produced a fignal reformation in the manners of Europe. To what other caufe can we fo juftly afcribe the point of honour, and that humanity in war, which characterize modern manners (a)? Are peace, luxury, and selfishness, capable of producing fuch effects?

That man fhould be the only animal that makes war upon his own kind, may appear strange and unaccountable. Did men listen to cool reafon, they never would make war. Hear the celebrated Rouffeau on that fubject. "Un prince, qui pour "reculer fes frontiers, perd autant de fes anciens fujets qu'il en acquiert de nouveaux, s'affoiblit en s'agrandiffant; parce qu'avec un plus grand espace à "defendre, il n'a pas plus de défenfeurs. "Or on ne peut ignorer, que par la ma"niere dont la guerre fe fait aujourd'hui, "la moindre dépopulation qu'elle produit

eft celle qui fe fait dans les armées : "c'eft bien-là la perte apparente et fen"fible: mais il s'en fait en même tems "dans tout l'état une plus grave et plus.

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દ

irreparable que celle des hommes qui meurent, par ceux qui ne naiffent pas,

(a) Dr Robertfon's hiftory of the Emperor Charles V.

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par l'augmentation des impôts, par l'interruption du commerce, par la défer"tion des campagnes, par l'abandon de l'agriculture; ce mal qu'on n'apparçoit point d'abord, fe fait fentir cruellement "dans la fuite et c'eft alors qu'on est é"tonné d'être fi foible, pour s'être rendu "fi puiffant. Ce qui rend encore les con"quêtes moins intéreffantes, c'eft qu'on "fait maintenant par quels moyens on EC peut doubler et tripler fa puiffance, non "feulement fans étendre fon territoire, “`mais quelquefois en le refferrant, comme fit très fagement l'Empereur Adrien. On fait que ce font les hommes feuls qui font la force des Rois; et c'eft une "propofition qui découle de ce que je vi

ens de dire, que de deux états qui nour"riffent le même nombre d'habitans, celui qui occupe une moindre étendue de

terre, eft réellement le plus puiffant. "C'est donc par de bonnes loix, par une fage police, par de grandes vues économiques, qu'un fouverain judicieux eft "sùr d'augmenter fes forces, fans rien "donner au hazard*." But war is neceffary

"A prince, who in extending his territories

"fuftains

ceffary for man, being a school for improving every manly virtue; and Providence renders kings blind to their true in

terest

"fuftains the lofs of as many of his old subjects as "he acquires new, weakens in fact his power while "he aims at ftrengthening it: he increases the ter"ritory to be defended, while the number of de"fenders is not increased. Who does not know, "that in the modern manner of making war, the "greatest depopulation is not from the havock "made in the armies? That indeed is the obvious "and apparent deftruction; but there is, at the "fame time, in the ftate a lofs much more fevere "and irreparable; not that thousands are cut off, "but that thousands are not born: population is "wounded by the increase of taxes, by the inter"ruption of commerce, by the desertion of the "country, and by the ftagnation of agriculture : "the misfortune which is overlooked at firft, is fe"verely felt in the event; and it is then that we are "aftonished to find we have been growing weak, "while increafing our power. What renders every "new conqueft itill the lefs valuable, is the confi"deration of the poffibility of doubling and tripling "a nation's power, without extending its territory,

nay, even by diminishing it. The Emperor A"drian knew this, and wifely practifed it. The "numbers of the fubjects are the ftrength of the "prince and a confequence of what I have faid is "this propofition, That of two ftates equal in the "number of inhabitants, that is in reality the more

"powerful

terest, in order that war may fometimes take place. To rely upon Providence in the government of this world, is the wif dom of man.

To

Upon the whole, perpetual war is bad, because it converts men into beafts of prey perpetual peace is worse, because it converts men into beafts of burden. prevent fuch woful degeneracy on both hands, war and peace alternately are the only effectual means; and these means are adopted by Providence.

"powerful which occupies the fmaller territory. "It is by good laws, by a falutary police, and great "economical schemes, that a wife fovereign gains a "fure augmentation of strength, without trusting any thing to the fortune of his arms."

SKETCH

SKETCH

VII.

Rife and Fall of Patriotifm.

HE members of a tribe in their origi

TH

nal state of hunting and fishing, being little united but by a common language, have no notion of a patria; and fcarce any notion of fociety, unless when they join in an expedition against an enemy, or against wild beafts. The fhepherdftate, where flocks and herds are poffeffed in common, gives a clear notion of a common intereft; but still none of a patria. The fenfe of a patria begins to unfold itfelf, when a people leave off wandering, to fettle upon a territory that they call their own. Agriculture connects them together; and government still more: they become fellow-citizens; and the territory is termed the patria of every person born in it. It is fo ordered by Providence, that a man's country and his countrymen, are to him in conjunction an object of a peculiar affection, termed amor patriæ, or patriotism;

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