fuccessful, feems very liable to queftion; and the expenfe attending the present unfortunate attempt, in particular, was fo great, and the damage fuftained by the enemy fo trivial, that it was by fome perfons infolently ftyled “a fcheme to break windows with guineas."

In the enfuing fummer, 1759, admiral Rodney was detached with a fquadron, under pretext of impeding the rendezvous of the tranfports collecting in its vicinity, to bombard the town of Havre de Grace, which was, at the firft alarm, deferted by the inhabitants, in great confternation. Nineteen hundred fhells, and eleven hundred carcafes, were, it is faid, expended in this direful act of unavailing

vengeance.

In the fucceeding month of Auguft, admiral Boscawen, who now commanded in the Mediterranean, had, however, an opportunity of afferting the honor of the British flag in a manner much more effectual. M. de la Clue, endeavoring to pass the strait of Gibraltar with a confiderable fquadron, was intercepted by the English admiral off Cape Lagos; and, after a fierce conflict, the French admiral's own fhip, the Ocean of eighty guns, and three other capital ships, ftruck their colors to the English. This victory was foon fucceeded by another of yet greater importance. Vast preparations had been, for fome time past, making in the French ports in the channel, with a view, as was imagined, to a defcent in fome part of Great Britain or Ireland. And a powerful fleet was actually equipped in the harbor of Breft, which was long prevented from putting to fea by the vigilance of fir Edward Hawke, who had, with a fuperior force, blockaded that port during a great part of the fummer. At length, being driven from this station by stress of weather, M. de Conflans, the French admiral, embraced the opportunity of weighing anchor from Breft water with an armament of twenty-one ships of the line. On the first intelligence of their departure, fir Edward Hawke failed in pursuit of them. As foon as the French admiral perceived

the

the English fleet off Quiberon Bay, he retired close in fhore, in order to avoid an engagement. The English commander, however, was not deterred by his knowledge of the coast, which is in this part rendered extremely dangerous by rocks, fhoals, and quickfands, from following and attacking the. enemy with the most undaunted refolution; the weather alfo was uncommonly tempeftuous, the days much diminifhed in length, and the English admiral had to encounter the additional difadvantage of a lee fhore. About three o'clock on the twentieth of November, 1759, the battle be gan, and continued till the fleets were enveloped in darknefs, which seasonably intervened to fave the French fleet from total destruction. Two capital hips, the Superbe and Thefee, were funk during the action; the Hero ftruck her colors, but no boat could be fent with safety to take poffelfion; the Soleil Royal, the flag-fhip of the French commander, was next day burnt by her own crew, to prevent her falling into the hands of the English; and two other ships of the line were also ftranded and deftroyed. The reft of the fleet, with much difficulty, feltered themselves in the river Vilaine, where they were long blockaded, but at length found means to escape to Rochefort. This was a fatal blow to the French marine; and, after this defeat, the French court attempted no further naval expedition of moment. Very important advantages alfo were obtained in the latter years of the war by the British arms on the coaft of India, of which it will now be neceffary to offer a concife but diftinct narration.

HINDOSTAN, that vaft country, extending two thousand miles in length from the mountains of Tartary and Thibet on the north, to Cape Comorin, divided only by a narrow ftrait from the beautiful ifland of Ceylon, on the south, prefents, among the various regions of the earth, a moft confpicuous and interesting object of political and philofophical contemplation. The civilization of this immenfe peninfula may be traced back to an era of the most remote

antiquity. Learning and the arts, which have defcended to the modern nations of Europe from the Romans and the Greeks, were indubitably transmitted or transferred to them from the Phoenicians and Egyptians; who, as there is great reafon to believe, derived the radical principles of the knowledge which they poffeffed from the fages of Hindoftan, with whom fcience and the arts feem to have ori ginated. And it is very remarkable, that such as the inhabitants of Hindoftan are described to have been two thoufand years ago, fuch they ftill remain; and the established laws, inftitutions, customs, manners, and religion of India, have, in this long fucceffion of ages, fuffered neither any effential addition or diminution. Nothing, indeed, can be imagined more strongly calculated to perpetuate the system originally formed than the fingular and remarkable divisionof this people into tribes, profeffions, or CASTES, feparated by a fuperftition fo rigorous, as to render it unlawful and profane even to eat or drink out of the fame veffel, excepting on their folemn festivals in the same temple or pagoda, when joining in the fame religious facrifice. All the different tribes, the military cafte only excepted, are required under certain exemptions or indulgencies, to abstain from animal food; and the high and venerable caste of the Brahmans in particular, from whom more rigid examples of virtue are expected, touch nothing that has life, but fubfift entirely upon milk, fruit, and vegetables.* The principles

