portant fhare, and have even interwoven themselves in the very civil conftitution of every country that has made any confiderable advancement in civilifation and refinement. Subfcriptions, atteftations, written orders and declarations, gazettes, votes, journals, and other records; all these bear witness to the truth of this pofition, and declare the political confequence of letters in a language palpable to fenfe. A great interval has paffed between the times when private bargains were ratified by correfponding fhells, or other tallies; when a motion for war was approved by the rattling of armour, or rejected only by the murmurs of difcontent; and when unfortunate criminals were accufed, judged, condemned, and executed, all in the short space of even a few hours. The affairs of nations are now indeed fo complicated, that were the light of learning, by fome inconceivable power or accident, to be fuddenly and entirely extinguished, all things muft fall immediately into the most deplorable anarchy. What farther advances learning may make, and how far it may be incorporated with business of every kind by political forms, it is not easy to conjecture. That it will make farther advances; however, even in this way, will appear highly probable, when we reflect that nothing human is ftationary; that every fpirit, every art and fcience, is progreffive; and that all fublunary things have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

But it is not in this formal manner that the power of literature produces its most important effects, though in this manner it is mott clearly difplayed. It is by influencing opinion, by forming a concert of wills, and uniting the feparate force of individuals in the fame enterprifes and efforts, that learning triumphs over barbarity, and raises a throne which can never be overturned. For, whatever tides of paffion, whatever inundations of barbarifin, may overrun her empire for a time, they will fubfide at laft, and the fair face of nature and truth be restored; for one REASON illuminates the minds of all men, as one sUN enlightens all regions of the world.

Mankind depend for all that is comfortable, graceful, and great in life, upon their union. Individual men are weak and helplefs; but when they are united in the fame views, and bend their endeavours to the fame object, they become ftrong and irrefiftible. They overcome natural and moral evils. They change woods and deferts into fertile fields ; improve, by their labours, the very climates under which they live; repel, and even gain ground on, the ocean, or convert that apparent gulph of feparation into a medium af communication; break afunder the bands, and caft away

the

the cords, of tyrants;-they break them as with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's veffel.

INTERCOURSE OF MANKIND WITH ONE ANOTHER.

In the prefent period of extended and easy intercourse, the minds of men are more easily united in the fame defigns than ever they were at any former period. The formation of roads and canals, the establishment of pofts and ferries, the wide extenfion of commerce, and the general diffufion of knowledge; all these circumstances are so many nerves which unite civilifed nations, as it were, into one body; and every impreffion that is made on one member, vibrates, in fome degree, throughout the whole. Certain recent events fhew how quickly the fentiments of human nature pass from one nation to another; and how readily men, where there is a coincidence of judgment, are drawn into concord of inclination and of action. But not to expatiate on fo extenfive, as well as important a field, and to confine our views to our own country, who perceives not that the spirit of inquiry and of affociation is stronger than ever it was known to be in any former times of peace? New communities have arifen, whofe voice, though it fhould not be re-echoed in the Houfe of Commons, will be heard at least in every moment of public difficulty and danger. Thus the province of letters has become at once more extenfive and more important; more extenfive, because every writer, who is able to command attention, addreffes his fentiments to a wider, and indeed to a more attentive, theatre than was formerly known; more important, because it is more neceffary to manage the paffions of the people by enlightening their understandings; the only way in which a great and a free people either ought or can be governed.

In former times it was deemed fufficient for all the purpofes of government to keep a ftrict eye on the Houfe of Commons, and on the pulpits. In thofe times the grand means of union and affociation were perfonal intercourse, harangues, and converfation. A more fubtle, a more efficacious and lafting bond of conjunction among the people has been brought into ufe. The prefs has almoft fwallowed up the political confequence of the pulpit, and awes and controls even members of parliament and ministers of ftate. This band of union it is impoffible, while freedom remains, to break afunder. In this happy land, where liberty of thought, fpeech and action, is common to all, there are, and there should be, as many politicians as there are men. Though parliament fhould become as corrupt and fervile as the feraglio of an eastern defpot; though

priests

priefts fhould reprefent kings as the vicegerents of God, and the most cultivated geniufes of the age fhould become penfioners of the crown; yet liberty, by means of the prefs, would raise her voice, in lefs polifhed perhaps, but in bolder and more forcible accents, and thake with astonishment every combination against the rights of men, and the privileges of British fubjects. As the liberty of the prefs, therefore, is derived from, fo it re-acts upon, civil liberty; and thefe go hand in hand and support each other.

ADVANTAGES OF THE PRESS.

