The Republic of the United Provinces had not only extended their territories beyond the Scheldt and the Meuse, the natural boundaries that feparate the provinces from Flanders and Brabant, but had alfo obtained the fingular prerogative of placing garrifons in many of their frontier cities within the bounds of the Auftrian Netherlands. Holland, alarmed at the dangerous vicinity of France, had very early difcovered the importance of keeping the catholic provinces,between that kingdom and the Republic, for a protection to her own ftate against France; and, with this view, readily fuccoured thofe provinces when they were invaded by Lewis XIV. The ap-prehensions of the Republic were increafed, when the pretenfions of the houfe of Bourbon, in confequence of the will of Charles II. of Spain, to the fucceffion of that kingdom, threatened to join the fron tier of France to that of the States; and, acordingly, fhe gave a more firm fupport than they had done before to that grand alliance which was formed for oppofing the domination of the family of Bourbon. The Republic at the treaty of Utrecht, in order to render the Auftrian Neitherlands a stronger bulwark to her own provinces against French encroachment, ftipulated, that certain cities on their fouthern fronfier towards France, fhould be affigned as Barrier Cities, and that. thefe fhould be garrifoned only by the troops of the States General. It appeared extremely humiliating to the Catholic Provinces of the Netherlands, that fome of their principal cities were to be garrisoned by the troops of a foreign power, and of a power too which had exhibited, by the fhutting up of the Scheldt, and other articles of the peace of Munfter, fo great, and, as it were, malignant a jealoufy of their profperity. But their oppofition to the Barrier-treaty was vain against the united power of Holland and England. Tournay, Menin, Ypres, with other cities fituated on the fouthern con. fines of the Auftrian Provinces, and forming one continued chain of fortreffes, were affigned as Barrier Cities against France, were garrifoned with Dutch forces; and the expence of maintaining them was to be defrayed by the catholic provinces.

The prefent fovereign of thefe provinces took other measures for freeing them from the degradations in which they were held, and the conftant expence under which they laboured in confequence of the peace of Utrecht. In the war carried on against the Netherlands by Lewis XV. the Barrier Cities, poorly defended by the Dutch, were reduced by the fuperior arms of France, and for the most part difmantled, before they were, by the treaty of Aix-la Chapelle, retored to their fovereigns. The Republic, not having fulfilled the article by which he had engaged to repair the fortifications of the Barrier Cities, the Emperor affirmed, with juftice, that he was no longer bound to maintain the garrifons of Holland, in places which in war were abfolutely untenable; and thele garrifons, in confe. quence of the remonftrances and military preparations of the Emperor, evacuated the Barrier Cities. The encroachments of the Dutch on the Auftrian territories, beyond the bounds marked out by treaties, had been, by the late pacification, reftrained: And the forts which they had built on ufurped ground thrown down. The City of Macftricht was retained by the Hollanders against an

exprefs

exprefs article of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. To this important city the Emperor afferted his title, and to an adjoining and dependant domain; but offered, at the fame time, to give up this claim, on condition that the navigation of the Scheldt fhould be opened to his fubjects. The Dutch, anxioufly concerned for their commerce, have propofed and obtained, through the mediation of France, averfe to the opening of the Scheldt, as well as themfelves, a commutation of this for other facrifices to his Imperial Majefty. Maestricht has been redeemed by the United Provinces, for an ime menfe ranfom. Several forts and diftricts, built and ufurped by them, have been ceded to the Catholic Provinces: And the Dutch have been finally compelled to do juftice. but whether and how long the bounds of juftice will reftrain the approaches of their powerful neighbours, is a question of great uncertainty and anxious con

tern.

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

In the year 1785, the English miniftry, with good intentions and indefatigable indultry, were exceedingly busy to no purpose. The great object of their active zeal was, to fettle a commercial intercourfe with Ireland. The task they undertook was extremely arduous; nor did they poffefs thofe fuperior talents which are alone fitted to invent new expedients for new exigencies, and either to divert, to footh, or to overawe popular difcontents and tumults.

