mit any exact knowledge of their nature and extent. The refiftance of the British colonies, and the extraordinary revolution which it occafioned, were events, which no powers

of government could prevent from coming to the knowledge of the Spanish colonifts; and nobody will hold any doubt of the effects which fo fuccefsful and recent an example, and coming fo directly to the point with refpect to themselves, was liable to produce among a difcontented people. It is, however, to be obferved, especially as the fact is not generally known, that fome years before this example was fet, the difcontents in thofe countries ran fo high, that the most tempting offers were made to the court of London for procuring her fupport and protection. The integrity, juftice, and good neighbourhood which the difplayed in rejecting that propofal, has fince been fhamefully returned by Spain: although fome cynic at the court of Madrid might poffibly deny the motive, and inftead of afcribing it to honour or justice, hold out, that England was fo much occupied in the scheme of changing the government of her own colonies, that fhe had not leifure to engage in other projects, and of all things was leaft difpofed to encourage ideas of refiftance in thofe of any nation.

Thefe difcontents or difturbances have, however, produced no fmall apparent effect upon the Spanish government with refpect to the adminiftration of their colonies; and it is faid that the measures purfued upon this occafion have been no lefs judicious than vigorous. While large reinforcements of the best and moft veteran troops of Spain have been fent out under chofen

:

commanders to that continent, while old fortifications have been repaired and armed, and new ones constructed, the greateft care is faid to have been taken, not only in the appointment of men of the firft ability to the refpective governments, but that they should likewife be men of a lenient and conciliating difpofition, as well as of the moft difinterested character. This new system of colonial government muft undoubtedly produce the happieft effects, if continued; but, notwithstanding its excellency in other refpects, is faid to be fo expenfive, particularly by the augmentation of the forces upon that establishment, as to trench deeply upon the royal revenues arifing from them; a circumftance too likely to abridge its duration.

We have heretofore had occafion to take notice of the connexion and friendship which was growing up between Spain and the Porte. M. de Boligny was accordingly fent minifter from the court of Madrid to Conftantinople, towards the clofe of the year 1784, where he was received and treated with peculiar marks of diftinction. Among other grand or curious prefents which he delivered from the catholic king at his firft audience, was a field tent of fingular greatnefs and magnificence, which derived luftre from its former service, as well as veneration from its antiquity. It had been conftructed for and ufed by Ferdinand the Catholic, in the pride of conqueft and victory, at the camp of Occanna; it was lined with crimfon velvet, richly trimmed with gold taffels and lace, and containing fuch numerous and fpacious apartments as had been fufficient to entertain a large court: the whole furrounded with a fpacious gallery. [C] 3

It

It feemed fingular enough, that this old memorial of the extermination of infidels, fhould be now a prefent from Spain to an infidel power.

The double marriages which took place in the Eafter tealon of 1785, between the royal families of Spain and Portugal, not only ferved to heal the jealoufies and differences which had fo long prevailed between these courts, and to unite the two kingdoms in the cloteft bonds of amity, but laid the foundation for that treaty of alliance, which, under the mediation of Spain, has fince taken place between France and Portugal; and which conftitutes a complete union between the latter and the Bourbon family. Thefe marriages were between the infant Don Gabriel of Spain, and the infanta Donna Mariana Victoria, princess of Portugal, on the one fide, and the infant Don Juan of Portugal, with the infanta Donna Charlotta, eldest daughter of the prince of Afturias, on the other. The infantas met at Villa Viciofa, where they were mutually received and delivered; being probably the laft as well as the first opportunity of their meeting.

The patriarchal age, upwards of one hundred and ten years, to which the celebrated archbishop of Seville, the cardinal de Solis, arrived, and in the full poffeffion of all his faculties, quicknefs of hearing only excepted, would in fome degree have rendered his diffolution an object of hiftorical attention, even if his admirable qualities, the goodness of his heart, and the excellency of his life, had not otherwife entitled him to that diftinction. Though he had pent that long life in the continual exercife of every moral and chriftian virtue, yet an unbounded charity,

