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sailed from New York on the 6th of September, 1814, in the good ship Columbia, which never returned to any part of the United States, nor, until this publication, was ever heard of in any kingdom of the world. We were bound to China by the way of New South Wales, and as our voyage for nearly three months was prosperous and without unusual accident, I pass it by altogether.—On the 10th of February a storm arose, which soon increasing to a hurricane, accompanied with the most tremendous thunder and lightning, our ship, by the pressure of the one and the stroke of the other, became in a few hours an unmanageable wreck, her rudder being torn away, and her masts levelled with the decks. For nearly a month from that period a journal would be dismal

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 dismal and uninteresting, as we drifted with every change of wind or current over a trackless ocean; except that astronomy having been rather a passion than a study from my earliest youth, I carefully noted every day at noon, by my quadrant and time-piece, our forlorn position; a precaution which I shall always consider as the most fortunate circumstance of my life. The particulars, however, are omitted: a seaman's log-book would, I suppose, have but an indifferent sale in Bond Street.

On the 16th of March, after full day had risen upon us, we found ourselves as it were overtaken by a second night.—The sea was convulsed into whirlpools all around us, by the obstruction of innumerable rocks, and we were soon afterwards hurried on by a current, in no way resembling any which navigators have recorded. We felt its influence under the shadow of a dark cloud, between two tremendous precipices overhanging and seemingly almost closing up the entrance which received us. Its Rh

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 impetuosity was three times greater, at the least, than even the Rapids above the American Niagara, so that nothing but its almost incredible smoothness could have prevented our ship, though of five hundred tons burthen, from being swept by it under water, as our velocity could not be less, at the lowest computation, than twenty-five or rather thirty miles an hour. The stream appeared evidently to owe its rapidity to compression, though not wholly to the compression of land, its boundary on one side, if boundary it ought to be called, appearing rather like Chaos and Old Night; and what was most striking and extraordinary, we could see from the deck, not above two ships' length from us, another current running with equal force in the opposite direction, but separated from our's by pointed rocks, which appeared all along above the surface, with breakers dashing over them. Neither of the channels, as far as my eye could estimate their extent, were above fifty yards wide, nor at a greater distance from each other, and they were so even in their directions, that we

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 we went forward like an arrow from a bow, without the smallest deviation towards the rocks on one side, or the dreary obscurity on the other.

In this manner we were carried on, without the smallest traceable variation, till the 18th of June, a period of three months and two days, in which time, if my above-stated calculation of our progress be any thing like correct, and I am sure I do not over-rate it, we must have gone straight onward above seventy thousand miles, a space nearly three times the circumference of the earth. On the evening of that day which was to become memorable by the triumphant termination of the immortal battle of Waterloo, and which on my account also, though without any merit of mine, will be a new æra in the history of the world, we found ourselves suddenly emerging into a wide sea as smooth as glass—the heavens above twinkling with stars, some of which I had never seen before, and some of our own constellations, which were visible, shone out with increased lustre, though still not subtending any angle to Rh

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 the naked sight, while others of our hemisphere appeared more distant, and some I missed altogether; but the moon, full orbed, was by far the most striking object, appearing more than double her size with us, and her light, though borrowed, proportionally resplendent.

I shall not attempt to describe my astonishment at this sublime and hitherto super-human spectacle, because having been in all latitudes, and being, as I have already said, familiar with astronomy in its abstrusest branches, I was now fully convinced, not only that I was in no part of the world ever visited before, but that there was something else belonging to the world itself never even known or imagined. I am well aware that the figure and extent of our planet can neither be denied nor doubted; the moon, whilst I am writing, is just touching the sun's vertical disk within a second of calculated time, and moving onward to predicted eclipse; and in my voyage homewards, I saw the moon at

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 the foretold moment wading into the earth's shadow, and at last totally obscured.—The revolutions round our axis and in our orbit mock in their precision the most celebrated inventions by which the astonishing art of man has contrived to measure even their shortest periods; and as the fixed stars, from wherever seen upon our earth, must be uniformly visible in the same positions and magnitudes, I could account, at the moment, in no other way for the position of the ocean in which I now found myself, than by supposing we had a ring like Saturn, which, by reason of our atmosphere, could not be seen at such an immense distance, and which was accessible only by a channel so narrow and so guarded by surrounding rocks and whirlpools, that even the vagrancy of modern navigators had never before fallen in with it, they having always hitherto been sent back, like other vagrants, to their original settlements. An unsurmountable objection, however, after a little attention, soon opposed itself to the theory of this sea being on such a ring; because, though

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 from its distance it might not be visible through our atmosphere, yet, as it must occasionally intercept the sun's body in the earth's diurnal revolutions, its existence must always have been palpable. The phenomenon therefore may, perhaps, be better accounted for, by supposing that the channel I had passed connected our earth and its counterpart which had just received me, like the chain of a double-headed shot, both of which might revolve around the sun together, and the moon around both, the interjacent channel revolving along with them.—There is nothing in this hypothesis at all inconsistent with the Newtonian system, which, standing upon the basis of mathematical truth, cannot be shaken in the mind of any reasonable being; but this channel may exist in perfect harmony with it; indeed it is no more inconsistent with the round figure of the earth to have such an appendage protruded from it, than it is unnatural for cows and horses, or other round animals, to have tails; or, to come closer to the subject, than that comets should have them, which are now believed