The low ebb that followed the fwelling tide of profperity, the abject humiliation that fucceeded to the pride and infolence with which we treated foon after the conclufion of a most fortunate war, our American Colonies, was a fit feafon for the Irish nation to make demands on her fifter kingdom. England was not yet fo funk in power, as not to have been able to withstand the encroachments of Ireland, but able and virtuous minifters were wanting to call it forth, and to give it a wife direction. Miniftry fought only their own ftability The parliament was torn by faction, and the people were blind, littlefs and languid. In thefe circumflances the Irish demanded a free trade with the English Colonies, and Lord North, in 1779, granted it. Some years after, under the nominal administration of the Duke of Portland, Mr. Fox, the real minifter, granted them legislative unqualified independence. Neither of thefe minifters, at the proper crifis, made any provifions or ftipulations for the external regulation of Irish commerce. This was a tafk which of course de

volved on the fhoulders of Mr. Pitt.

This minifter, with his co adutors in office, propofed what they judged to be fair terms, and endeavoured to cajole both nations into a compliance by good words, and by the greatest civility, and even adulation, to the high fpirited, and rather turbulent Irifh. As Ireland was free from the immenfe load of the national debt of Eng land, and confequently from enormous taxes; as the enjoyed many local advantages, and was admitted at the fame time to a participation of the colonial trade of England, and alfo enjoyed the protection of the British navy, it was thought reafonable that equalizing duties

fhould

fhould take place on her commerce with Great Britain, that certain taxes fhould be imposed on her imports thither, and that equal taxes fhould also be imposed on the introduction of English manufactures into Ireland. It was alfo propofed, that the furplus revenue of Ireland, after it fhould have exceeded a certain amount, fhould be appropriated to England, and be collected by authority of the British government. This was the fubftance of what has been called the Irish propofitions.

That thefe might not alarm or difguft the Irish nation, as coming from England, they were firft made in the Irish parliament, and in this ftage they apeared not unpalatable to that national affembly.

They were, after this, fent over for the examination of the British parliament; who made fuch fundamental alterations in them as greatly changed their afpect, and as induced, not indeed a majority in the Irish parliament, but a great majority of independent members, and fuch as fpoke the fentiments of Ireland, to reject them, not without expreffions of disdain, abhorrence, and execration. Mean while, the British cabinet found themselves involved in those embarrassments and inconfiftencies which usually accompany or flow from a courie of conduct, guided rather by artifice, than an undifguifed appeal either to force or to juftice. They magnified the conceffions of Great Britain to Ireland at Dublin, and extenuated them in London. But, in ftriving to please both parties, they pleafed neither. National and commercial jealousy rendered all their efforts abortive. Thefe efforts, however, they did not finally abandon. They perfevered, and, perhaps, ftill perfevere in their attempts to prepare the minds of the Irish to accept the commercial, and under that title, to a certain extent, the political arrangement propofed. Converfation, the prefs, flattering attentions from the viceroy, and the fovereign he repre fented, and honours and preferments; all these engines were employed to bring about a difpofition in the Irish nation to comply with the terms held out to them by England.

The matters in difpute, between the two British ifles, gave birth to fpeculations more general and refined than ufually enter into treaties of commerce. On the part of Great Britain, it was, or might have been urged, that however natural advantages, from barbarifm, from infelicity of government, or other caufes, may be overlooked or neglected for a time, they command attention and invite improvement at last. Sea coafts, navigable rivers, and commodious ports, attract commerce and encourage population. Severity of climate and a frozen ocean may chill the efforts of industry on the one hand, and the fpontaneous luxury of nature may fink the enervated inhabitants of indolent climates into their natural infignificancy and dependence, on the other. And even in temperate climates and fruitful foils, watered by rivers and arms of the fea, defpotifm of government may counteract the benignity of nature, and, by staying the hand of labour, check the advancement of nations in all that gives comfort, dignity and grace to human life. Ireland, fituated in a temperate climate, in an advanced fituation in the Atlantic ocean, abounding in fafe and fpacious harbours, with a foil that requires, but eafily yields to the efforts of induftry, and

that

that industry invited and foftered by freedom of government and vincinity to England, Ireland, with thefe advantages, will doubtlefs have her day, and appear among the foremost of commercial nations.

