revenue at fol. per pipe, which is less than it actually is, will amount to 3,000,000l. sterling.

"Admitting then that Portugal may eventually share the same fate as Spain, this source of commerce will necessarily be dried up; and it may be asked, in what new channels will it then flow? Would the whole Brazils, if even in our possession, take in manufactures and produce an equivalent for what we should lose by the loss of our trade with Portugal, and afford us return cargoes of equal value, and which would contribute an equal sum to the revenue of the state? In their present condition, I have no hesitation in saying, they certainly would not; but, at the same time, I have little doubt that by removing the obstacles that have impeded cultivation, abolishing monopolies, reducing the impolitic duties on exports, and opening a communication by good roads between the principal ports and the interior settlements, they would not only in a few yeas consume more than Portugal now takes from us, but would be able to meet the value of supplies sent out to them in the important articles of coffee, cocoa, cotton, indigo, sugar, drugs, timber and other commodities, which by proper encouragement might be produced to any ex. tent. Nor would the revenue be any great sufferer. The deficit in duties would be more than made up by the wines of Portugal, which, like those of France would still find their way into England, and the more readily since no other nation would take them off her hands on any terms. Com. merce, like water, will always find its own level. The stream may flow in different channels with different degrees of rapidity, and may be di verted by various obstacles from a direct course, but it will ultimately succeed in working out a passage, and find its way to the great reservoir which is destined to receive it. That nation which commands the ocean, can at all times direct the commerce of the world."

We have frequently endeavoured, both during the last and the present war, to direct the attention of our Government to the Brazils; and to impress them with a conviction of the extreme importance of taking the most effective measures for preventing the French from obtaining a footing in that country, and even if necessary, of occupying it ourselves, till a general peace, with a view to deter the French from invading Portugal itself. Mr. Barrow seems to be impressed with much the same notions respecting this colony as ourselves.

"Whatever step the court of Portugal may be compelled to take in the present critical juncture, it will behove England to keep a watchful eye on its colonies, and especially those of the Brazils. Were the French once suffered to get possession of Rio de Janeiro, the natural strength of the country is so commanding, and the advantages it possesses so important, that it would be no easy matter to drive them out of it by force, or prevail on them to quit it by treaty. I am not sure also that, next to one of the royal family of Portugal, French interest might not preponderate in the interior of the country, where the descendants of the French Jesuits are not unmindful of their origin, and with whom the restoration of the order would be attended with no small degree of influence. And al though in the sea-port towns, the trading part of the nation might feel is, their interest to throw themselves under the protection of the English flag,

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thinking by such a change to acquire a free and unrestrained commerce; yet such is the sway which the priesthood possesses over the laity, that the difficulties are immense which a protestant government would have to encounter. It is probable also that the present imbecile government of Portugal may be compelled to court an alliance with France, though the result must inevitably be ruinous to her present declining trade and to her colonies."

Assuredly an union of vigilance, wisdom and vigour, is requisite at this critical juncture, in the conduct of our Government to that of Portugal. With such an enemy as we have in the heart of Europe, vindictive and inveterate, bent upon our ruin, whether at war or at peace with us, and resolved to exert all his arts and his power, to cramp, if not to destroy, our commerce with the Continent, it behoves us to suffer no opportunity to escape for opening new channels for our trade, and for preserving those which are still open to us. We trust, therefore, that our Government will not, for a moment, lose sight of Portugal and her colonies. Before we quit the Brazils we must notice something like a contradiction in our Author's account of the provisions in that colony. In p. 121, he tells us that "provisions of every description are plentiful and good;" whereas he had previously observed that their beef is lean and very indifferent, and mutton is scarcely to be had at any rate." P. 89. His observations on the probable consequences of a revolution in the Spanish Colonies of South America, are judicious, and prove that he has thought much and deeply on the subject; he is of opinion that such a revolution is not to be desired by this country.

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We cannot accompany this instructive traveller further on his voyage at present; but, leaving him to pursue his course from the Brazils, we propose to give him the meeting again, at Amsterdam Island next month.

Sir W. Forbes's Life of Dr. Beattie.

(Concluded from page 366, Fol. XXIV.)