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 to be opaque bodies like our own; but the best way after all, out of these and all other difficulties, is to hark back to the fact.—I am not in the least anxious to be the author of any new theory of the earth, nor to rival the justly celebrated Herschel in the discovery of other worlds, but I am conscious of my own integrity, and cannot doubt the evidence of my senses.—If this sea, therefore, and the country whose shores it washes beyond it, and which I afterwards visited, can be considered as part of our earth, let them, in God's name, be so considered—and if they cannot, then let philosophy and fancy go each their own way to find places for them: I shall stand perfectly neuter in the controversy.—It is enough for me that I possess the celestial observations taken as we entered the jaws of the current, and as we escaped from its dominion; these fortunate precautions enabled me to return to England, and could at pleasure lead me back again; but the discovery no man can expect from me without a corresponding compensation.—If ten thousand pounds were given to

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 Harrison for a time-piece not now in use, being long ago left in the shade by the still advancing light of British genius, and which after all was only tried in a voyage to Barbadoes—what reward may not honestly be demanded for leading the way to regions never heard of, nor conceived in the most romantic fancy, placed for ages beyond mortal ken, and opening, as the reader will see hereafter, to the discovery of a nation as highly civilized as our own, though differing from it almost throughout in all the distinguishing characteristics of mankind? I am well aware, however, that until my veracity shall be established by the Board of Admiralty, doubts may remain in the minds of some as to the authority of this history, yet as far as it has advanced hitherto, there is surely nothing in the least incredible.—Even thirty years ago, a man would not have received more immediate credit who had proposed to produce, at his pleasure and at any distances, the explosions of celestial fire; or to rise above the clouds, and pass the channel which divides us from the

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 Continent, in a globe of oiled silk; or who should have staked a large sum to rival even British navigation, by impelling a vessel with condensed steam against the winds and tides.—As little would any man have then ventured into a coal-pit, upon the trust that the same means employed as a hydraulic engine would clear it of the torrents rushing in every direction through the bowels of the earth; and least of all, that he could safely contend there against the most mortal elements of the subterranean world, by having the magic lantern of Davy by his side.

But before I leave for ever this imaginary obstacle to the reception of my adventures, it may be as well to give a decisive answer at once to sceptical readers of every description, upon reasons more within general reach than the principles of philosophy or mathematics. It is not known to the multitude that the earth is held in her place by the attraction of the sun, but all the world knows that every man is attracted by his own interests.—If I

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 had written a romance and not a real history, I must be a lunatic not to blazon it in the largest characters even in the title-page of my work.—No human stupidity or folly ever failed so far in the composition of a novel as to defeat its popularity to the extent of at least two editions, which the circulating libraries of themselves take off, without the sale of a single volume to the collectors of books; whereas no human learning or wisdom employed upon realities can now-a-days look much farther than to an indemnity for the paper and the types.—High reputation, indeed, (a rare phenomenon!) with the aids of hot-pressed foolscap, a broad margin and expensive engravings, may force a passage for history through the libraries of the great, but Novels alone are the books of universal sale.—The only actual historians are the Editors of Newspapers, and bankruptcy would soon overtake even their most favoured proprietors, if they were fettered in their columns by truth. This most useful class of men are therefore shamefully calumniated for their occasional

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 deviations from it.—Printing, in a free country, is surely a lawful trade; and when a man opens a shop, he must of course fill it with such wares as are saleable.—He is not to set the fashions, but to maintain his family by following them. The road therefore was plain before me. The discovery of new lands had often been made the vehicle of romance or satire—witness the voyages of Panurge, Gulliver, and Sinbad the Sailor; nor would the resort to such a fiction have been plagiary when the objects were so different, as mine will be found to be.—The foreign voyage or travel is in these cases only as the bolus, in which a medicine for the mind is to be administered; and an author could no more be considered even as an imitator by resorting to a romance, though so familiar, than Dr. James's patent could have been set aside for the invention of his celebrated powders, if his specification had directed them to be swallowed in the common wafers of the shop: what possible motive, then, could I have had for imposing upon the public an invention as a reality,

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 since it could operate only against myself? Perhaps, therefore, in a few years hence, when packets are continually passing and repassing between the twin worlds, and when the gazettes and pamphlets of the country I am about to describe are lying upon our tables, though this volume must then cease to be interesting, its author may be remembered, and his memory respected.

The placid ocean on which we were now launched continued but a short time pacific. We were soon overtaken by a second storm, too like the former we had encountered, the shock of which, from the shattered condition of our vessel, it was impossible to sustain. I shall not weary the reader, according to custom, with any detailed account of our shipwreck.—If the sunken rock we struck upon had been within the reach of any one who shall read this history, I should have pointed out its position, but that not being the case, at least for the present, and as there can be neither improvement nor delight

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 in dwelling on the agonies of despair and death, I purposely pass over every circumstance which occurred from the striking of the vessel until I jumped into the sea and drifted upon a plank within a short distance of the shore. From that time I became insensible, and can therefore give no account of the almost miraculous manner in which I must have been saved, as not another soul out of one hundred and forty-eight, of which our crew consisted, were ever seen again, except floating lifeless amidst the waves or dashing against the rocks of a lofty and dangerous coast.

