future troubles; while they are injurious to the true interefts of each party. He admonishes the clergy,and the aristocratics, that, if they do not yield, with a good grace, thofe claims which were granted in the days of ignorance, and which were founded in injuftice, they muft, in procefs of time, be wrested out of their hands; and that the rapid advances, which are making in political knowlege, and the acquaintance which the meaneft fubject poffeffes with his natural and unalienable rights, will not leave them in the quiet monopoly of power.

These are the leading articles contained in the Tocfin des Politiques; and they are treated with all the advantages of a good style, and nervous expreffion. The principles laid down concerning the nature of government, and the duty of fo- . vereigns, and which are propofed as a teft whereby we may judge of the political conduct of Leopold, are, in general, fuch as will be admitted by the politicians of the prefent day. The attack is fevere: it were a pity it fhould prove pertinent. A profufion of clemency, in a powerful Sovereign, is fo fingular and fo tranfcendent a virtue, that we fhould be forry to learn that the exercise of it is imprudence. Speculative politicians, who contemplate the defigns of courts at a diftance, and through media that are confused and imperfect, are feldom competent to pronounce with fo decifive a tone, concerning the motives or the conduct of thofe who move in a higher circle. We We may also obferve, that it is not difficult to philofophize on the past. When a plan has failed, which, in contemplation, appeared the most certain of fuccefs, reputation may be gained at a very cheap rate, by alleging, with an air of fuperiority, that the contrary plan ought by all means to have been put into execution. in fpeculation, it appeared, not merely to the Emperor, but alfo to those who think themselves much wifer, that the removal of grievances was the most probable method of conciliating the minds of his revolting fubje&s; and that severity would unite the difcordant parties against him as a common enemy.

M. SABATTIER attributes all the troubles that have taken place in the Auftrian Netherlands, to the factious spirit of the clergy, and to the intrigues and ambition of M. Crumpipen, who was at the head of the Ariftocratic party. He is accufed of employing all his influence to the mean purposes of enriching himself, and of aggrandizing his family. From these motives, he rendered the Count de Belgiofo unpopular. His impatience of a fuperior in authority made him exert every effort to recover thofe privileges, which rendered a plenipotentiary unneceffary and fuperfluous: yet, the author obferves,

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to this man was committed every important fecret of state, and a third plenipotentiary was commanded to place the utmost confidence in one who was the principal caufe of all their disfenfions. It was by his advice, alfo, (with whom the Emperor had a conference of feveral hours at Frankfort, at the time of his coronation,) that lenient meafures were refolved to be adopted, and that the declaration was made of the Emperor's unbounded clemency; which clemency, Crumpipen himself required more than any of the revolters.

M. SABATTIER is the declared champion of monarchic government; which, he concludes, must be the moft ftable; fince the wretched minifters who have, in every period, furrounded thrones, have seldom been able to fubvert that form :but, in his addrefs to the inhabitants of the Netherlands, in which he advifes them to fubmit entirely to the authority of their Sovereign, he expreffes himself in terms worthy of a difciple of Linguet, at the period when he was an advocate for defpotifm. After enlarging, for feveral pages, on the position that Kings fhould poffefs the plenitude of power, he has the following curious affertions:

You will fay, the monarch will become defpotic. So much the better for his people:- for if defpotitm renders individuals unfortunate, it always promotes the general good. Whatever common politicians may affert, it is the only efficacious remedy against diforders and abufes, when they are rifen to a certain height. It was this which gave occafion to a dictator among the Romans. Exclufively of the abufe of an authority that is limited and precarious, which naturally feeks its own increafe and fecurity by every method, it may be afferted, with truth, that defpotifm, properly explained, would be the best of all governments, if it were exercited by fuch princes alone as Titus and Trajan, or by fuch minifters as Amboife and Sully. I dare alfo affirin, without danger of being oppored by obferving and reflecting minds, that a monarchy cannot profper without the aid of despotism; that is, abfolute power.'

