court of Paris, by the authority of the parliament of Grenoble. Lefdiguieres, in a letter to the king, reprefented to his majefty, in a firm though refpectful tone, that his duty called him to restore the dignity of France in Italy, by fulfilling the engagements of that kingdom to the Duke of Savoy, and chaftifing the perfidy and infolence of Spain. And he added, that, however treacherous counfels might beguile the good intentions of his majefty for a time, he did not defpair of his prefent conduct meeting one day with the approbation of his fovereign. Spanish nation. Before the ambitious and warlike reigns of Ferdinand, the emperor, and Philip II. the fagacity and vigilance of the Spaniards appeared formidable to the other nations of Europe +. Thefe reigns continued to call forth and exercife the fpirit of the nation, and to fupport, if not to heighten, that national character which had been formed by the wars with the Moors. And this national character ftill fhone forth with undiminished luftre after the imprudence of the court, and exhaufted refources, had undermined the foundations of the grandeur of the empire. As profperous war roufes the genius of a nation, the Character of the Spaniards; from glory of letters would have corre A the fame Author. WAR with the Saracens, prolonged, with few intervals, for eight hundred years, nourished in the Spaniards a vigour of character, a love of their country, and a paffion for glory. The neceffity of continually engaging, formed as many heroes as there were men in each city: military renown was the great object of their vows; and the tombs of the deceafed were adorned with a number of obelifks equal to that of the enemy they had flain in battle. While they lived expofed to continual dangers they acquired that gravity of deportment, that deliberate valour, that perfeverance and vigilance which ftill diftinguish the fponded to that of the Spanish arms, had not the progrefs of tafte and knowledge been checked by the tyranny of the inquifition, and that defpotifm which was introduced into the government. But although these circumftances have prevented among the Spaniards the growth of found philofophy, in their poetry, hiftory, romances, and even their commentaries the facred fcriptures, as well as on Ariftotle, whofe metaphyfical notions were deemed fo orthodox by the Catholic church, we recognize that boldnefs and invention, that fubtlety and refinement which were confpicuous for ages in the military and political conduct of Spain. ' : on Thus, that power of genius and valour among his fubjects, which * Johannes Genefius Sepulveda de Rebus Geftis, Caroli V. lib. 1. + Machiavel fays, in his Account of the State of France, that the French were afraid of the Spaniards on account of their fagacity and vigilance. It is true, that this account was written after Ferdinand had begun to reign; but it was before the exertions of that prince could have stamped on the minds of his fubjects, a national character. had the gly of being the laft that yield to the Roman yoke. But it was the fortune of the vanquifhe to receive literature and refipment from the conquerors of the world: and in return, Trajan ded luftre to the Roman purple; and the names of Quintilian, Martial, Mela, Seneca, Lucan, and Florus, appeared in the lift of Latin at once adorned and difgraced the ing, or as a loca circumstance Character of King James the Second, from Mrs. M. Graham's Hiftory of England. IT T was faid by the witty Duke of Buckingham, that "Charles the Second might do well if he would," and that " James would do well if he could:" an obfervation which fays little for the underftanding of James, but a great deal for his heart; and with all the blemishes with which his public character is ftained, he was not deficient in feveral qualities neceffary to compofe a good fovereign. His induftry in bufinefs was exemplary, he was frugal of the public money, he cherished and extended the maritime power of the empire, and his encouragement of trade was attended with fuch fuccefs, that, according to the obfervation of the impartial hiftorian Ralph, as the frugality of his adminiftration helped to increafe the number of malecontents, fo his extreme attention to trade was not lefs alarming to the whole body of the Dutch than his * Effay on the Hiftory of Mankind, &c. by Dr. Dunbar. This man, who had refifted the Roman arms for twenty years, and who was deemed invincible, was at last infidiously cut off by the Romans, who bribed his body guards. B 3 refolu refolution not to rush into a war with France was mortify to their ftadtholder. In domeftic life, the chracter of James, though not irreprychable, was comparatively good it. is true, he was in a great meafu. tainted with that licentiousness ot manners, which, at this time, pervaded the whole fociety, and which reigned triumphant within the circle of the court; but he was never carried into any exceffes which trenched deeply on the du ties of focial life; and if the qualities of his heart were only to be judged by his conduct in the different characters of husband, father, master, and friend, he might be pronounced a man of a very amiable difpofition. But thofe who know not how to forgive injuries, and can never pardon the errors, the infirmities, the vices, or even the virtues of their fellow-creatures, when in any respect they affect perfonal intereft or inclination, will arm against them the fenfibility. of every humane, mind, and can never expect from others that juftice, and commiferation which themselves have never exercised. But whilst we execrate that rancorous cruelty with which James, in the fhort hour of triumph, perfecuted all thofe who endeavoured to thwart his ambitious hopes, it is but juftice to obferve, that the rank vices of pride, malice, and revenge, which fo deeply blacken his conduct, whilft he figured in the station of prefumptive heir to the crown, and afterwards in the character of fovereign on the fuccefsful quel ling the Monmouth rebellion, were thoroughly corrected by the chaftening hand of affliction; that the whole period of his