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recovering my senses, I found myself stretched nearly naked upon a rock, with the spray of the sea dashing over me, surrounded by an immense number of people whose speech was utterly unknown to me, a circumstance which added to my alarm, because my astronomical theorems being altogether obliterated through terror, and being well acquainted with the languages of most civilized nations, I concluded I had been cast amongst a savage people, from whom I could expect neither sympathy nor protection.—How then shall I attempt to describe my sensations upon seeing a person for whom every body made way upon his approach—whose dignified appearance marked him to be of a superior order to the rest, and who, upon hearing my bitter lamentations,

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 addressed me in the purest English, saying in accents the sweetest and most impressive, “Unhappy stranger, fear nothing!—The benevolence of God extends over all his works, however divided for mysterious causes in the abyss of infinite space.—Even in this unknown and distant world He has preserved a man of your own country to comfort and protect you.” However impatient the reader must naturally be that I should advance without digression in a narrative so very extraordinary, yet I must pause here for a moment. It is the office of history not only to amuse but to instruct; to make men not only wiser, but better—to reconcile them to their various conditions, however clouded or disastrous—to impress them with a constant sense of the Divine Providence and presence—or, to describe it by almost a word in the sublime language of our great poet,

The first reflection, therefore, which the reader ought to make upon this extraordinary

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 deliverance from death, and the sudden transition from absolute despair to comfort and happiness, is already made for him in the encouraging language of my protector; and I am persuaded, besides, that no person, however unfortunate, can look back upon his own life, without having to remember with gratitude and devotion many singular and auspicious conjunctures which no skill or merit of his own could have contrived; with many escapes from the natural consequences of his own misconduct, or from accidents which cross us even in our most guarded and virtuous paths; and who has not felt, in the changes from sickness to health, from pain to pleasure, from danger to security, and from depression to joy and exultation, a fuller and a higher satisfaction (independently of the uses of such reverses) than could have arisen from the uninterrupted continuance of the most prosperous condition.

As there must be light and shade in every picture, so there must be perpetual changes to

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 make human life delightful. Nothing must stand still: the sea would be a putrid mass if it were not vexed by its tides, which, even with the moon to raise them, would languish in their course, if not whirled round and round those tortuous promontories which are foolishly considered to be the remnants of a ruined world.—Marks, as they undoubtedly are, of many unknown revolutions; the earth probably never was nor ever can be more perfect than it is.—It would have been a tame and tiresome habitation if it had been as smooth as the globes with which we describe our stations on its surface. Its unfathomable and pathless oceans—its vast lakes cast up by volcanic fire, and its tremendous mountains contending with the clouds, are not only sources of the most picturesque and majestic beauties, but lift up the mind to the sublime contemplation of the God who gave them birth.

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been removed from the shore in a kind of vehicle most admirably constructed for the purpose, and laid upon a couch, which my generous protector had prepared for me, the most intense curiosity now succeeded to the pain and horror which had oppressed me, and I entreated him to relate the miraculous events which could alone have brought us together, desiring him, however, in the first place, to relieve those anxieties which the sight of a person from England could not but have excited.—“Alas!” said my protector, with great emotion, “I have no anxieties connected with England, nor with the world of which it is a part.—My parents were cast upon this shore when I was an infant of only three years old; they were, as I have learned from my father, in the course of a voyage to the East

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 Indies: but the vessel having been separated from the rest of the fleet in a dreadful tempest, and having, like your own, from the loss of her masts and rudder, been long the sport of distracting winds and currents, she was wrecked at last, with the whole of her crew—my father and mother, and live others only excepted, all of whom have since been called away to a better world. As for myself, my death, from the helplessness of infancy, must have been inevitable, but for a dog (long since dead) which my father had brought with him from the Labrador coast, who followed me it seems amongst the breakers when the ship overset, and never quitted me until he brought me to the shore. Alas! poor ―, how much is the short span of your wise and faithful species to be lamented!

“From my parents I learned the English language, but little or nothing of England itself or of its history ; as both of them died before I was of an age to take any interest in such subjects;

Rh

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 ¬jects ; and those who were saved with us, were not only obscure and ignorant persons, but were soon scattered abroad, according to their acci- dental fortunes, in an unknown land, and by the course of nature must long since have been in their graves." ¬" But your own history," I said, " must be infi- nitely interesting." "Toa stranger, like yourself," answered my kind protector, " cast not only upon a foreign shore, but upon a new and unheard of world, any account of the most illustrious indi- vidual, much more of myself, would be tiresome and uninstructive. Your courtesy only can ask for it now. My name is Morven — my family most ancient and respectable in Scotland, though not noble — that is all I have now to say concern- ing myself. — It is enough for the present, that I have arrived at such a rank and station as to afford you the means of seeing to the greatest advantage a country which, much as my parents used constantly to exalt my own in my infant fancy, cannot, I think, be inferior to it. Though placed as it were a kind of exile, in a remote ¬margin ¬

