1 "Nature has provided, in those climates, parafols for whole villages; for the fig-tree, denominated, in India, the fig-tree of the Banians, a drawing of which may be feen in Tavernier, and in feveral other travellers, grows on the very burning fand of the fea-fhore, throwing, from the extremity of its branches, a multiutde of shoots, which drop to the ground, there take root, and form around the principal trunk, a great number of covered arcades, whofe fhade is impervi ous to the rays of the fun. amufe him, fet fire to the moffes of fome and inundated by the rains, for fix "The interefting and unfortunate Robert Knox, who has given the beft account of Ceylon which I am acquainted with, tells us, that one of the leaves of the talipot is capable of covering from fifteen to twenty perfons. When it is dry, continues he, it is at once ftrong and pliant, so that you may fold and unfold it at pleasure, being naturally plaited like a fan. In this fate it is not bigger than a man's arm, and extremely light. The natives cut it into triangles, though it naturally round, and each of them carries one of thofe fections over his head, bolding the angular part before, in his hand, to open for himself a paffage through the bushes. The foldiers employ this leaf as a covering to their tents. He confiders it, and with good reafon, as one of the greatest bleflings of Providence, in a country burnt up by the fun, 2 "In our temperate climates, we ex- "Nature has placed other vegetables ed ed powder magazines, perfc&ly found, though it had lain there from the time of Peter the Great." ed from under the earth which cover- emergency, he could amply fupply. He was much readier at finding a hare, than a text of fcripture; and though he was fcarce acquainted with the face of one character of every hound in the squire's of his parishioners, he knew exactly the pack; and could run over their names with much more readiness than those of the twelve apoftles*. He had at length the misfortune to break his neck at the end of a fox-chafe, but not till he had first broken the heart of a very amiable woman, who had unhappily connected herself with him. Three Dialogues on the Amufements of "I remember," faid the Dean, "a clergyman in a neighbourhood where I once lived, who had two benefices; but he spent little time at either of them, becaufe neither happened to be in a sporting country. The hunting feafon he always spent near a fquire in the parish next to mine, whofe dif ciplined pack was famous. With this gentleman, and his hounds, he lived on terms of the greatest intimacy. Indeed both the fquire and his dogs looked up to him as their ableft leader. Though he was a miferable preacher, he was uncommonly mufical in the field; and could cheer and animate his fonorous friends with an eloquence beyond the buntfman himself, whofe affociate he always was, and whofe place, on any "Such a clergyman, said I, is hardly to be paralleled in a century. But in an inferior degree, I fear, there are many of our brethren, who allow themselves great indulgence. I remember a hunting clergyman, who received a very proper rebuke from one of his brethren; and which I have reason to believe was of service to him as long as he lived. He had been lamenting his unfortunate lot, in being ftationed in a country where there was no hunting. The other looking him full in the face, faid with great gravity of countenance, and in a deliberate tone of voice; "At the great day of accounts, the queftion will not be, where have you lived; but how have you lived?"All this however is carrying amufement to excefs. But fuppofe, Sir, when you are riding out, you hap pen to hear the hounds, is there any harm merely in taking a little exercife with them, if you do not join in the riot of the chafe? "I hate, faid the Dean, to see a man He takes the field; the mafter of the pack, the back. Is this the path of fanctity? Is this COWPER." eagerly eagerly engaged in a fox-chafe, when the fox took to earth, as they call it: on which he cried out, "Gentlemen, I mut leave you: This puts me in mind, that I have a corpfe to bury at four o'clock this evening; and I fear I fhall be an hour too late."-Befides, contimed the Dean, you cannot well avoid, in this field of riot, at leaft if you are of ten feen in it, making an acquaintance with feveral, to whom, for your character's lake, you would not with to be known. But indeed, as I obferved, to hix, in any degree, in these scenes of eruelty, and riotous exultation, is unbecoming the clerical profeffion.-Farther fill, (to clofe my argument with fcripture,) I fhould with you to confider, that as many good people, as well as I, difapprove a clergyman's mixing in the fe riotous amusements, so of course it will give offence to all these good people. No man therefore, who has the honour of his profeffion at heart, would give of fence, where the matter in question is of fo little confequence as a mere amufe. ment. Let him confider how ftrict St Paul was in matters of this kind. St Paul's example is certainly not very fafhionable; but with a clergyman, I hould hope it might have fome weight. He gives us many hints, which come bome to the point we are now difcuffing. Hunting was out of the queftion. He would not certainly have permitted Timothy or Titus to hunt, if they had been fo difpofed. But he forbids us to give offence in matters that are of much more concern than mere amusement. If meat, fays he, make my brother to of fend, I will eat no flesh while the world fandeth, left I make my brother to offend." An Inquiry into the Foundation and Hif ory of the Law of Nations in Europe, from the Time of the Greeks and Romans, to the Age of Grotius. By Robert Ward of the Inner Temple, Efq; Barrister at Law. 2 Vols. 8vo. 15s. IT has often been noticed, that in almoft every other art and fcience, Britain