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O complete our furvey of the European powers, we are next to confider Ruffia and Turkey. The head of the former, wifely confidering, that as much as it may be her duty to deterve, it is, confidering her want of an hereditary, or even elective title, as much her intereft to win, the affections of her fubjects, not only fhews the greatest defire to make them happy, but endeavours it by fuch means as may not too glaringly clash with their deep-rooted prejudices either civil or religious; a method of proceeding fuited only to fuch a fovereign as her predeceffor Peter the Great, whofe pretenfions to the crown were themfelves fupported by these prejudices. Amongst other fteps taken by her to compafs fo exalted a defign, the has given the ampleft encouragement for the introduction of letters and useful arts, thefe fovereign antidotes against barbarifm and fuperftition. Upon the whole, therefore, there does not appear the leaft reafon to apprehend any thing from Ruffia for the peace of Europe.

Little as there is to be apprehended from Ruffia, ftill lefs, if

any thing at all, is to be feared from Turkey, the only great power of Europe, which, as being, by its maxims of religion and government, quite diftinct from, or rather diametrically oppofite to, all the others, which we have reviewed, we muft here take a particular furvey of. The prefent emperor of that ill-governed and illiterate, yet, from its numbers and enthufiaftic fervility to its head, dangerous neighbour to fome of the chrif tian powers, feems to be a very different man from all his prede ceffors. Under him, the fpirit of Turkish defpotifm and jealousy feems to be in fome degree lowered, He permits brothers to live, even after efcaping from that confinement, to which the laws of the feraglio had condemned them: and by fending to France for a collection of aftronomical treatifes, he has fhewn a tafte for those fciences, which fo much tend to enlarge and refine the human mind, But what does him ftill more honour, is that truly neighbourly part he fo lately acted in the affairs of Poland, which muft make us confider him as a pacific, as well

and only leave us room to regret, that there are not more potentates of that character amongst thofe educated in principles infinitely better calculated to form

it.

In fhort, Europe fecms, in general, to wear a much more ferene appearance, than from hiftory there is any reafon to judge the ever did. The fpirit of invention, industry, and improvement, are abroad, and seem to have taken place of the fpirit of conqueft and rapacity, which fo much difgrace her former annals. Princes, in all appearance, begin to difcover more wealth and power in the honeft endeavours of their fubjects to enrich themfelves, than they used to do in the fertile afliftance of them to enflave others: Agriculture and navigation have, at laft, in a great meafure, obtained that attention, which fuch useful and fublime arts deferve. Nor have the intermediate handicraft arts, fupported by agriculture and fupporting navigation, and contributing fo much, in other refpects, to the conveniency and pleature of life, been neglected.

The vegetable fyftem of Tull, after ftanding many years unimpeached by any cafual obfervations, has within thefe few years been confirmed by the exprefs experiments of Monfieur Duhamel, and found to be as true and ufeful, as it was ever allowed to be fimple and ingenious. What is more, his admirable machines, fo well adapted to that fyftem, and fo happily contrived to combine the intelligence of the rational with the ftrength of the brute creation,

improved. A Linnæus and a Stillingfleet bave hinted the poffbility and expediency of parting the hitherto undiftinguifhed common plants of the field made ufe of to feed our cattle, in order to give each its proper foil and cultivation, and fow and crop it in its proper feafon. A Wyche, foaring ftill higher, has, from a juft confideration of the goodness and power of the Creator, fuggefted the exiftence of vegetables, fit for the fame purpofe, hardy enough to thrive in the coldeft weather. And these hints and fuggeftions have been, by the parting of the plants already known, and the difcovering and the cultivating of other much hardier ones, been proved well founded, and brought into practice by Mr. Baker,, and by Mr. Rocque, to the vaft enlargement of the human empire over the vegetable world; feveral plants, which hitherto ufed to be nurfed up in gardens for the immediate and fole ufe of man, having been compelled to do duty in the open fields for that of cattle, and made fubje& to the plough as well as the fpade, fo as to oblige a far greater portion of the earth's furface to wear the livery of fummer in the depth of winter.

The principles of Sir Ifaac Newton, joined to the aftronomical obfervations of Halley and Bradley, have been made by M. Mayer of Goetinghen a ground-work for conftructing, with the affiftance of theorems furnished by Mr. Euler of Berlin, tables of the moon's motions, by which the absolute time of that heteroclite planet's appulfe to any fixed point of the heavens,

heavens, and of course the difference of longitude between any place and the obferver's, may, with the help of the ingenious Mr. Mafkelyne's new method of finding the proper allowances for parallax and refraction, be precifely determined, and ease and expedition have been added to precision by theorems of Mr. Witchell's iuvention for the use of lunar tables, and other tables for the eafy and expeditious application of his theorems. Mr. Harrifon's improvements in clock-work for obtaining the fame ends have likewife been puthed to fo great a degree in point of portability, as well as certainty, as to deferve the highest reward offered by the British government.

The members of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris have already published several accounts of particular trades, which, however trivial they may appear in fome eyes, are the fruit of much thought and experience, and yield room for a great deal more, so as not to be unworthy of the fcientific manner in which thefe gentlemen have handled them. Perhaps it may be with truth af firmed, that the meaneft of thefe trades is, comparatively, as ufeful in the fcale of thofe human inventions which contribute fo much to make life happy, as the meaneft infect is thought to be in the scale of created beings to fupport and uphold the whole. New focieties have been formed for the cultivation of all thefe ufeful arts, not only in England, but in France, and most other countries of Europe.