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 ¬margin of this world, — small in its compass, — in its climate disappointing from its vicissitudes, — surrounded by seas not often favourable to navi- gation, and only emerging from the darkness of barbarism in a late period of nations, it soon towered above them all, and has for a long season been the day-star of our planet. — It seems, indeed, as if the Divine Providence had chosen it as the instrument of its benevolent purpose, to enlighten by an almost insensible progression the distant and divided families of mankind, to hold up to them the sacred lamp of religious and moral truth, to harmonise them by the example of mild and liberal institutions, and to controul the disturbers of the social world with an un- paralleled arm of strength ; — may she always remember that this mighty dominion is a trust — that her work is not yet finished — and that if she deserts or slumbers upon her post, she will be relieved and punished !" ¬I availed myself of the pause which seemed to finish his preface to what he evidently con- sidered ¬

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 ¬sidered as a distinct world from our own, by asking his father's opinion upon that momentous subject, as I could not compose my mind to attend to any thing until I was satisfied as to my real situation. " My father," answered my friend, "undoubtedly considered that he was cast forth and for ever from the earth. He used often to say so, but his reasons I can only give you from his Journal, which I have carefully preserved, being too young myself to compre- hend them. The book is in this very chamber, and I can turn in a moment to that remarkable part of it." Having besought him to do so, he put the volume into my hand, where, after de- scribing in the English language the extraordi- nary channel nearly as I have already described it, I found the following short sentence quite conclusive of an opinion which but too clearly confirmed my own. ¬" When I consider the unexampled rapidity of the current, with its dismal chaotic boundary, and that we were involved in it for almost three ¬months, ¬

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 ¬months, emerging at once into a sea where the heavens above presented new stars, and those of our own in different magnitudes and positions than any they could be seen in from either of our hemispheres, I am convinced, beyond a doubt, that I am no longer upon the earth, but on what I might best describe as a twin brother with it, bound together by this extraordinary channel, as a kind of umbilical chord, in the capacious womb of nature, but which, instead of being separated in the birth, became a new and per- manent substance in her. mysterious course." ¬The reader will no doubt observe, that this theory exactly corresponds with my own, though more fancifully expressed than by my vulgar simile of a double-headed shot, and I have little doubt that this new and interesting planet will, in all our almanacks, be styled Gemini hereafter, though it is called Deucalia by its inhabitants. ¬I cannot describe my feelings upon this awful ¬con- ¬

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 ¬confirmation of such a tremendous exile, and entreated to be informed whether any thing appeared in the Journal that seemed to favour an opinion, that the earth might be regained by pursuing the contrary course. " Undoubtedly," said my friend, and he turned in a few moments to the following passage : ¬" The equal rapidity of the two contrary cur- rents, and the impenetrable division between them, co?ivinces me that a vessel in the mouth of the other, at the point from which we emerged from the one we had been involved in, would re-conduct us to the earth ; but having taken no precautions to ascertain its position, guarded besides by natural obstacles of the most dangerous and per- plexing character, I can indulge no hope of either re-visiting our world myself, or of making it a rational object of future discovery.'' 1 ¬I leaped with joy when I had finished this sentence, notwithstanding its disheartening conclusion, and said to my protector, "You may ¬now ¬ ¬now

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 go on with your history ; I burn with im- patience to hear it — I have no fears for the future — your father's apprehensions were well founded, but they have no application to me. He had not employed the means without which no seaman, even in our own seas, could ever return to his country; but fortunately I was more provident and skilful — I know within a gun-shot where the current began and ended, and could find out both to-morrow ; but the time is not yet arrived for it. — My adventure is too important to be thrown away, and indeed if my passage back again were as short as from Eng- land to France, I should with the utmost re- luctance undertake it, as it might separate me for ever from so kind and generous a friend — - proceed then with the fullest account of the world that has received me — I am all attention." ¬" Such a narrative," said the friendly Morven, "even if I were qualified to enter upon it, would be of no value to the inhabitant of another world ; it could only gratify a curiosity which your ¬mind ¬

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 ¬mind is not sufficiently at rest to enjoy. — When you have acquired the language of this country, it will then be as open to you as to myself, and the best service I can now render you, is to direct your course ; lest, after burying yourself beneath the thousands of volumes which under my roof will be at your command, hereafter, you might find yourself but little wiser than when you began. Useful history lies within a narrow compass, and all I shall attempt for the present will be to give you such a bird's-eye view of the renowned and powerful Island of Armata, as will best enable you to pursue your own inquiries. — When you have the structure faithfully delineated, you will find your own way through its various apartments, and ex- amine their contents as your particular taste and judgment may direct you." ¬I could not help here interrupting my friend, much as impatience was on the stretch, by re- marking that the name of Armata was most ap- propriate, having been just wrecked in full ¬sight ¬

