him; he who, receiving much bad ufage from the nation which he had faved, bore it all, fteady to the great general good, unfeeling only to the injuries done to himself; he who, when obliged to injure the relations of nature, in order to fave liberty, the Protestant religion, England, Holland, and all Europe, except France, endeavoured to repair that injury by intended kindneffes to King James's Queen, and to King James's fon; he who, of the only three free nations then on earth, the Swifs, Dutch, and English, faved the liberties of two; he, in fine, to whom mankind owe the fingular fpectacle of a monarchy, in which the monarch derives a degree of greatnefs and fecurity from the freedom of his people, which treafures and arms cannot bestow on other princes; and that at a time when military governments are extending their Arides over every other part of Europe, there is ftill one country left, in which it is worth the while of a man to wish to live." And, attending to events which immediately preceded the close of his life, they obferved, "That the laft treaty which he figned, was the fecond Grand Alliance: that the last appointment which he made of a General and Ambassador to conduct that alliance, was of the Earl of Marlborough, because he knew the fuperiority of his talents for war and negotiation, though he liked not the man, and had received deep injuries from him : that the laft charter which he was to have figned, and which was figned by his fucceffor, immediately after his death, was the charter uniting the two Eaft India Companies into the prefent great one: that the laft act of Parliament which he paffed, completed the fecurity of the Hanover fucceffion, often preffed for by him before: that the laft meffage which he fent to Parliament, when he was in a manner expiring, five days before his death, was to recommend an union, twice recommended by him to Parliament before, between the two parts of the island, which doubled the ftrength of both, by difabling their enemies to make advantage of their diffenfions: and that his laft fpeech to Parliament was one of the nobleft that ever was fpoke by a British Prince."

From this fpeech fome paffages are transcribed; but these we muft, reluctantly, omit.

The only defect which Sir John is willing to admit, in the political conduct of William, was his beftowing too small a degree of attention on the navy, and engaging too keenly in continental wars; for which, however, he, in fome measure, apologifes, by ftating the ignorance of his counsellors in maritime affairs, and the little fuccefs which he had experienced in fome of his greateft exertions in this line, owing to the negligence and perfidy of his commanders. He afcribes the fuccefs of Queen Anne, in her military operations, during the first years of her reign, chiefly to the preparations that had been made by William.

This alludes to his propofal of fettling 50,000l. per annum, as a dowry, on the Queen; and to nominate for his heir, James's fon, provided he was educated in England, in the Proteftant religion.

Nothing

Nothing peculiarly interefting occurs in the fucceeding part of the narrative, excepting the unfortunate fate of the gallant Admiral Benbow, and the unfuccefsful expedition againft Cadiz, which are defcribed with the writer's ufual energy. The work ends with the accidental destruction of the French and Spanish fleets at Vigo, in the year 1702, as the title-page expreffes.

From the fpecimens already produced, our readers will be able to perceive, that Sir John Dalrymple has not checked the freedom of his pen, from a fear of again provoking those who had been fo highly offended by his former ftri&tures. His ftyle is lively, concife, and animated; his conceptions are quick, his conclufions are bold, and clearly enounced; though many will be difpofed to demur at admitting, on all occafions, that they are ftrictly juft, and indifputably well founded. The glow of his imagination, and the energetic force of his ftyle, render him peculiarly happy in introducing anecdotes of perfons of eminence during this period. The following are a few, felected from a great number in this collection, which we are perfuaded our readers will not think tedious.

In narrating the progrefs of a bill in Parliament, in the year 1695, for amending the laws concerning treason, he observes, that,

Among other articles introduced by the bill in favour of the prifoner, he was to be allowed the aid of council. Lord Shaftesbury, the first perfon who, fince the days of Plato and Cicero, combined in his writings philofophy and eloquence, had prepared a speech in favour of the article. But, ftruck with the fight and attention of his audience, he loft his memory and ufual powers of his mind, hesitated and stopped in the middle of his fpeech; when, by a happiness of genius which always accompanies the tender heart, a start of nature burft from his confufion, more powerful than all the figures of art. "If I," faid he, "who only rife to give an opinion in a matter in which I have no intereft, and can be under no fear, am fo abashed with the fear of this public audience, as not to be able to say what I came prepared to fay; what must be the condition of that perfon in defending himself without the aid of council, who is a prifoner, fufpected, under accufation of the higheft crime that the law knows, unprepared against arguments and evidence that may be brought against him, and ftruggling for his life, fortune, and fame?"