and an univerfal benevolence to mankind, were the ftrongly marked lines of his character. He feemed to be the natural as well as the fpiritual father of the numerous flock committed to his charge; and their grateful veneration and affection for him feemed to render them worthy of the care which he bestowed. In anfwer to the enquiries of his particular friends as to the means which he had ufed for preferving health, and prolonging life to fo extraordinary a period, he obferved, that by being old when he was young, he found himself now young when he was old; that he had led a fober and ftudious, but not a lazy or fedentary life; that his diet was delicate, though fparing; that his liquors were the beft wines of Xeres and La Mancha, of which he never exceeded a pint at any one meal, excepting in cold weather, when he allowed himfelf a third more; that he rode or walked abroad every day, except in rainy weather, when he took exercife, for a couple of hours, within doors. So far, faid he, I took care for the body; and as "to the mind, I endeavoured to "preferve it in due temper by a fcru"pulous obedience to the divine "commands, and keeping (as the

apoftle directs) a confcience void of offence towards God and man. "By thefe eafy and innocent means

I have arrived at the age of a patriarch, with lefs injury to my "health and conftitution than many experience at forty. I am now, like the ripe corn,, ready for the fickle of death, and, by the mercy "of my Redeemer, have ftrong hopes of being translated into his granary. "Glorious old "age" exclaimed the king of Spain: "Would to Heaven he had appointed

"appointed a fucceffor; for the "people of Seville have been fo "long used to excellence, that they "will never be fatisfied with the "best prelate I can fend them."

This excellent prelate and man, was of an ancient and noble houfe in the province of Andalufia; and was the laft furviving fon of Don Antonio de Solis, hiftoriographer to Philip the IVth, and author of that eloquent and long-admired work, the Hiftory of the Conqueft of Mexico.

The reform in Portugal has not yet, in importance or magnitude, approached in any degree of proportion to that in Spain. Any attempt, however, at reform or im, provement, in a country which has been fo long finking under a weak, indolent, capricious, and fometimes cruel fyftem of government, and amongít a people immersed in pernicious, deftructive, and inveterate habits, fhould not be estimated merely by its prefent benefits, but confidered likewife with a view to its farther operation, and hailed as the omen of greater and happier effects; the firft ftep being generally the greatest difficulty in fuch cafes.

The government of that country feems, fo far as we can judge, to have been very laudably adminiftered fince the acceffion of the prefent queen; and while it has maintained refpect abroad, has had the good fortune to attain the esteem and affection of the people at home. The measure of improvement which we have particularly to take notice of, relates to the police, to the due adminiftration of criminal juftice, and to a strict infliction of the law in all cafes of an atrocious nature, particularly with refpect to great offenders. In no other country in

Europe were fo great a number of idle vagabonds fuffered to loiter about the streets, and to infeft the towns, as in Portugal; and these wretches having no apparent means of obtaining a livelihood, excepting the cafual and infufficient refources of charity, were of neceffity the pefts of fociety, and spent their lives in watching opportunities for the commiffion of every species of villainy. In few civilized countries, likewife, had the abominable crime of affaffination been re fined fo much into a fyftem, and carried to fo glaring, and daring a pitch of enormity; and this not fo much from any defect in the laws, as from the impunity which the great and their dependents derived, through the cafe, if not certainty, with which pardons were procured by rank and influence. This could not but flacken the nerves of justice with refpect to the other classes of the people; as it would have ap peared too barefaced and fhameless a mockery of it, to purfue fmall delinquents to the utmost extremity, for thofe crimes which were paffed over without account in their fupe

riors.

The queen feized the opportu nity afforded by an affaffination, which was attended with circum. ftances of the most atrocious na, ture, and where intereft and power feemed to have the most certain profpect of procuring their ufual impunity, not only refolutely to refift and pofitively to reject all solicitations for a pardon, but at the fame time to make a public declaration, that she never would, in any inftance, whatever the rank or quality of the offender might be, grant a pardon to any perfon guilty of a premeditated murder. Never did

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any act of wisdom or juftice produce a more speedy or more happy effect. Affaffination is now no longer heard of; and it may well be hoped that the very paffions which gave birth to it will in a great meafure wear away, fince they are cut off from their ultimate gratification.

This opening to reform and good government was fucceeded by the excellent measure of taking up and providing for the idle and vicious, who had no vifible means of living, wherever they were found in every part of the kingdom. Thefe vagabonds were either remitted to their refpective countries, under fuch regulations and means of coercion, as would compel them to become useful by a close application to the labours of husbandry, or were taken immediately into the hands of government, and being provided with due provisions and neceffaries at its charge, were applied under its infpection to fuch works as were fuited to their respective ability.