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 J ¬sight of an immense naval arsenal, where ships of the largest classes were constructing, sur- rounded again by a mole crowded with a most formidable navy, whilst on the sloping banks of the fortress, by which the whole was en- compassed and guarded, large bodies of troops, apparently in the highest state of discipline, were encamped and hutted. The name of Armata, I therefore repeated, was most appro- priate. " And why on that account ? " said my friend, plainly not understanding me ; a ques- tion which brought back at once to my recollec- tion, that Rome could not possibly have been the godmother to this Island, her language of course being utterly unknown : but such is the magic power of association, even when reason has dissolved the spell. ¬" The name of Armata," he continued, " has nothing at all to do with forces naval or military, but is supposed to have arisen from the extraordinary charms of our women; Ar- mata being, in the fabulous mythologies of our ¬remote ¬

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 ¬remote ages, the deity representing and pre- siding over female beauty." Here, as the reader will find in the sequel, the appropriation was indeed most perfect; but it must be left to every reader, according to his own fancy, to form an idea of the Armatian women; because not having any distinct characters of form or countenance, like those of France, or Spain, or Italy, or Greece, or Circassia, but embracing them all in their delightful varieties, the poet must drop his pen, and the painter his pencil : — but I must no longer delay your attention to the history you ask for.* ¬* Gn my return to England, and whilst I was writing these pages, I was very much surprized to observe in my pocket edition of Johnson's Spelling Dictionary, that our Venus also went by the name of Armata. I had never heard it before, and only found it in an index to this little volume. It passes all understanding how such a coincidence should have arisen. ¬ CHAP-

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 CHAPTER IV. ¬In which Moreen begins his Account of the Island of Armata. ¬"As there can be little doubt that this planet, like our own, was peopled from two human beings, and as from what remains of my father's writings, they seem strongly to resemble each other in all the characteristics of the species, there is probably a great similarity in their re- mote histories. — Primitive man is nearly the same every where, except as accidental circum- stances have had their influence. — In climates soft and enervating, the inhabitants have often been for ages stationary, and the robuster nations have been their conquerors. With us, indeed, they have repeatedly changed the face of things — multitudes expelling multitudes, like the waves of the sea, sweeping away yet mixing with one another, but still preserving throughout all their changes the distinct and original character of one people. The governments of mankind in ¬d the ¬

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 ¬the first ages must of course have been patriarchal, their numbers being small, and few occasions for contention in an unpeopled world ; but, in process of time, when tribes, or rather large masses came to be in perpetual motion towards other countries, they often found them pre-occupied; and then, as the sparks fly up- wards, the sera commenced of strife and warfare. This new state of a wandering population gave a corresponding character to their societies, which though barbarous, or at least rude, in the outset, became the accidental source in this favoured island of the most powerful dominion, and the perfection of civil wisdom. This may appear to be carrying you farther back than any human annals need be traced upwards, but the characters and destinies of nations are so often dependent upon one another, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to give an enlightened or use- ful view of them, without almost an abridged history of a world ; and however the ancient parts may appear insignificant from having no visible bearings upon their present conditions, ¬they ¬

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 ¬they are sometimes, if not always, the sources of the varieties which distinguish them. ¬" It is on this account only that I must lead you by paths now neglected and almost for- gotten, into the great road to the eventful period which embraces you as one of ourselves. ¬" The policy forced upon those numerous na- tions, as they were in their turns invaders or driven onwards by successive myriads, was a mixture of military command and civil magis- tracy. — With the sword continually in their hands, the service of it became the tenure of their possessions, and in a descending line from their leaders to the undistinguished multitude, they were held together by an indissoluble bond of union, giving law and protection to one another. ¬" It must be admitted that the governments I have been describing had a strong tendency to- wards arbitrary monarchies, an opinion con- ¬d 2 firmed ¬

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 ¬firmed by their histories; because, when one or more superior dominions had been established by conquest, the lesser ones surrounding them having no common interest to unite them, nor any support from the great bodies of their people, were often overpowered and extinguish- ed : the most popular captains of fierce adven- turers becoming in another age the sovereigns of nations. ¬" One of those invaders once swayed by force and terror the sceptre of Armata; but con- quest and the tyrannical abuse of it may lay the foundation of a system of liberty which no courage could have conquered nor human wis- dom have contrived. — Perhaps in this short sen- tence you have a faithful though as yet an obscure account of the origin of that singular constitution which has raised Armata to the highest pinnacle of fame and glory. Great and invulnerable as she now is, she was once sub- dued, and all the monuments of her ancient wisdom overthrown ; but the dominion of one ¬man, ¬

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 ¬man, however gifted or fortunate, is sure to pass away when it tramples upon the principles that gave it birth. — The successful invader, con- founding his free and fierce companions with the nation they had conquered, the oppressors soon became numbered with the oppressed, and after the reigns of but a few of his descendants, the successor to his arbitrary dominion was forced to submit to the establishment of free- dom demanded in arms by the conquerors and the conquered now forming an unanimous and indignant people. ¬" The extraordinary feature of this singular revolution was, that a nation in arms against its sovereign and reducing: him to terms of submis- sion, had the discretion to know exactly what to demand, and, by demanding nothing more, to se- cure the privileges it had obtained. — Thcordinary insurrections of mankind against oppression have generally been only convulsive paroxysms of tumult and disorder, more destructive than the tyranny overthrown, and often ending in worse; ¬d 3 because ¬

