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The Prefident, whofe zeal and diligence in behalf of the Society, keep due pace with his fagacity, again entertains and inftructs us in

Art. XXVIII. p. 292, with Remarks on the genus Di anthus.

This is a very useful paper, and as we were highly pleafed with the Introduction, we think our readers will be the fame.

"When a tribe of plants has been known from the earliest times in which any plants were noticed at all, and has attracted the attention of all botanifts, as well as of every florist and gardener, one would expect it fhould be well understood, and that its fpecies and varieties fhould diftinctly be known one from another. Unfortunately, however, for the acquifition of truth, the reverfe feems generally to be the cafe. The affiftance which the bulk of mankind lend to any difquifition requiring acute judgment or deep investigation does not always tend to elucidation, though infallibly in fome way or other to confufion. Hence fuch an endlefs variety of opinions, obftinately maintained in proportion to the weakness of their foundations, upon fubjects on which most has been thought and written; and hence in their turn new fwarms of writings arife from each variety of opinion. Happily for the advancement of natural hiftory, it has never been a very lucrative study; otherwife even the multiplicity of folid facts on which it is founded could fcarcely have prevented its becoming as disfigured and obfcure as many others that are.

"No genus, except perhaps that of roses, juftifies the above remarks more than Dianthus; nor is fcarcely any one lefs understood. This obfcurity does not feem to have arifen, as in the Geranium tribe, from a cafual intermixture of fpecies, either in a wild or cultivated ftate; nor does it, as in Rofa, originate in the fpecies being immenfely numerous, and very nearly refembling each other, though it must be confeffed their fpecific differences are, like thofe of roses, very diffi cult to define by methodical characters. The chief fource of confufion has been the incorrect labours of authors.

"This genus, by the elegance and fragrance of moft of its fpecies, as well as the frequent occurrence of many of them throughout Europe, has been noticed more or lefs in every botanical publication. The older botanifts, emerging as it were from a thick cloud of ignorance and book-learning, to a view of Nature in broad daylight, did not at once acquire the faculty of feeing; ftill longer were they in learning to defcribe what they faw. They feem to have looked upon the face of Nature as from a balloon in the air. They could diftinguish a forest tree from a rose bush; they faw the earth was clothed with flowers, and one great refinement of their obfervation feems to have been, that fome were red, yellow, or blue, others white; they difcovered that the fields were green with grafs, but fcarcely noted that all grafs was not the fame; nor did they dream there were tribes below that rank of vegetables, fcarcely lefs numerous than thofe above it, and no less accurately diftinguifhed, no lefs carefully foftered by the beneficent hand of Nature, than all the gorgeous ornaments of their own flower-gardens. When the fcience began to make a progrefs under the fuperintendance of fome rare genius of gigantic powers,

as

as a Gefner or Cæfalpinus, while each of its footsteps was accurately noted and delineated by the fcrupulous fidelity of a Clufius, facts on facts were gradually accumulated, and each new obfervation led the way to many more. Happy it all had been made with equal fagacity, and recorded with equal exactnefs! but every obferver was not a Clufius or a Gefner, nor every delineator of plants a Fabius Columna." P. 292.

Of the papers which remain, that of Profeffor Thunberg, perhaps, deferves the most honourable notice. This is Art. XXXIV. and confifts of Botanical Obfervations upon the Flora Japonica, p. 326. This is written in Latin, and iş at the fame time fcientific and perfpicuous.

We cannot take our leave of this volume without congratulating the Society on the progrefs which it has already made, and expreffing our warmeft withes for its future profperity, of which, with the aid of a Director fo indefatigable, and at the fame time fo enlightened as Dr. Smith, there remains but little room for apprehenfion,

ART. II. Reflections fubmitted to the Confideration of the Combined Powers, by John Bowles, Efq. 8vo. pp. 1s. Debret, 1794.

ART. III. Farther Reflections, &c. fame Writer and Bookfeller, pp. 1s. 6d. 1795.

THESE tracts we fhall review as one work, their fubject being one and as their being feparately published, has disjoined certain branches of that fubject, we fhall in the beft manner we can, bring them together, and confider them in their proper places,

Mr. Bowles has long been very honourably diftinguished by the ability he has difplayed in the defence of the constitution: and the lift of his works annexed to the firft of thefe tracts, fhows with how much patriotic diligence he has exerted them. There is one circumftance relating to the pamphlets now before us, which we think will call the general attention very strongly to them. They contain a masterly difcuffion of that great question, involving the prefent and future fate of polished focicty, agitated in the important debate of the first day of the prefent feffion of parliament. "Whether there can be any fyftem fo falutary to the general intereft of Europe, and of this country in particular, as the re-establishment of the

⚫ ancient

"ancient French Monarchy."* and it is brought forward at full, at the very point of time, when the deliberations of the most enlightened affembly in the world, prefs this great point, upon the instant and immediate confideration of a most intelligent nation.

We own that at the first glance, the propofition feemed bold to us, and to lead to certain lengths which we were not prepared to go; we therefore fat down to the examination of the proofs, at leaft with that neutrality of opinion, always to be wifhed for, but not always to be obtained, by thofe who undertake to weigh the important productions of able men, in order to exhibit a juft view of them to the public. Confequently, if we exprefs conviction, it will be a conviction arifing from the proofs here laid before us.