has produced authors whofe works hold a diftingushed rank in the republic of letters: but she has scarcely given birth to one writer on general law, whofe works are cited out of her own courts of juftice, or read by the learned of other nations. Lord Bolingbroke, who fometimes took a pleafure in expofing the defects of his countrymen, has, on more than one occafion, made this remark in his writings. The present work will perhaps contribute much to wipe off this reproach. As a fpecimen, we fhall give an extract from that part, where the author treats of the influence of Christianity, and ecclefiaftical establishments on the law of nations. "THE law of nations being founded in a great measure upon the fyftems of morality, good or bad, pursued by certain fets or claffes of people; and religion being every where the ground-work of the morality obferved, the Chriflian religion, as we have mentioned in chapter 5, may be fuppofed not merely to influence, but to be the chief guide of the Chriftian law of nations. "It certainly has had fo powerful an effe& upon it, that wherever it has exifted, it has gone the fartheft of all causes to introduce notions of humanity and true juftice into the maxims of the world. The great proof of which is, that if we compare the conduct of Chriftian nations with that of nations profefling any other religion, (whatever may be their ftages of improvement, or in whatever era of their glory), the refuit, I believe, will be uniform and universal, that the one will be eminent over the other for regularity, equity, and benevolence. In making the comparifon, it would be unfair to bring into the account, any of those nations that are ftill approaching to a ftate of nature. I pafs by, therefore, all people who may yet be denominated favage, and refer for the fake of greater accuracy, to the most eminent alone of the nations of antiquity, and of the moderns who live under a perfuation different from ours. "The Greeks under the æras of Peri cles, Socrates, Epaminondas, and Agefilaus; and the Romans, under the reign of Auguftus, (which for polish and refinement has become proverbial), had advanced, I believe it will be owned, to their fummit in every fort of knowledge: the names of Socrates and Cicero would alone be fufficient to prove it. Yet we need only refer to the flight sketch already given of their maxims, with refpect to their intercourse with foreigners,(chap. 6). to be convinced of their backwardnefs in the knowlege of the law of nations confidered as a science. "If commerce and the acquifition of riches, by vifiting every nation in the known tion in this law, the Carthaginians promifed fair to be, in this refpect, the maft perfect people of antiquity. The favagenefs, rapacity, and injuftice however of every kind, which marked their conduct towards all foreign nations, are too well known to detain us longer upon them. known world, could conduce to perfec- afterwards, Europe was torn to pieces." by the rage of different races of barbarians, who preffed upon one another too faft to allow any time for the milder doctrines of peace to take effect, and who moft of them profeffed a religion whofe precepts were-the very reverse of those of Chriftianity. The undulations of that form remained long after, and the corruptions, the degeneracy, and dissentions of the church, prevented it from fulfilling its duty, even when order had been restored. "If we look to the Mahometan and Turkish nations, (though their power has been equal to the greatest, and their empire of confiderable duration), their ignorance and barbarity repress all examination, and if they have received any improvement fince the days when they firft fet foot in Europe, it is probably from their connection with the people profeffing the very religion which they muft hate and defpife. "The fame inferiority in this fort of conduct, is to be found even among the Chinese, fo famed for eminence in every other branch of knowledge, and in the fcience of morals itself. Their wars have always been carried on with Eaftern barbarity, and their known laws againft ftrangers would alone demonftrate the point. "Among the Chriftians, on the other hand, every thing is conducted, or at leaft enjoined, by received and general laws, upon principles of the moft extenfive humanity, and the most regular juftice. "I am aware that this was by no means the cafe during the centuries before us, of which the picture of manners brought forward in chapter 9, is a fufficient proof; and as Chriflianity had been, then long known in the world, it may fairly be asked of us, if the precepts which it holds forth are the chief caufes of that benevolent and equal morality on which the modern nations pride them felves, how it came to pafs that during all the ages that have been mentioned, its effects were not more vifible upon the customs of mankind? "The answer is to be drawn partly from circumftances in the Hiftory of Europe, partly from the remotenefs which is often to be obferved between caute and effect. More than three hundred years paffed on before it was poffible for Chriftianity to interpofe with effect in the laws of the world; thofe who had the power of making laws, having been fo far from adopting its precepts, that it became the object of their moft violent perfecutions. For four hundred years "The volume of duty, however, laid before us by Chrift, continued always the fame; and whoever confulted it even in the dark interpretations which ambition or avarice, fuperftition or ignorance, but too often put upon it, found benefit from it in the end. Its progrefs, though perpetually interrupted, was finally certain, and mankind at length enjoy what was intended for them long ago. "Let no one here fay with too great confidence, that the order now established in the law, is owing to extraneous caufes; to the