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 ¬because civil societies cannot be suddenly new- modelled with safety. — Their improvements, to be permanent, must be almost insensible, and growing out of the original systems, however imperfect they may have been. ¬" The rude forefathers of this people had for- tunately not then arrived at that state of political science which might perhaps have tempted them to a premature change of their govern- ment upon abstract principles — they looked only to their actual grievances. — They did not seek to abrogate the system which was the root of their ancient laws and institutions, but only to beat down usurpations, and to remedy de- fects. — They seem indeed to have discovered that there is a magnet in the civil as in the na- tural world to direct our course, though the latter was for ages afterwards unknown. The magnet of the civil world is a Representative Government, and at this auspicious period at- tracted like the natural one by iron, became fixed and immutable from the sword. ¬" The ¬

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 ¬" The consummate wisdom of those earliest re- formers appears further in the public councils which they preserved. — From the most ancient times the people might be said to have had a protecting council in the government, but its jurisdiction was overborne. — They had only therefore to guard against the recurrence of that abuse, and as the power over the public purse had been the most destructive engine of their arbitrary sovereigns, they retained in their own hands by the most positive charters that palla- dium of independence, re-enacting them upon every invasion, aiming at nothing new, but securing what they had acquired. ¬" To have gone farther in improvement, at that period, would not only have been useless, but mischievous, even if the bulk of the people could have redeemed themselves by force from many intermediate oppressors ; because, having most of all to fear from the power of their mo- narchs, the privileges of their superiors were in- dispensible supports ; invested for many ages ¬d 4 with ¬

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 ¬with the magistracies of the country, powerful in themselves from rank and property, having a common interest with the whole nation, and no temptations being then in existence to seduce them from the discharge of their duties, they were the most formidable opponents of the prerogatives that were to be balanced; and it was therefore the most unquestionable policy to enlarge and confirm their authority, instead of endeavouring to controul a long established and too powerful a dominion by an untried force. ¬" From this period the principles of civil free- dom struck deep root in Armata, deeper perhaps from the weight by which they continued to be pressed, the prerogatives of their princes being still formidable and frequently abused. — Per- haps the law which governs the system of the universe may be the grand type and example of human governments — the immense power of the sun, though the fountain of light and life, would in its excess be fatal ; the planets, there- fore, though they yield to its fostering attraction ¬in ¬

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 ¬in their unceasing and impetuous revolutions, are repelled from it by a kind of instinctive terror; since, if the sun could by its influence detach them from their force centrifugal, they would be absorbed with the swiftness of light- ning into the centre, and, like the fly allured by the light of the taper, be instantly consumed. ¬"The powers given to executive governments for great national purposes, like those given to the sun, ought to be extensive, nor can they be dangerous if they are sufficiently balanced, and that balance preserved upon the very prin- ciple of centrifugal force ; because the existence of a strong government, and the possibility of its misconduct, are the strongest securities of freedom. Every page of the history of Armata illustrates this important truth ; since, in the same proportion that executive power has at different periods become the objects of salutary jealousy, popular privileges have been uniformly strengthened from the abuses, and when at last a grand and glorious struggle to put an ¬end ¬

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 ¬end to them for ever was crowned with the justest and most triumphant success, consti- tutional fear, which had for ages watched over and subdued them, unhappily fell asleep — the centrifugal force was lost; — and power, stripped of its terrors, but invested with the means of dazzling and corrupting, soon began to undermine a system of government which the most formidable prerogatives had for ages been unable to destroy. ¬" The progress of this renowned people, from the period of their earliest struggles for liberty, to the final and, I trust, immortal con- summation of their political constitution, was slow and eventful, but perhaps on that account the more secure : the safest road from an un- settled government, of any description, to one that is more perfect, being through those almost imperceptible changes by which the character and circumstances of a nation are changed. The Armatians, from their insular situation and enterprizing genius, were amongst the ¬earliest ¬ ¬

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 ¬earliest though not the first explorers of distant and unknown countries; but their humanity and wisdom secured the advantages which the vices and follies of the original discoverers had cast away, and the dominion over new worlds (if I may so express myself) became their own. Their national government could not but be soon affected by this illustrious career : a com- merce encircling our globe with riches in her train, advancing hand in hand with learning and science, which other causes were reviving, opposed by a silent and .progressive force more efficacious than the sudden shock of a revolution, the oppressive pretensions of her nobles, and the firmest prerogatives of her kings, — to describe this momentous change in a word — the Anna- tians became a People. ¬" It would be to you most uninteresting, and to me equally painful, to relate the conflicts of those antagonist powers for more than a hundred years, until the ancient monarchy and aristo- cracy, which for ages had supported each other, ¬fell ¬

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 ¬fell to the ground in one ruin together; but as a river swoln and impetuous amidst the tempest, bursting beyond its banks and leaving no trace of its ancient channel, often returns to it, having only fructified the country it overflowed, so the Armatians soon came back again to the vener- able but improved constitution of their fathers; they did spontaneous homage to their exiled monarch, and afterwards to his infatuated suc- cessor, till seeing no security in the mild and generous experiment of Restoration, they were driven at last to seek their safety through a re- volution, but such a one as perhaps will to the end of time continue to be unexampled — accom- plished without blood — cutting off only the can- kered branches, but preserving all the others to hold their places in the ancient tree of their liberties: and as the broad leaf and consummate flower still preserve the distinct characters of the roots that nourish them, so the Armatians, even when principalities and powers were at their feet, never sought to depart from their original cast. ¬" The ¬