ON the long agitated question, whether a public or a private edocation be the best for youth, very much has been said and written, by the different advocates for both, though no one, as we believe, has entered into a full and unreserved description of all the advantages and disadvantages of each of these systems. On such a subject, Dr. Beattie was very well qualified to speak, with a certain degree of decision, without exposing himself to the censure of presumption; and his sentiments upon it could not fail to be valuable. What he has said, in a Letter to Mrs. Inglis, is so well said, so much to the purpose, and comprizes so much in so small a compass, that we should fail in our duty to our readers, were we not to extract it.

"While I lived in your neighbourhood, I often wished for an opportunity of giving you my opinion on a subject, in which I know you are. very deeply interested; but one incident or other always put it out of my power. That subject is the education of your son, whom, if I mistake not, it is now high time to send to some public place of education. I have thought much on this subject; I have weighed every argument, that I could think of, on either side of the question. Much, you know, has been written upon it, and very plausible arguments have been offered, both for and against a public education. I set not much value upon these; speculating men are continually disputing, and the world is seldom the wiser. I have some little experience in this way; I have no hypothesis to mislead me; and the opinion or prejudice which I first formed upon the subject, was directly contrary to that, which experience has now taught me to entertain.

"Could mankind lead their lives in that solitude which is so favoura ble to many of our most virtuous affections, I should be clearly on the side of a private education. But most of us, when we go out into the world, find difficulties in our way, which good principles and innocence alone will not qualify us to encounter; we must have some address and knowledge of the world different from what is to be learned in books, or we shall soon be puzzled, disheartened, or disgusted. The foundation of this knowledge is laid in the intercourse of school-boys, or at least of young men of the same age. When a boy is always under the direction of a parent or tutor, he acquires such a habit of looking up to them (him) for advice, that he never learns to think or act for himself; his memory is exercised, indeed, in retaining their (bis) advice, but his invention is suffered to languish, till at last it becomes totally inactive. He knows, perhaps, a great deal of history or science; but he knows not how to conduct himself on those ever-changing emergencies, which are too minute and too numerous to be comprehended in any system of advice. He is astonished at the most common appearances, and discouraged with the most trifling (because unexpected) obstacles; and he is often at his wits end, where a boy of much less knowledge, but more experience, would instantly devise a thousand expedients. Conscious of his own superiority in some things, he wonders to find himself so much inferior in others; his vanity meets with continual rubs and disappointments, and disappointed vanity is very apt to degenerate into sullenness and pride; he despises, or affects to despise, his fellows, because, though superior in address, they are inferior in knowledge; and they, in their turn despise that knowledge, which cannot teach the owner how to behave on the most common occa. sions. Thus he keeps at a distance from his equals, and they at a distance from him; and mutual contempt is the natural consequence.

"Another inconvenience, attending private education, is the suppressing of the principle of emulation, without which it rarely happens that a boy prosecutes his studies with alacrity or success. I have heard private tutors complain, that they were obliged to have recourse to flattery or bribery to engage the attention of their pupils; and I need not observe, how improper it is to set the example of such practices before children. True emulation, especially in young and ingenuous minds, is a noble principle; I have known the happiest effects produced by it; I never knew it to be productive of any vice. In all public schools it is, or

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ought to be, carefully cherished. Where it is wanting, in vain shall we preach up to children the dignity and utility of knowledge: the true appetite for knowledge is wanting; and when that is the case, whatever is crammed into the memory will rather surfeit and enfeeble, than improve the understanding. I do not mentien the pleasure which young people take in the company of one another, and what a pity it is to deprive them of it. I need not remark, that friendships of the utmost stability and importance have cften been founded on school-acquaintance; nor need I put you in mind, of what vast consequence to health are the exercises and amusements which boys contrive for themselves. I shall only observe further, that, when boys pursue their studies at home, they are apt to contract either a habit of idleness, or too close an attachment to reading; the former breeds innumerable diseases, both in the body and soul; the latter, by filling young and tender minds with more knowledge than they can either retain or arrange properly, is apt to make them superficial and inattentive, or, what is worse, to strain, and consequently impair, the faculties, by over-stretching them. I have known several instances of both. The human mind is more improved by thoroughly understanding one science, one part of a science, or even one subject, than by a superficial knowledge of twenty sciences and a hundred different subjects: and I would rather wish my son to be thoroughly master of Euclid's Elements,' than to have the whole of Chambers's Dictionary' by heart.

