the Phoceans made an eftablishment on the coaft of Gaul; Maffilia was founded by those adventurers about the forty-fifth Olympiad, when the elder Tarquin is faid to have held the reins of government at Rome.

The improvements introduced by the Phoceans had a great and fudden effect upon the manners of the Gauls, Agriculture, before imperfectly understood, was profecuted with vigour and fuccefs. The means of fubfiftence being augmented, population increased of course; migrating expeditions were formed to ease the country of its number of inhabitants, and the regions of Europe being traversed rather than peopled by the Nomades, received fucceffive fwarms of Galic emigrants. Spain, Italy, Germany between the Rhine and the Baltic, and the British Ifles were filled with colonies from Gaul, in whom the old inhabitants, if they differed originally from the Gaël, were loft. This revolution in the North of Europe extended to the greater part of its inhabitants the appellation of Celta, which is an adjective derived from Gaël, the aboriginal name of the inhabitants of ancient Gaul.

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Though the expeditions of the Gauls, fubsequent to the settlement of the Phoceans in their country, are the first mentioned in hiftory, we have reafon to believe that they pervaded Europe with their migrating armies in a more remote period of antiquity. They first entered Italy, according to Livy, in the reign of the elder Tarquin but other writers of good credit affirm that they were, in part, the ancestors of the vagabonds who fettled with Romulus on the banks of the Tiber. The Umbri, the most ancient inhabitants of Italy, were Gauls; and from the Umbri the Tufcans and Sabins, who were the founders of Rome, derive their origin. It is, upon the whole, evident that the Gaël who inhabited the vast country bounded by the ocean, the Rhine, the Alps, and Pyrenæan mountains, were the ancestors of the Celta, the extent of whose dominions we have already described.'

Mr. Macpherson obferves that, as the fpirit of conqueft declined in Gaul, in proportion to their domeftic improvements, it retired further among the people of the North, and excited a violent reflux of thofe barbarians into the country which their ancestors had forfaken.

This inundation of the German Celta is placed more than three centuries prior to the Chriftian æra, and was the origin of the Cimbri, who over-run all the regions lying between the Rhine and the Ionian fea, and who, after the Gaël, alío extended their conquefts to Spain and Great Britain, where the Welsh, fays he, retain, in their name, an undoubted mark of their Cimbric extraction. We are, by no means, inclined to difpute the truth of this observation, as we think it is clearly fupported by many collateral proofs; but we may observe,

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that