life, from 1 difgraceful terms of abjuring the principles of the reformation, and embracing the principles of a religion, which, from his early infancy, he had been taught to regard as idolatrous and prophane. rm the piety of his popith adheTents, and to effect a reformation in those who still continued firm to the doctrines of the church of England. He vifited the monks of la Trappe once a year, the fevereft order of religionifts in The dominion of error over France; and his conformity to the the minds of the generality of difcipline of the convent was fo mankind is irrefiftible. James, to ftrict and exact, that he impreff d the laft hour of his life, continued those devotees with fentiments of as great a bigot to his political as admiration at his piety, humi his religious errors: he could not lity, and conftancy. Thus hav hel confidering the ftrength and ing fpent twelve years with a power of the crown as a circum. higher degree of peace and tran. ftance neceffary to the prefervation quillity than he had ever experi, and happiness of the people; and, enced in the moft triumphant part in a letter of advice, which he, of his life, he was feized with a wrote to his fon, whilft he con. palfy in September, 1701, and jores him to pay a religious ob after languifhing fifteen days, died fervance to all the duties of a good in the fixty-eighth year of his age, fovereign, he cautions him against having filled up the interval, br. fuffering any entrenchment on tween his first feizure and final royal prerogative. Among fe exit, with the whole train of re veral heads, containing excellent ligious exercifes enjoined on fi. inftructions on the art of reigning milar occafions by the church of happily and juftly, he warns the Rome, with folemn and repeated young prince never to attempt to profeffions of his faith, and ear. difquiet his fubjects in their proneft exhortations to his two chil. perty or their religion; and, what dren, the youngest of whom was 19 very remarkable, to his laft born in the fecond year of his breath he perfifted in afferting, exile, to keep ftedfaft to the reli. that he never intended to fubvert gion in which they had been edu, the laws, or procure more than a cated. Thefe precepts and com, toleration and an equality of primands have acted with a force fu. vilege to his catholic fubjects. As perior to all the temptations of a there is great reafon to believe this crown, and have been adhered to affertion to be true, it fhews, that with a firmness which obliges an the delufion was incurable under hiftorian to acknowledge the fu. which the king laboured, by the periority which James's defcend. truft he had put in the knavish ants, in the nice points of honour doctrines of lawyers and priests; and confcience, have gained over and that neither himself, nor his the character of Henry the Fourth, proteftant abetters, could fathom who, at the period when he was the confequences of that enlarged looked up to as the great hero of fyftem of toleration which he endea the proteftant caufe, made no voured to eftablish. fcruple to accept a crown on the B 4 Defcrips Defcription of the Rejangs in the Ifland of Sumatra, extracted from the Hiftory of that Ifland, by W. Marfden, F. R.. late Secretary to the Prefident and Council of Fort Marlborough. TH HEY are placed in what may be called a central fituation, not geographically, but with refpect to the encroachments of foreign manners and opinions, introduced by the Malays, from the north, and Javans from the fouth; which gives them a claim to originality, fuperior to that of moft others. They are a people whofe form of government and whofe laws extend, with very little variation, over a confiderable part of the island, and principally that portion where the connexions of the English lie. There are traditions of their having formerly fent forth colonies to the fouthward; and in the country of Pasfummah, the fite of their villages is ftill pointed out; which would prove that they have formerly been of more confideration than they can boast at prefent. They have a proper language, and a perfect written character, that is become of general ufe in many remote districts. Thefe advantages point out the Rejang people as an eligible ftandard of defcription; and a motive equally ftrong that induces me to adopt them as fuch, is, that my fituation and connexions on the island, led me to a more intimate and minute acquaintance with their laws and manners, than with thofe of any other clafs. I muft premife however that the Malay cuftoms having made their way, in a greater or lefs degree, to every part of Sumatra, it will be totally impoffible to difcriminate, with entire accuracy, thofe which are original, from thofe which are bor. rowed; and of course, what I fhall fay of the Rejangs, will apply for the most part, not only to the Sumatrans in general, but may fometimes be, in ftrictness, proper to the Malays alone, and by them taught to the higher rank of country people. The country of the Rejangs is divided, to the north-weft, from the kingdom of Anac Soongey (of which Moco Moco is the capital) by the fmall river of Oori, near that of Cattown; which laft, with the district of Laboone on its banks, bounds it on the north or inland fide. The country of Moofee, where Palembang river takes its rife, forms its limit to the eaftward. Bencoolen river, precisely fpeaking, confines it on the foutheaft; though the inhabitants of the diftrict called Lemba, extending from thence to Silebar, are entirely the fame people, in manners and language. The principal rivers, befides thofe already mentioned, are Laye, Pally, and Soongeylamo; on all of which the English have factories, the refident or chief being ftationed at Laye. The perfons of the inhabitants of the ifland, though differing confiderably in districts remote from each other, may in general be comprehended in the following defcription; excepting the Achenefe, whofe commixture with the Moors of the weft of India, has diftinguished them from the other Sumatrans. They are rather below the minddle ftature; their bulk is in pro portion; |