of

The principal caftes of India are Brahmans, or men of science, including the priesthood; the Khatries, or the military, and proprietors of land; the Bhyfe or Banian, comprehending the merchants and cultivators of the foil; and the Sooderahs, or mechanics and laborers, including the bulk of the people. But these are subdivided into many others, all of which are kept religiously distinct. In the mystic language of the Vedams, the Brahmans are faid to be created from the mouth of Brimha, the Khatries from his arms, the Bhyfe from his body, and the Sooderahs from his feet. The Hallachores, ftyled, in the Sanfcrit, Chandalas, are the refuse and outcasts of all the different tribes; but the number of them is happily. inconfiderable, as

they

of their philosophy, as well as the mysteries of their religion, are contained in certain records of the most obscure and recondite antiquity, ftyled the Veds or Vedams, supposed to be of divinely-inspired origin, and written in the Sanfcrit language, which has long ceased to be a living tongue, and is now understood only by the learned Brahmans, whofe peculiar province and privilege it is to read and meditate thefe facred volumes. The Khatries, who rank next in dignity, are permitted to hear them read; but the inferior tribes are reftrained to the knowledge of the Shaftahs, which are commentaries of high and established authority upon the Vedams, adapted to popular use. The grand and fundamental article of their religious creed is, that there is one fupreme GOD, whofe effence is infinitely removed from human comprehenfion, eternal, omnipotent, invifible, who ordains and accepts the various religious rites of various nations, and that he is best pleased and propitiated by charity and good works. They teach that this GOD is to be worshipped by SYMBOLS, reprefenting his various attributes-a most pernicious and fatal error, with admirable wisdom guarded against in the Jewish decalogue-which,

they are held in a kind of religious abhorrence; their very touch, or the slightest accidental intercourse with them, being accounted, even by the lowest Sooderah, an almost indelible pollution. Also, scattered throughout the immense regions of Hindoftan, are to be found multitudes of wandering devotees, or ascetics, known under the various appellations of Yoghees, Sonaffees, Faquiers, &c. &c. Deeply impressed with the doctrine taught by the Brahman philosophy, that man's fupreme felicity confists.in a kind of intellectual apathy or absorption, these enthusiasts, with deplorable folly, inflict upon themselves the most rigorous and almost incredible corporeal penances, vainly hoping, by this means, to affimilate and exalt their minds more nearly to the perfection of the divine nacure, and to detach themfelves more effectually from that fyftem of matter which they are taught to contemn as bafe and vile. And fuch is the veneration in which this fpecies of voluntary martyrdom is held, that the profane and abject Chandala is not admitted to the enviable privilege of devoting himself to this facred profeffion.

from a fyftem of pure and refined theifm, has converted, by a natural and irresistible gradation, the popular religion of the Hindoos into grofs idolatry.* The philofophers of Hindoftan admit, without hefitation, the doctrine of the immortality

When BRAHM determined to create the universe, the Vedams teach that he first commanded into existence the Gods Vishnoo, Brimha, and Shivah, to whom he delegated the task of forming, preserving, and governing all things which it contains. This mythological account, however, is understood to be entirely allegorical; and this TRIAD OF TRINITY of divine emanations, expreffed in the Sanfcrit language by the mystic word Oum, are unquestionably nothing more than fymbols of the different energies of the divine nature, or of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Supreme Being. This is the Trinity with which the mind of PLATO was fo deeply impreffed and enraptured, and which, in confequence of the wide diffufion of the Platonic system of philosophy, blended itself so intimately with the learned theories of the early heathen converts to christianity. Such was the scientific ardor of this celebrated Grecian, and fuch his admiration of the Indian philosophy, that, we are told," he once entertained a purposeemulous, perhaps, of the fame of Pythagoras-of vifiting Hindoftan in perfon:" " Ad Indos," says Apuleius, “ et Magos intendiffet animum, nifi euin bella tunc vetuissent Afiatica." In the famous dialogues preferved in the Sanferit language, between Vishnoo and Arjoon, Vishnoo fays, "All things proceed from me, and there is not any thing, animate or inanimate, without me. In me all things are repofited. I am in the incenfe, in the fire, and in the victim. He who believeth in UNITY, and worshippeth me prefent in all things, dwelleth in me. They who, delighting in the welfare of all nature, ferve me in my incorruptible, ineffable, and invisible form, omnipotent, incomprehenfible, exalted, fixed, and immoveable, with -fubdued paffions, and who are the fame in all things, fhall come unto me." Arjoon fays, in reply, “Reverence be unto thee, again and again reverence, O thou who art all in all! Great is thy power, and great thy glory. By thee the universe was spread abroad. Thou art Vayoo the God of the winds, Agnee the God of fire, Varoon the God of the ocean, &c. Worthy to be adored, bear with me as a friend with a friend, a lover with the beloved." -Vishnoo answers" He is dear to me who is free from enmity, merciful, and exempt from pride and selfishness, who is the fame in pain and in plea fure, patient of wrongs, contented, and whose mind is fixed on me alone. He is my beloved, of whom mankind is not afraid, and who is not afraid of mankind, who is unfolicitous about events, to whom praise and blame are as one, who has no particular home, and is of a steady mind. The man who,