We fhall commence our observations with a brief account of the ancient monarchy, or monarchical conftitution of France; as ftated by this writer. By this conftitution, which had been indeed long dormant, the confent of the people through the members of the third eftate, was neceffary to authorize the impofition of taxes. This foundation is furely ftrong enough to fupport a free conftitution and such a conftitution must be the neceffary confequence of it, even though the feats in the chamber of the nobility had been hereditary; which was far from being the cafe, as most of them were elective.

:

To confirm the reasoning of Mr. Bowles, it may be here fhown, that the old mode of evading the right of the Commons to refuse taxes, could not be revived; for, before the revolution, the parliament of Paris had come to a vote, that they had no right to tax the people, or affent to fuch taxes. This renunciation not only guarded the kingdom against all arbitrary impofitions in future; it alfo would have had a retrofpective operation for most of the taxes refted only upon their affent ; and the bafis on which they were oftenfibly fupported being withdrawn, they could be continued only by the exprefs act of the ftates. Thus it may be made evident, that if the ancient conftitution had been reftored entire in 1789, the popular part of it had then the power to fecure its own ftability. The income of the royal domain in 1788, was 2,329,000l. the amount of the taxes, including the profits of fome monopolies, 17,354,000l. and to this was required to be added, a new income to produce 6,697,000l.t; to render the annual receipt

See the papers of the time, particularly Jan. 2, 1795. + Sinclair's Brit. Rev. part 3. p. 294, 298.

equal

equal to the the expenditure. An affembly, to which a king must have applied to legitimate the collection of the fecond of thefe fums, and to find ways and means to raise the third, would have held in its power, its own liberty, and the liberty of the nation for which it acted, and with which its interests were ftrictly joined. But if any thing more fhould be fuppofed to be wanted to fecure its independence, Mr. Bowles finds it fupplied in the propofitions made by the late king to the states, in the royal feffion in June 1789; when he called upon them for their affiftance in abolishing the Lettres de cachet: "which "in his reign had existed much more in recollection than in ufe; "and to find fome fubftitute in lieu thereof to provide for the "public tranquillity;" and in his declaration for the abolition of the exemption from taxes, hitherto enjoyed by the privileged orders, and voluntarily abandoned by them, whereby a grievance of the first magnitude was removed; and the rights of the third eftate extended, to the taxation of all real property.

Such was the conftitution which this writer urges fhould now be restored in France; which, indeed, for more than a century and a half had remained in a state of inaction, much refembling annihilation. During this time many abuses had crept in, which were not of its fubftance, but corruptions "and deviations from it :" and to which, "experience will fuggeft checks and preventions that will render their revival "next to impoffible."

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It appears that under this conftitution, the people would poffefs power to defend or acquire thofe franchifes, which will carry public happiness to the greatest height their existing manners and circumftances will allow. Hence this author ftrongly argues for the restoration of the fovereign, without capitulation or conditions previously to be impofed: the neceffity of which meafure he thus elegantly illuftrates.

"What mariner in a violent ftorm would refuse to fleer his fhip into a port because she had not undergone a complete repair? if repairs be wanted, they will be beft made-nay, they can then alone be made-after the vessel shall have escaped from the tempeftuous fea, and been brought into a fafe and commodious haven. For the experience of the revolution (as he obferves) is not calculated to recommend, either the repetition of any plan by which it has been diftinguished, or the experiment of any new fpeculation-and no durable government can be established in France, except upon the bafis of its ancient conftitution."

The habits, the manners, the prejudices, the attachments of the nation, all favoured monarchical government and the continuance of this fentiment feems very well proved, by a fact

which the author of "Raffurez-vous" relates; "that there are few peasants in France, who have not purchased and "concealed a portrait of Louis XVI. and a copy of his will.” As we proceed further in this article, we shall be more sparing than ordinary in delivering our opinions, as fuch, on the other arguments brought forward by Mr. B. to recommend this plan the public will undoubtedly pay more attention to what Hume or Blackstone would have thought, or faid, upon them; and yield to their judgement that affent they might perhaps withhold from ours.

When a calamity of the fame kind, but much inferior in malignity, involved this nation for many years, from which, "had it continued but a little longer, there was just reason to "dread all the horrors of the ancient maffacres and profcrip

tions," the measure here propofed by Mr. Bowles, as an example to France, refcued us from the miferies in which we were involved, and the confummation of them which was faft approaching upon us: the King was reftored without conditions. "At that time" our fagacious hiftorian informs us "fome zealous leaders among the prefbyterians "began to renew the demand of thofe conditions which "had been required of the late king in the treaty of "Newport," amounting rather to annihilation, than a limitation of the monarchy." But the general opinion seemed to "condemn all thofe rigorous and jealous capitulations with "their fovereign. Harraffed with convulfions and diforders, "men ardently longed for repofe, and were terrified with the "mention of negociations or delay, which might afford oppor"tunity to the feditious army ftill to breed new confufion."+ The articles of Newport, like the French Conftitution in 1789, left to England the pageantry and expence of a kingly government, without the advantages of a king: Mr. Bowles therefore rightly holds forth to France the precedent of the restoration in 1660, as a cafe in point.

When he appeals to the records of history to prove the expediency of this measure, he has recourfe to that authority, which when it is exprefs, ought to fuperfede all others. This mode of argument has the fame fuperiority over that founded on what are cailed abstract principles, that legitimate induction from experiment, poffeffes over the old fcholaftic philofophy; that art, which taught men eternally to dispute about empty terms, but from which no conclufions were ever drawn, confirmed by nature and experience. The old verbal jargon

Hume. Vol. 7. P. 339 ed.

+ Ib. 332.

1777

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