The great continent of America is either unexplored, or, as far as we know, inhabited by tribes of favages: the interior parts of Africa are abfolutely unknown: the valt plains of Tartary, the undeaned regions of the ancient Scythia, are inhabited by families fcarcely cemeated under the fame chiefs or khans, of wandering and unfettled barbarians; and even in Europe itfelf, the higher countries, remote from the ocean, are diftinguished by the rudeness and the poverty of their natives. The fea, wherever it approaches, fooner or later, by promoting an intercourfe among the nations of the earth, melts down the rigour of favage features into looks of complacent humanity, and converts rude barbarians into artiste, merchants, philofophers, and accomplished men. The eastern fhores of America, the wide and various courfe of the Mediterranean fea, the German ocean, the Baltic, the Indian ocean, the Perfian and Arabian gulphs; all thefe bear witness to this truth. The peninfula of Indoftan is celebrated for its riches, commerce, and manufactures, in the earlieft monuments of antiquity; fo, also, is the peninfula of Arabia, and the kingdom of Egypt: Phoenicia reigned for a time the queen of arts and commerce: Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage, derived their confequence, with their opulence, from their maritime fituation: Athens was as much indebted, for its pre-eminence among the Grecian ftates, to the fuperiority of its navy, as to the falubrity of its air: but the island of Crete was the moft early cultivated, and the first maritime power of Greece. Innumerable other inftances are to be found of the prerogatives of maritime, and, above all, of infular fituations, in ancient as well as in modern hiftory. We trace them in the amazing refources of the republican island of Rhodes, which was enabled, by its fleet, to maintain its independence on Rome till the reign of Vefpafian, in the history of Malta and Corfu; in the rife and progress of the republics of Venice and Genoa; in the ifland and city of Ormus, with its dependencies near the entrance into the Perfian gulph; in the Hanfeatic Towns; in Lisbon; in Holland; in Sweden; in Denmark; and in England. Even the gulph of Finland, in the 60th degree of northern latitude, has exhibited, in the prefent century, a ftriking proof of the advantage of maritime fituation, in the flourithing city of St. Petersburgh, the capital of the Ruffian empire

And, if the advantages of local fituation have attracted the efforts of industry, in former times, much more may we expect that they will attract them in the prefent, when the views of extended intercourse and knowledge embrace every corner of the habitable globe. Whoever reflects, in this manner, on the advantages of ituation, will readily anticipate, efpecially in the prefent conjuncture of British affairs, the future glories of Ireland. The cheapnefs, too, of the neceffaries of life, in this country, the moderate price of labour, and exemption from heavy taxes, are circumstances which justify ftill further this expectation.

Bendes

Befides thefe confiderations, there are two principles in human nature; the one moft apparent in governments and national affenblies; the other, in private individuals; which will operate towards the establishment of manufactures and commerce in a young country, fo highly favoured by nature and felicity of political fituation, as Ireland. These principles are, a tendency to perfecution in eftablished power, and a natural inquietude of temper. Civil and religious perfecution, more than any other caufes, diffeminate the arts. and fciences over the world. Not to carry our researches, on this fubject, either into antiquity, or over a wide range of the prefent imes, we fhall only obferve, that religious and civil perfecution have wrought great good and evil, and been, as it were, both the bane and antidote of this our native country. Before the perfecutions of the Spaniards, in the Low Countries, which drove the Flemings to feek for an afylum in England, under the great Elizabeth, the English nation were only fhepherds, as it were, to the woollen manufacturers of Flanders and Brabant. But thofe refugees introduced, to an extent unheard of before, the woollen manufac ture into England, the most fure and staple of all her manufactures. The revocation of the edict of Nantz contributed, in like manner, to establish and increase, in Great Britain, the manufactures of cambrics and filks. On the other hand, the civil and religious perfecutions of the English court, peopled the coafts of North America with an hardy and induftrious race of hufbandmen, fishers, manufacturers, and merchants, whofe defcendants, ftill refifting every appearance of tyranny, have so much humbled the parent ftate in the

fcale of nations.

The natural inconftancy of man, too, as well as the perfecuting fpirit inherent in moft governments, will naturally direct many adventurers to a country, where, with induftry, ingenuity, and very moderate capitals, they may have fo many opportunities of bettering their condition of life.-Perfecution, it may be added, does not always make its appearance armed with torture, fire, and fword; but in the more plaufible guife of taxes imposed on account of public exigency-Such were the arguments that were urged by thofe who dreaded, or affected to dread, that the Irish propofitions would, if paffed into a law, in the end, effect the ruin of England.

[To be continued. ]

* Communications for THE ENGLISH REVIEW are requefied to be fent to Mr. MURRAY, No. 32, Fleet-ftreet, London, where ubJcribers for this Monthly Performance are refpectfully defired to give in their Names.

PHILOCRITICUS will perceive that we were furnished with an article for the performance which he notices, before his came to hand; and be will be the lefs difpleafed at this, as our fentiments Jeem nearly to coincide. We shall be glad occafionally to hear from this correspondent.