"The great inconvenience of public education arises from its being dangerous to morals. And indeed every condition and period of human life is liable to temptation. Nor will I deny, that our innocence, during the first part of life, is much more secure at home, than any where else; yet even at home, when we reach a certain age, it is not perfectly secure. Let young men be kept at the greatest distance from bad company, it will not be easy to keep them from books, to which, in these days, all persons may have easy access at all times. Let us, however, suppose the best; that both bad books and bad company keep away, and that the man never leaves his parents' or tutor's side, till his mind be well furnished with good principles, and himself arrived at the age of reflection and caution yet temptations must come at last; and when they come, will they have the less strength, because they are new, unexpected, and surprising? I fear not. The more the young man is surprised, the more apt will he be to lose his presence of mind, and consequently the less capable of self-government. Besides, if his passions are strong, he will be disposed to form comparisons between his past state of restraint, and his present of liberty, very much to the disadvantage of the former. His new associates will laugh at him for his reserve and preciseness; and his unacquaintance with their manners, and with the world, as it will render him the more obnoxious to their ridicule, will also disqualify him the more, both for supporting it with dignity, and also for defending himself against it. Suppose him to be shocked with vice at its first appearance, and often to call to mind the good precepts he received in his early days; yet when he sees others daily adventuring upon it without any apparent inconvenience; when he sees them more gay (to appearance), and better received among all their acquaintance than he is; and when he finds himself hooted at, and in a manner avoided and despised, on account of his singularity; it is a wonder, indeed, if he persist in his first resolutions,

and

and do not now at last begin to think, that though his former teachers were well meaning people, they were by no means qualified to prescribe rules for his conduct. The world, (he will say), is changed since their time, (and you will not easily persuade young people that it changes for the worse): we must comply with the fashion, and live like other folks, otherwise we must give up all hopes of making a figure in it. And when he has got thus far, and begins to despise the opinions of his instructors, and to be dissatisfied with their conduct in regard to him, I need not add, that the worst consequences may not unreasonably be apprehended. A young man, kept by himself at home, is never well known, even by his parents; because he is never placed in those circumstances which alone are able effectually to rouse and interest his passions, and consequently to make his character appear. His parents, therefore, or tutors, never know his weak side, nor what particular advices or cautions he stands most in need of; if he had attended a public school, and mingled in the amusements and pursuits of his equals, his virtues and his vices would have been disclosing themselves every day; and his teachers would have known what particular precepts and examples it was most expedient to inculcate upon him. Compare those who have had a public education, with those who have been educated at home; and it will not be found, in fact, that the latter are, either in virtue or in talents, superior to the former. I speak, Madam, from observation of fact, as well as from attending to the nature of the thing."

In a Letter to the present Bishop of London, Dr. Beattie makes some judicious observations on Hawkesworth's voyages, then recently published, as well as some general reflections, which are more or less applicable to all writers of voyages and travels.

"I am very apt to be distrustful of our modern travellers, when I find them, after a three months residence in a country, of whose language they know next to nothing, explaining the moral and religious notions of the people, in such a way, as to favour the licentious theories of the age. I give them full credit for what they tell us of plants and minerals, and winds and tides; those things are obvious enough, and no knowledge of strange language is necessary to make one understand them; but as the morality of actions depends on the motives that give rise to them; and as it is impossible to understand the motives and principles of national customs, unless you thoroughly understand the language of the people, I should suspect that not one in ten thousand of our ordinary travellers, is qualified to decide upon the moral sentiments of a new discovered country. There is not one French author of my acquaintance, that seems to have any tolerable knowledge of the English Government, or of the character of the English nation; they ascribe to us sentiments which we never entertained; they draw, from our ordinary behaviour, conclusions directly contrary to truth; how then is it to be supposed, that Mr. Banks and Mr. Solander could understand the customs, the religion, government, and morals, of the people of Otaheite?”

It is really astonishing that so enlightened a nation, as France, in many respects certainly was, should be so completely ignorant of the

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