perors, poisoned with pride and voluptuousness, were now contented with swelling titles, inftead of folid fame. King of kings, and Husband of a thousand wives, were at the. head of a long catalogue of such pompous, but empty epithets. Corrupted by flattery, they affected divine honours, and appeared rarely in public; leaving the care of their dominions to their ministers, and to the governors of their provinces. At the beginning of the fixteenth century, neighbouring princes encroached on all fides. In the 1565, Bifnagar the capital was taken and facked by four Moorish kings. The governors of the provinces declared themselves independent; and out of that great empire, fprung the kingdoms of Golconda, Visapour, and feveral others. The empire of Hindoftan, once widely extended, is now reduced to a very fmall kingdom, under a prince who no longer is intitled to be defigned the Great Mogul; the governors of his provinces having, as ufual, declared themfelves independent.

Our North American colonies are in a profperous condition, increafing rapidly in population, and in opulence. The co

lonifts

lonists have the fpirit of a free people, and are enflamed with patriotifm. Their population will equal that of Britain and Ireland in less than a century; and they will then be a match for the mother-country, if they chufe to be independent: every advantage will be on their fide, as the attack must be by fea from a very great distance. Being thus delivered from a foreign yoke, their first care will be the choice of a proper government; and it is not difficult to foresee what government will be chofen. A people animated with the new bleffings of liberty and independence, will not incline to a kingly government. The Swifs cantons joined in a federal union, for protection against the potent house of Auftria; and the Dutch embraced the like union, for protection against the more potent king of Spain. But our colonies will never join in fuch a union; because they have no potent neighbour, and because they have an averfion to each other. We may pronounce with affurance, that each colony will chufe for itself a republican government. And their prefent conftitution prepares them for it:

they

they have a fenate; and they have an afsembly representing the people. No change will be neceffary, but to drop the governor who represents the King of Britain. And thus a part of a great state will be converted into many small states.

SKETCH

SKETCH V.

Great and Small States compared.

Neighbours, according to the common faying, must be sweet friends or bitter enemies: patriotifm is vigorous in small states; and hatred to neighbouring ftates, no lefs fo: both vanish in a great monarchy.

Like a maximum in mathematics, emulation has the finest play within certain bounds it languifheth where its objects are too many, or too few. Hence it is, that the most heroic actions are performed in a state of moderate extent: appetite for applaufe, or fame, may fubsist in a great monarchy; but by that appetite, without the fupport of emulation, heroic actions are feldom atchieved.

Small ftates, however corrupted, are not liable to defpotifin: the people being clofe to the feat of government, and accuftomed to fee their governors daily, talk familiarly of their errors, and publish them

them every where. On Spain, which formerly confifted of many small states, a profound writer (a) makes the following obfervation. "The petty monarch was "but little elevated above his nobles: ha

66

ving little power, he could not command much respect; nor could his no❝bles look up to him with that reverence "which is felt in approaching great mo"narchs." Another thing is equally weighty against defpotifm in a small state: the army cannot eafily be feparated from the people; and for that reason, is very little dangerous. The Roman pretorian bands were billeted in the towns near Rome; and three cohorts only were employ'd in guarding that city. prefect of these bands under Tiberius, lodged the three cohorts in a fpacious barrack within the city, in order to gain more authority over them, and to wean them from familiarity with the people. Tacitus, in the 4th book of his Annals, relates

the story in the following words.

t

(6

Sejanus,

"Vim

præfecturæ modicam antea, intendit, difperfas per urbem cohortes una in ca"ftra conducendo; ut fimul imperia ac

(a) Dr Robertfon.

ciperent,