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 ¬" The ordinary occurrences of history pro- ducing no important changes, I have uniformly passed them over, and I am arrived therefore at a period within living memory, which will require your utmost attention. ¬ CHAP-

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 ¬ CHAPTER V. ¬In which Morven continues his account of the Island of Armata. ¬' This highly favoured island now sat without a rival on this proud promontory in the centre of all the waters of this earth, with her mighty wings outspread to such a distance, that with your limited ideas of its numerous nations, it is im- possible you should comprehend. — She was ba- lanced upon her imperial throne by the equally vast and seemingly boundless continents on either side, bending alike beneath her sceptre, and pouring into her lap all that varieties of climate or the various characters of mankind could produce, whilst the interjacent ocean was bespangled with islands, which seem to be posted by nature as the watch-towers of her dominion, and the havens of her fleets. — Her fortune was equal to her virtues, and, in the justice of God, might be the fruit of it ; since as the globe had ¬expanded ¬

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 ¬expanded under her discoveries, she had touched it throughout as with a magic wand ; the wil- derness becoming the abodes of civilized man, adding new millions to her sovereignty, com- pared with which she was herself only like the seed falling upon the soil, the parent of the forest that enriches and adorns it. — She felt no wants, because she was the mother of plenty ; and the free gifts of her sons at a distance, re- turned to them tenfold in the round of a fructi- fying commerce, made her look but to little support from her children at home. — To drop all metaphor, she was an untaxed country; except to that wholesome extent which wise policy should dictate to every government, by making the property of the subject depend in some measure upon the security of the state. ¬" The prosperity which then exalted her, after all her dangerous divisions had been swept away by an auspicious renovation of her con- stitution, was unexampled, and although she has been thought by some to have risen much ¬higher ¬

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 ¬higher afterwards amidst a splendid career of national glory; yet she then perhaps touched her meridian height, not having at that time embarked in an habitual system of expenditure, beyond the golden medium just adverted to, her debt being then no larger than to create a wide spread interest to support the state, but leaving what might be fairly termed the full fruits of industry and talents, subject to no tor- menting visitations of a prodigal government, which can in the end have no escape from bankruptcy but by rendering its subjects bank- rupt. — In the first condition of a nation, the people may be compared to the crew of a well manned vessel in a prosperous voyage, called upon for no exertions but to forward her in her course : the second may be better likened to the toils and sufferings of a tempest, when the ship can only be kept even in doubtful safety, by incessant pumping, when all hopes of advantage are extinguished, and the only principle of obedience is the preservation of life. ¬"Un- ¬

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 ¬" Unhappily for Armata, the lust of dominion, or rather of revenue, beyond the usefulness or even the capacity of enjoyment, ensnared her into a contest with a great and growing" people, to obtain by force what duty and affection had spontaneously held out to her. ¬" I pointed out metaphorically to your view two vast continents under her imperial wings : one of them, to which, looking southward, her right extended, she had planted and peopled. The inhabitants of Hesperia were her own chil- dren, worshipping with the same rites the God of their common fathers, speaking the same language, following in the track of the same laws and customs which fashion and characterise a people. — Armata, in short, ruled by the freest consent the whole of this vast country, appoint- ed without question all her magistrates, and enjoyed a monopoly of her commerce, not only in the exclusive import of her various produc- tions into her own bosom, but in the mono- polous return of all her own manufactures: ¬e which, ¬

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 ¬which, from the rapid progress of population throughout that immense region, was in itself an inexhaustible source of wealth, setting per- fectly at nought the entire intercourse of our whole world besides. ¬" Shall I be then believed when I tell you that with all this Armata was not satisfied, but in- sisted that an useful, affectionate, and distant people should pay for the support of wars she had been foolishly involved in at the other ex- tremity of our planet? — Can the human imagi- nation extend farther to the belief, that even this monstrous claim was acceded to? — the chil- dren of a misguided parent desired only to know what she demanded, that they might have the grace of rendering it as a spontaneous grant, to be bestowed under the same forms of govern- ment and under the sanction of the very ma- gistrates which she herself had created for the purpose. — Must I lastly trespass upon, or rather insult, your credulity, by telling you that even this offer was refused ? Though revenue was the ¬object, ¬

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 ¬object, the unlimited grant was rejected, and the revenue after all given up to enforce a nominal demand. — Many eloquent and solemn protests of our most illustrious men of that time were opposed in vain to this insane project. The whole strength of Armata was put forth, and her armies invaded a country so much more extensive than her own, that when collected upon its adverse surface, they could scarcely hear the sound of one another's cannon. — Need I conclude by adding that they were all taken like so many birds in the net of the fowler, and the dominion of Armata, which before had stood upon a rock, was renounced by Hesperia for ever — at first in deiiance — but at last, when the combat became manifestly hopeless, dissolved by mutual consent." ¬When my friend had finished this marvellous or rather incredible history, you will not, reader, be surprized that I interrupted him for a mo- ment, much as I was alive to hear its continua- tion, by asking only one question. " How," I ¬e 2 said, ¬