This pleafing story is not here told for the firft time; but the argument is fo forcible and fo generally interefting, that it ought to be univerfally known.

The following anecdote of the great Lord Stair is quite characteristic of the man, and is, we believe, now firft communicated to the public;

When all his offices and honours were taken from him by Sir Robert Walpole, for voting in Parliament against the excife fcheme, he retired to Scotland, and put his eftate into the hands of trustees, to pay bills drawn by him in his magnificent embaffy at Paris, which

administration had refufed to accept, referving only a hundred pounds a month for himfelf. During this period, he was often feen holding the plough three or four hours at a time. Yet on receiving vifits of ceremony, he could put on the great man and the great style of living; for he was fond of adorning a fine perfon with graceful drefs; and two French horns and a French cook had refufed to quit his fervice when he retired. When the meffenger brought the late King's letter for him to take the command of the army, he had only ten pounds in the houfe. He fent expreffes for the gentlemen of his own family, fhewed the King's letter, and defired them to find money to carry him to London. They afked how much he wanted, and when they fhould bring it his anfwer was, The more the better, and the fooner the better.". They brought him three thoufand guineas. The circumftance came to the late King's ears, who expreffed to his minifters the uneafinefs he felt at Lord Stair's difficulties in money matters. One propofed that the King fhould make him a prefent of a fum of money when he arrived. Another faid,' Lord Stair was fo high fpirited, that if he was offered money, he would run back to his own country, and they should lofe their general. A third fuggefted, that to fave his delicacy, the King should give him fix commiffions of cornets to difpofe of, which, at that time, fold for a thousand pounds a piece. The King liked this idea beft, and gave the commiffions blank,to Lord Stair, faying, they were intended to pay for his journey and equipage. But in going from court to his own houfe, he gave all the fix away.'

The following anecdote is now alfo firft made public-It relates to the affair of Darien, a fubject of which our author will not eafily lofe fight; and it tends, in his opinion, to render it probable that there was a ftruggle in the King's breaft, between the part which he was obliged to act to please his English and Dutch fubjects, and his own feelings.

A provifion fhip of the firt colony [of Darien] in which were thirty gentlemen paffengers, and fome of them of noble birth, having been fhipwrecked at Carthagena, the Spaniards believing, or pretending to believe that they were fmugglers, caft them into a dungeon, and threatened them with death. The Company deputed Lord Bafil Hamilton, from Scotland, to implore King William's protection for the prifoners. The King at firit refufed to fee him, because he had not appeared at court when he was last in London; but when that difficulty was removed by explanation, an expreffion fell from the King, which fhowed his fenfe of the generous conduct of another, although, influenced by the English and Dutch East India Companies, he could not refolve to imitate it in his own. For Lord Bafil's audience having been put off from, time to time, but at laft fixed to be in the council chamber after a council was over, the King, who had forgot the appointment, was paffing into another room, when Lord Bafil placed himself in the paffage, and faid, "That he came, commiffioned by a great body of his Majefty's fubjects to lay their misfortunes at his feet, that he had a right to be heard, and would be heard.". The King returned, liftened with patience, gave initant orders to apply to Spain for redrefs, and then

turning

turning to those near him, faid, "This young man is too bold, if any man can be too bold in his country's caufe." I had this anecdote from the prefent Earl of Selkirk, grandfon to Lord Bafil.'