But unpardonable as it might have been to pafs over in filence

things, that have been done for the general benefit of mankind, and the men to whom we are indebted for the atchievement of them, after beftowing fo much time on fcenes of devaftation and flanghter, we may perhaps be thought to have dwelt too long upon them, at leaft for this part of our work, however neceffary fome account of them may be to illuftrate fubjects more ftrictly hiftorical, according to the fual meaning of that word which may hereafter occur in this part of our work, on a fuppofition of the public's favouring us with a continuance of their patience nd indulgence, We fhall, therefore, refer our readers for fuller accounts of thefe matters to the other parts of it, in which they may be introduced at large with more propriety, and confequently more ample justice may be done to them. .

We cannot however difiifs the fubject, even in this place, without obferving how many Englith names appear amongst the authors we have been celebrating; though a thing no way furprifing, fince, in this free and fertile country, every man is fure to enjoy in peace the fruits of his ingenuity and labour, and to gain more by the mere fale of them, confidering the number and opulency of its inhabitants, than could be well expected in any other country from the greatest generofity in the government. But it is very remarkable, that, notwithftanding this certainty of meritorious men being rewarded here without any legiflative intervention, the British legiflature has, however, not only been the first to reward thofe, (even foreigners) who have

improved navigation by facilitating the means of difcovering the longitude at sea, but has likewife provided, in the last feffion of parliament, for the adequate encouragement of all thofe, who fhall be found to have made any useful attempts to wards that important purpofe.

Having thus examined the prefent general complexion of Europe, and the particular afpect towards each other of the feveral great political bodies that compofe it, we fhall next proceed to take a furvey of the ftate of British affairs in the Eaft Indies, being the only foreign affairs of any European power worth our notice, at leaft by what we know of them, with fufficient certainty to ground a narrative upon. It might be expected, that we should begin with a relation of the parliamentary pro

ceedings here in England, and the commotions in our North-American fettlements, to which they have given rife, as matters of far greater importance. But it is for this very reafon we choose to speak laft of them, as, by fo doing, we fhall be better able to connect them. properly together, and do them all the juftice their importance deferve.-Befides, it will be only adjufting the order of our narrative to the order of time, moft of the EaftIndia tranfactions, we have to relate, having happened before there appeared any fettled refractoriness in our North-American colonies to comply with the injunctions of the mother-country; and being previous even to any proceedings in the mother-country to give the leaft colour to fuch refractorinets in her colonies.

A

GAINST European invaders the cause of one Afiatic prince is the caufe of all; and could they be blind enough not to fee this of themfelves, there never, furely, exifted a man better able to convince them of it, than the late Nabob of Bengal, Mir Coffim Aly Cawn. The driving of him, therefore, into the territories of a neighbouring nabob

was rather removing. the fire, than extinguishing it. Indeed, the fate alone of fo intelligent and enterprifing a man was enough to fill all the princes of that vaft country with the jufteft apprehenfions for their own fafety and independence.

Desperate, therefore, as the condition of Mir Coffim's affairs might appear to be by the accounts, with which we concluded our laft vo

lume,

lume, we were very far from thinking that of the company's fo permanently happy, as not to promife very foon, and even without the creation of any new nabob, fome fresh matter to this part of our work. As long as any part of Mir Coffim's army remained on foot, it was impoffible the English forces fhould enjoy any refpite; at the fame time that, in purfuing thefe remains through fo extenfive a country, they were liable to lofe more men, than they could be fuppofed to do by the fword of a much more numerous Indian enemy in a pitched battle.

Upon thefe principles, we muft allow, that Sujah Doula acted a very wife part in not admitting into his country the remains of Mir Coffim's army, as long as it could be kept together, or even in fmall parties in the territories of Bengal, or any other territories than his own. Indeed, it was doing right, at any rate, to keep himself quiet for fome time, by almost any means, befides that of giving up his friend, fince time alone might be expected to bring about many more events to the prejudice of the English, than that of the Indian affairs.

Accordingly, we do not find that Sujah Doula took any part against the English, except that, if it can be called fo, of giving fhelter to Mir Coffim, and to Somers, who fo barbarously murdered that Nabob's prifoners at Patna, and his afterwards refufing to give them up. For, as to his drawing an army into the field, which we are likewife informed he did, it was probably within his own territories, and juftified, befides, by the near

approach of the English to them He is reprefented to us, however, as fuing for a renewal of peace, which the company's fervants in India might, perhaps, confider as broken by these measures.

But, on whatever principle Mir Coffim's allies might think proper to keep themfelves quiet, it was not long before time brought about an event fufficient to tempt them to action. This was the fudden death of Major Adams, whose name alone might be confidered as the palladium of the company's military affairs in that part of the world. Accordingly, the fame fhip, which brought to England an account of that unexpected event, brought likewife that of Mir Coffim's not only being in the field at the head of a body of Indoftans, but of his having actually cut off a small party of our men, and his fending their heads, by way of triumph, to king Shah Zada, and the nabob Sujah Dowla. The time was now come, when these princes thought they might as openly ef poufe Mir. Coffim's caufe, as the latter heretofore had protected his perfon; and for that purpose they immediately drew into the field an army of fifty thousand men, with a train of artillery, fuch as might be fuppofed to follow an European army of equal numbers.

But Major Adams, moft fortunately for the Company's affairs, was fucceeded by another officer, who, as far as the accounts we have of him reach, feems to have acted with all that spirit and ability, which his predeceffor in command poffeffed in fo eminent a degree.

This officer was Major Hector
Monro,