natural tendency of men towards improvement; the establishment of government; the extention of commerce; or the progrefs of the sciences. -Thefe can no doubt do much; but could they of themselves alone have reformed the law of nations, the fets of people we have just mentioned would have prefented us with a code of maxims, and a practical conduct, far different from that which we have been able to difcover, even at the very highest points of their refinement. Befides, nations, with one or two exceptions, have for the moft part dated their progress in morality from the epoch of their converfion; and in the hif tory of the corruptions of the church itself, it is confpicuous, that morality has been at its lowest ebb, when the church was moft abandoned to worldly affairs, or moft corrupted by bigotry and superftition. The progrefs of mankind, however, went on in all other points, notwithstanding their depraved notion of Christianity; had it also gone on in the fcience of morals, the argument would be fairly destroyed. 66 An example of the truth of the fe obfervations is but too near us both in time and place; for it has been obvious, that the people of France were led, firft to tolerate, and then to rejoice in the shocking crimes of their convention, in almoft exact proportion as the latter was able to extinguish among them their ideas of religion. They afford us the proof alfo of the connection between morality and the law of nations, fince the extinction of the one, was the fignal for those pretentions and ufurpations which justly drove away their ambassador from a refpectable republic, (America), and called the greater part of Europe to arms." The Proceedings of the Governor and Af fembly of Jamaica, in regard to the Maroon Negroes: published by Order of the Affembly. To which is prefixed, An Introductory Account, containing Observations on the Dif pofition, Character, Manners, and Habits of Life, of the Maroons; and a Detail of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the late War between thofe People and the White Inhabitants. gs. boards. Stockdale. AS this comes from the pen of Mr Edwards, the refpectable author of the Hiftory of the West Indies, and as the kiftory and nature of this horde of beings (the Maroons) is little known, we shall endeavour to give an abstract of this interefting account. "THE Maroons were a part of the Spanish flaves, who, when Jamaica was conquered by the English, in 1655, remained in the faftneffes of the island; and from their retreats continually harraffed the British planters. They have often been reinforced by fugitive flaves, and in 1730 were grown fo formidable, that it became expedient to ftrengthen the colony by two regiments of regular troops. Thefe, with the militia, were divided into parties; one of which, under Captain Stoddart, in 1734, attacked one of the Maroon towns called Nauny, fituated on one of the highest mountains of the island; and he fo far deftroyed or difperfed its inhabitants, that they were not afterwards able to effect any enterprife of moment in that quarter. Another victory gained over them, by Captain Edmonds, fo reduced their ftrength, and filled them with fo much terror, that they did not again appear in any confiderable body. Still, however, they continued to diftrefs the planters: fetting fire to the cane-fields, killing the cattle, carrying off the flaves, and barbaroufly murdering fuch whites as came n their way, and were unable to make refiftance. To prevent thefe horrid depredations, the Asembly ordered bar VOL. LIX. racks, fortified with bastions, to be erected in different parts of the inland, and as near as poffible to the enemy's fa vourite haunts. Every barrack was furnifhed with a pack of dogs; it being foreseen that thefe animals would prove extremely ferviceable, not only in guarding against surprises in the night, but in tracking the enemy." About the year 1737, the Affembly took into their pay 200 Mofquito Indians, who were confiderably ferviceable, and the moft proper troops to be employed in a bush-fighting warfare. In 1738, Governor Trelawney propofed to the Maroon chiefs overtures of peace; the Maroons embraced the offer; and ratified; and 2500 acres of land articles of pacification* were drawn up were affigned and fecured, by the legiflature, to them and their posterity in perpetuity. "Thus an end was at length happily put to this tedious and ruinous conteft; a conteft which, while it lafted, feemed to portend nothing less than the ruin of the whole colony. Hitherto the account given by Mr Edwards is extracted from Long's History of Jamaica: but he now, in fection 2, takes up the fubject where that writer left it; and, after fome pertinent reflec tions on the character and manners of the Maroons, traces the caufes of their late revolt to its origin, and gives a fhort but comprehenfive narrative of the war itself, their defeat, fubmiffion, and expulfion from the island. We now come to the immediate caufe of the late Maroon war. "In July 1795, two Maroons, having ftolen fome pigs, were apprehended, fent to Montego Bay, and tried for this offence againft the law. The jury found them guilty; and the magiftrates ordered each of them to receive thirty lafhes, on the bare back: which flagellation was performed by the black overfeer of the workhouse negroes. On the difcharge of thefe men, and on their arrival at Trelawney Town, the whole body of Maroons affembled; and, after having forced Captain Crafkell, the fuperintendant, to quit the town, they fent a written defiance to the magiftrates of Montego Bay, and threatened to attack that town on the 20th of that month. In confequence, General Palmer called out the militia; and eighty dragoons were, at his requeft, fent The articles are given at large by the author, at the conclusion of his first Section. G from |