Some confiderable attempts have likewise been made for the improvement of agriculture, and the introduction of a better fyftem of cultivation among the farmers in Portugal. The immenfe fums of money fent every year into Spain for corn, and the constant drain upon the fpecie of the country by other nations for the fame article, ftrongly urged the neceflity of endeavouring at leaft to leffen the evil, by increafing the home production of grain. It is, however, generally vain to war against the decrees of nature. Portugal, like other countries, has its peculiar products, but neither the foil or climate feem capable of admitting any great and effential improvements in agricul

ture. The former is generally too thin and light for the production of grain in any degree that would repay the labour and expence of the husbandman, while the great heats and long droughts would frequently check the progrefs of vegetation in the bud, were the foil even deeper and better. Some neglected vallies have indeed been discovered, which had hitherto efcaped culture, and which being coated with a thicker if not better mould, and accordingly refifting the heat more, and retaining their moisture longer than common, have anfwered kindly to the plough, and produced fuch crops as were fufficient to excite hope and admiration in a country generally fterile of grain. But it is too much to be apprehended, that the quantity of fuch valuable foil to be difcovered in the kingdom, will not be fufficient to produce any very material change in the general produt: the addition of a few hundred acres of new fertile ground is a small matter indeed with refpect to the fupply of a nation. Thefe attempts, however, at improvements in agriculture, gave occafion to a report, which was generally spread and credited, that it had been either in contemplation or act to make a great reduction of the vineyards in Portugal, and to convert the foil into arable land. measure might perhaps have been defirable if it had been practicable; but the misfortune is, that the land covered with vines in that rocky and mountainous country, is feldom fit for the growing of corn, and would not probably have turned out fo profitably under any other mode of culture as it does under the prefent, which feems to be that fuited to its nature. Indeed, if the un

This

wearied

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wearied induftry, which once made the mountains of Granada fmile in unexampled verdure and beauty under the cultivation of the unfortunate Moors, could be transferred to Portugal, fome hopes might be entertained, notwithstanding the inferiority of the country in foil and climate, of being thereby able to fupply the defects of nature. As things really are, fhe muft continue to exchange her native products for thofe which the wants from other nations; and if these are not equivalent to a full fupply, fortune has abundantly fupplied her with other means, by thofe inexhauftible fources of gold and diamonds with which fhe has fo liberally endowed her in the new world.

The late intimacy and friendship grown up with Spain, and the new alliances concluded with that kingdom and France, are likely for fome time to infure eafe and fecurity to the government of Portugal. The political wifdom of drawing the ties ftill ftraiter with the former, by the double marriages which have taken place, may, however, be well called in queftion; for it may be laid down as a political axiom of the greatest weight and importance, that nothing can be more dangerous to the fafety and independence of a weaker state, than the entering into any ties of affinity with a near neighbour, who is much its fuperior in power. The weaker ftate, for the prefent funshine of a tranfitory fummer, frequently entails upon itself all the rigours of a long, fevere, and perhaps eternal winter. Portugal has already, by undergoing a degree of ruin from which the can never entirely recover, moft deplorably experienced the truth of this pofition. Spain

herself can atteft its truth. Neither oaths nor treaties could fave her from falling into the hands of the houfe of Bourbon; from being for a long courfe of years fubjected to all the calamities of foreign and civil wars raging in her very bowels; and from her being at length facrificed to interefts inimical to her own, and rendered the standing dupe of foreign councils. How dearly has Courland paid for the honour of a May-day wedding with a daughter of Peter the Great? But every part of history abounds with fuch inftances, and there are few countries that cannot fhew prefent examples of them. If the ftronger ftate has any old claims (as in the prefent cafe) which only lie dormant through the want of a proper opportunity for enforcing them, then the new connection of affinity is the more imprudent, and becomes the more dangerous in its confequences. Every minority, every weak adminiftration, every change of fucceffion, every public lofs, and every difcontent of the people, will afford a colour or pretence for the fatal interference of the greater power. But the misfortune is, that fovereigns, acting merely like private perfons in the difpofal of their children, look no farther than to their immediate family interefts and fatisfaction, while they entirely overlook the fecurity and prosperity of the people whom they govern, and to whom they owe every thing. In no country could an error of this nature be more dangerous than in Portugal; as the animofity between that people and the Spaniards is fo extreme and incurable, that no union of government can take place between them, in which the dependent nation must not be reduced

to