Every true friend of liberty, and of the rights of mankind, will be difpofed to take the alarm, when fuch a writer as M. SABATTIER appears to be the advocate of defpotifm :-but when the reader is recovered from his panic, fufficiently to attend to the dexterous manner in which the author evades the force of all his own bold affertions, he will again rejoice at its being a falfe alarm -for M. SABATTIER, like members of parliament, when they have been too vehement in their affertions, proceeds to explain away what he perceives might give offence:

Defpotifm

Defpotifm is not that violent authority which thunders without deliberating; which is precipitate without restraint; and which is directed by caprice, and makes personal intereft the only principle and object of conduct. This fpecies of authority is tyranny, that is, the greatest enemy of monarchy. By defpotifm, I understand the exercife of that unreftrained and abfolute power of a prince, which is fubmiffive to the fundamental and conftitutional laws of the ftate: which cannot be violated without fhaking the throne; and which he has no intereft to violate, because they are the guarantees of his fafety, as well as of that of his fubjects.'

Thus a profufion of vehement and paradoxical expreffion terminates in the fimple truth, that laws ought to be wife and good; and that the executive power fhould not be impeded in his attempts to enforce them!-but this fpecies of exculpation does not prevent the author from relapfing; for he immediately adds, whoever refleas, will acknowlege that the times of energy and of profperity, that the happy days of all the monarchies of Europe, are thofe when their Sovereigns are independent and abfolute. Subjects only know how to obey thofe princes who know how to command: but who can properly command, when his power is limited? To maintain good order, it is neceflary that a Monarch fhould poffefs the fame authority over his fubjects, as a General exercises over those who compofe his army.'

We fhall not detain our readers by making those comments on fuch expreffions, which they deserve. We fhall fubmit it to their determination, whether the author has chofen this extravagant language, in order that he may feem to fay fomething very new on a very trite fubject; or whether he has a more culpable defign. Perhaps his vanity will be the moft offended by pronouncing him injudicious.

ART. XXII. Caii Julii Cæfaris Opera Omnia.
2 Vols. 8vo.
Large Paper, 11. 16s. Boards. Small Paper, 14s. Boards.
Payne, London. 1790.

IN

Na former volume of the Review*, we recommended an edition of Salluft to our readers, on account of its beauty and accuracy; and now, with much higher praife, for the elegance of the typography, the excellence of the paper, and the correctness of the text, the fame editor and bookfeller have enabled us to beftow our unlimited commendations on an edition of the works of Julius Cefar.

Appendix to NEW SERIES, vol. i. p. 582.

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The

The first volume contains the feven books De Bello Gallico, with Hirtius's Continuation; Nomenclator Geographicus, principally from Ortelius; Jofeph Scaliger's Notitia Gallica; Clark's Index of the Nations, Towns, and Rivers in Gaul; the Fragments of Cefar's Works, which are loft; and Dodwell's Differtation on the Author of the Supplements of Cefar's Works. This volume is alfo ornamented with a beautiful head of Julius Cefar, from a medal in Hunter's Mufeum; a map of the principal places mentioned by Cefar; a map of Ancient Gaul; and a plan of the celebrated bridge over the Rhine.

The fecond volume contains Bellum Civile, Hirtius De Bello Alexandrino, and Africano, with the book De Bello Hifpanienfi, incerti Auctoris, a map of Ancient Spain, and a good index of the principal facts recorded in the whole of Cefar's Commentaries.

These two volumes, printed by Richie and Sammels, typis Jackfanianis, may be confidered by the admirers of beautiful typography, as fpecimens of the excellency at which this art has now arrived in England; and they may claim a large portion of the praise for the exertion that has of late been made to obliterate the difgrace, which, by the negligence and carelessnefs of too many of our printers, has fo long over-clouded the preffes of England.

The text of Oudendorp has been followed in this edition; and it ought to be obferved, that, while the large paper copies merit a place in the libraries of the curious and the learned, thofe on fmall paper must be confidered as excellent schoolbooks; in few of which has any attention been paid to beauty of type, and correctnefs of printing; though they are, perhaps, on the whole, in no one rank of editions fo abfolutely neceffary.

INDEX

IN DE X

To the REMARKABLE PASSAGES in this Volume.

N. B. To find any particular Book, or Pamphlet, fee the
Table of Contents, prefixed to the Volume.