To thefe Memoirs, Sir John has added an Appendix, containing, ift, A very long account of an intended expedition into the South Seas by private perfons in the late war. The plan, it appears, was originally fuggefted by Sir John himself. The armament, inftead of going round Cape Horn, was propofed to take the ufual route to the Eaft Indies, till they paffed the Cape of Good Hope, and thence to fteer eastward, touching only at fome of the newly difcovered iflands to refresh; by which course they would fall on the Spanish fettlements by furprise before they could have had any certain information of their deftination. The enterprise feems to have been well conceived, and appears to offer a reasonable profpect of fuccefs; but few will be able to agree with the author in his fanguine expectations, and many will doubtlefs fmile at his confidence in the great benefits that would accrue to this expedition from the use of carronades, carrying balls of a hundred pounds weight, though it is by no means as yet fairly proved that they can be conveniently, or even fafely worked on fhip-board: and as to veffels conftructed with double bottoms, it is a fpeculation which never has been fuccefffully carried into practice, and which, we are forry to say, there is too much reafon to believe never can be fuccefsfully adopted to Yet Sir John reafons on thefe projects, not as hypothetical, but as clear, demonftrable, and to be relied on with as much certainty as any propofition in Euclid. It is not, however, on fuch enterprifes as thefe, that doubtful and hazardous experiments are to

Sir J. Dalrymple laconically and forcibly defcribes the final fate of Paterion, the projector of the Darien expedition, in whose hard fortune every humane mind will be deeply interested.

Paterfon furvived many years in Scotland, pitied, refpected, but neglected. After the union of the two kingdoms, he claimed reparation of his loffes from the equivalent-money given by England to the Darien Company, but got nothing; becaufe a grant to him from a public fund, would have been only an act of humanity, not a political job.'

We are by no means defirous of difcouraging any project that has the most diftant tendency to advance the general profperity of our country, especially to augment her naval power;--and we have the greatest refpect for Mr. Millar, a gentleman mentioned in terms of the warmest applaufe by Sir John Dalrymple, for his efforts to bring to perfection this kind of double vefels. But, unfortunately, Sir John does not feem to know, that this is not a new invention; and probably never heard that Sir William Petty, after many experiments, about a hundred years ago, was obliged to abandon the project as altogether impracticable with regard to large fhips, though it might be made to answer fome useful purpofes in fmall voffels.

be

be tried; nor is it on fuch information as the following, which Sir John delivers with great feeming seriousness, that men muft depend when they fet about military expeditions.

In the South Seas, their dominions [i.e. the dominions of Spain] were, at the beginning of this century, in the fame condition which they are at this hour; because, from caufes natural and political, their condition continues always the fame. For, of the few fortifications they have there, moft were built of mud walls, partly from indolence, and partly because in fome provinces no ftone is to be found; their guns honeycombed from the hot and dry nature of the air in fome places, in which no showers of rain are ever to be feen❤. The shot and fhells cracked, rufted, or wafted, from the fame caufes, fo as to be of little effect by the windage to which those defe&s give an opening; the carriages of many of the guns fplit or rotten, froma the heat of the weather, and the difficulty of procuring proper wood to repair or replace them, in fome places where no wood grows; the mufkets and their balls in the fame condition; and the powder weakened in its quality by the length of the paffage from Europe, and the alternate fucceffion of extreme heat and extreme dews; twe or three ships of war ftationed off Lima; two or three thousand foldiers fcattered along a fea coaft four thousand miles in length; and the inhabitants of the whole empire as weak and as fearful as women, from the relaxing nature of their climate, and because they never heard the found of war.'

Such rhapsodies as the above may do very well for fpiriting up a whole people to fecond the exertions of their chiefs, when they have determined deliberately on fome military expedition; but woe be to that nation, whofe rulers fhall be influenced by fuch vague confiderations in projecting their warlike atchievements. In this way, it is probable, that the Emperor of Germany reafoned when he projected his attack on the Ottoman powers; for fuch, and worfe if poffible, is the light in which the Baron de Tott has fo lately exhibited the Turkish forces and fortifications. What the confequence has been, all Europe knows. That there are abufes in the Spanish provinces, nobody will doubts but that these are as univerfal as is here reprefented, few will believe. But Sir John Dalrymple, like many other men who have never had the direction of military operations, is a fanguine projector, in whofe eyes, no difficulties, that are worth confidera tion, appear.

The fecond paper in the Appendix is a project of an expedi tion to the coaft of Yucatan and of Honduras; and the third, a defcription of the weakness of the river La Plata. Of thefe projects, as not being ourselves qualified men, we are unable to judge. They may ferve as hints to those who are capable of deciding in matters of this nature to make the enquiries which

• Has there ever been an experiment to prove that fuch a temperament of air has a tendency to honeycomb guns? Is it probable ?

are