In thefe circumftances, whoever is defirous of promoting any measure for the good of the nation, or of preventing any fcheme that threatens it with mischief, naturally endeavours to collect and to unite the opinions of his fellowfubjects by appeals to their understanding through the medium of the prefs; and for this purpose he reasons with the public in print. Hence it happens that what he writes is read, and approved of too, by the circle of his political friends, but does not fo much, for the moft part, as come under the obfervation of his political adverfaries; for, in general, every one confines himself to that paper which 1peaks the language of his party. Thus, from the reluctance of periodical publications to admit what is against the principles by which they are diftinguished, on the one hand, and the averfion of most people to look in the face difagreeable and hoftile pofitions, whether true or false, on the other, it happens that, though there is a great deal of declamation, and a great deal of reading, on the oppofite fides of the fame queftion, it is never brought, on the ground of reafon, to an iffue. And, as men are apt to confider the fentiments of their own particular circles as the fentiments of the world at large (which is a very common, and fometimes a fatal fource of error), fo, in like manner, from the habit of indulging a particular turn of thinking, by perufing only fuch writings as tend to nourish and fupport it, we fall into a conceit that all the world, at least that all men of fenfe and candour, think as we do. On this suppofition even well-meaning men fometimes act to the detriment of their country. This, however, is not the fault of letters, but of thofe who use them; it is not any deficiency in the engine, but an error in thofe who wield it. And, as there is, agreeably to the foregoing obfervation, a progrefs in every fpirit, and in every art and fcience, it is not improbable that the day may come when fome daily paper may be established of greater compafs, as well as views, than any hitherto known among us; the editors of which, trufting that there is yet in the British empire fuch a thing

as

as a PUBLIC, and that there are thousands and ten thoufands of individuals unbiaffed by the prejudices of party, and uncontaminated by the fury of faction, fhall addrefs their own fentiments to the reafon and common fenfe of mankind; and invite all men, to whatever party or faction they may belong, to meet together, to confront each other, and converse and reafon on neutral ground, and on common principles; for the common principles of human nature are never fubverted in any human breaft. The ftill voice of reafon and confcience, even amidst the tumults of habitual prejudices, finds now and then a favourable moment of attention. The judge within, the genius, the reprefentative of all that is common to the nature of mankind, lies conftantly in wait for a fit opportunity of argument and expoftulation; and, though we chace him away, he will anon

return *.

UNIVERSAL LITERATURE.

The circumftance which, next to government, has the moft powerful effect on the condition of any fociety or ftate, is literature, comprehending philofophy, the polite arts, and religion. The advancement of fcience is the exaltation of human nature, and the enlargement of the empire of reafon; which, in its progrefs, corrects and foftens the empire of force, by inclining the minds of fubjects to pay a voluntary obedience to juft laws, and enabling and difpofing legiflators to impofe no other laws than fuch as are confiftent with the happiness and dignity of man. The progrefs and the viciffitudes of the philofophical fpirit, therefore, is not only an object of curious fpeculation, but really interesting in a more important view. Men converfant in philofophy are accuftomed to reflection; and they who are wont to think much learn to think justly. Philofophy raises the human mind above the common objects of ftrife and contention; it enables men to bring war to a fpeedy conclufion, by reducing its operations more and more to mechanical exactnefs, and thereby fubjecting them to calculation; it weighs the objects for which war is undertaken, and compares the advantages of peace and commerce with the difficulties and the dangers of conqueft; it checks the illufions of the untutored imagination, which invests the haughty oppreffor with the noble mien of the undaunted patriot; reprobates the boldest and most successful exploits of tyranny, and approves and admires the fainting efforts of unfortunate virtue; but it beftows the very highest praise on that prince or statesman who facrifices the

* Naturam expellas furca, tamen ufque recurret.

vulgar fame of a conquering hero to the enlarged views of a liberal politician, and to the duty of a humane and benevolent citizen.

As the fpirit of philofophy thus influences tafte in moral criticifm, fo it alfo influences tafte in what is called humane or polite literature; hiftory, poetry, hiftorical painting, novels, romances, and, in general, all works of imagination. These indeed derive their principal charm from fomething moral; from the reprefentations they contain of human nature, placed in various interefting fituations, which humanize the mind, by contemplating man under various forms; wear away thofe antipathies and prejudices which fet men at variance with one another; and, by the exercise of fympathy, produce habits of forbearance and indulgence towards all mankind.

INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE UPON RELIGION.

The progress of fcience has influenced even the spirit of religion, which has become mild and temperate, and begins to recover the divine fimplicity and benevolence which breathe throughout the writings of the evangelifts and apoftles.

On the whole, there is an action and re-action, a mutual fympathy and connection, between liberty and literature; and the advancement of these has happily given birth to that reafon and moderation, to that fpirit of inquiry, of calculation, of industry, and of humanity, which aufpiciously marks THE PRESENT TIMES.

APPLICATION OF THE PRESENT SPECULATION.

To trace the causes, the effects, and the incidental variations of this fpirit, with perfect candour and impartiality, is the general aim and end of the political fpeculation fubjoined to the ENGLISH REVIEW. If particular objects appear fometimes, to any of our readers, to engrofs more than a due fhare of our attention, it is at leaft no part of our defign.

GOVERNOR HASTINGS.

When the House of Commons fhall give their final decifion with regard to the merits or demerits of Mr. Haftings, we will enter at greater length on a queftion which involves the dignity of Great-Britain; her reputation on the continent, and her intereft in Afia. The late charges againft Mr. Haftings are the feparate fections of greater ones, which we have already reviewed; and the articles of impeachment deduced from them are fuch that no jury in England, except it had been chofen from St. Stephen's chapel, would have found adequate to merit cenfure, much

lefs