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 ¬said, " could it possibly happen, that with so celebrated a constitution as he himself had described, and when the people had obtained so complete a controul over the public counsels, they should have suffered so unjust and ruinous a war to be so long persisted in, contrary to their most manifest interests, and in the face of the most enlightened opinions?" ¬" The answer to your question," replied my friend, " involves one of the most curious and extraordinary changes that has ever taken place in the political history of any nation. In the earlier periods of that of Armata, though the sovereigns had more power, and the people's re- presentatives were comparatively nothing jn the balance, the Hesperian war could not have been carried on. The delegates of the people would have strenuously opposed it in every stage of its disastrous progress — the whole na- tion would have upheld them, and the govern- ment even, if not subdued, would have been overawed and checked in its impolitic course ; ¬but ¬ ¬but

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 before this period, the ancient system of the government had been completely inverted; the popular council, though in theory scarcely en- titled to that name or character, had for ages fulfilled all the practical purposes of the most perfect representation; because, having the same interests with the universal mass of po- pulation, and nothing then existing to seduce them from the discharge of their duties, it mattered not by whom they were elected ; but the time was arrived when the right of election became a vital principle.— The crown was now possessed of a great revenue, which was ra- pidly increasing, and as the Commons had ad- vanced in power and importance, it was thought convenient by its ministers to act no longer upon their own responsibility, even in the most ordinary details of business, but to take their constitutional opponents into pay and make them ministers in their stead ; well knowing that they could not possibly oppose, nor even censure the measures which were their own. — Neither can it be matter of wonder that the ¬e 3 people ¬

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 ¬people at large, though wise to a proverb, should be the dupes of so artful a contrivance. — They had been long accustomed to regard every act of the executive power with the most jealous apprehension, and to consider the voice of their representatives who had never betrayed them as the Law and the Gospel. — When they saw, therefore, the crown upon this momentous oc- casion so humbly deferring to the wisdom, as it was called, of the national council; when its ministers were entirely behind the curtain, and every step that was taken was by the authority of their own servants, they threw up their caps into the air, and poured in addresses from every part of the island, offering their lives and for- tunes in support of the glorious contest ; gifts which unhappily no opportunity was left them to recal, the personal supporters of the war being knocked on the head, and the pockets of the rest completely emptied. — When the illusion was at length dissolved by disappointment and defeat, an universal hue and cry was raised against the whole system, set on foot by its ¬loudest ¬

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 ¬loudest supporters; and the minister of that day, a most able statesman, though in that matter undoubtedly mistaken, and in private life one of the most agreeable and amiable of mankind, was attacked without measure or mercy. — He manfully stood his ground ; and, I am persuaded, with a clear conscience main- tained the policy and justice of his administra- tion; but the most zealous of his adherents now seeing the clearest reasons for condemning him, though none whatever existed which had not been as manifest from the outset, and many more finding it impossible from business to be in their places to defend him, though they had nothing at all to do, he was compelled to re- tire; and in a few weeks afterwards a man would have been probably mobbed in the streets, or perhaps imprisoned as a lunatic, if he had been rash enough to assert that the whole na- tion had been otherwise than mad, and without a lucid interval for fourteen years together." ¬" And pray, Sir/' I said, " has this system E 4 con- ¬

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 ¬continued ever since?" — " Not exactly," an- swered Morven, "but, if possible, worse; just as a dropsical patient fills in the proportion of what he drinks. — The subject is most interest- ing and important. — The English, from my father's account, must be the wisest of mankind, and, though the inhabitants of another world, their wisdom, through you, may direct us." ¬" Wisdom," I answered, " in the pure abstract, can hardly be brought to bear upon human con- duct. — There must be some direct experience, or at least some analogy, to give it effect. — Upon this subject there is neither. — You might as well set yourself to consider what the inha- bitants of the moon, which belongs alike to both of us, would probably think of your condition ; or those of Jupiter, or Saturn, or. of the seven stars that form the Pleiades, if they are inha- bited, and if not, you must be handed on for an opinion to the planets which probably sur- round them, for England cannot possibly assist you in a case which has no reference to her own ¬govern- ¬

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 ¬government, nor to any of her own concerns; but, go on, I am delighted with your discourse; only remember that history is a grave and mo- mentous subject, and that wit and fancy belong to quite different departments."— I said this because my friend was remarkable for both, and whether he was in jest or in earnest it was not always very easy to know : but as I found him to be a man of unquestionable veracity, I was compelled to assent to the truth of his narrative, on his solemnly assuring me that he had depart- ed in nothing from the truth. ¬ CHAP-

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 ¬ CHAPTER VI. ¬In -which More en still continvvs his Account of the Island of Armata. ¬" This memorable eera in the history of Armata may perhaps be considered as almost the first in which her representative constitution exhibited any proofs of dangerous imperfection. — The crown (as I have said) was rapidly acquiring the administration of a great revenue, and a suffi- cient guard had not been placed upon its influ- ence in the public councils, without which no forms of election, however free and extensive, can secure a wise and prudent administration; but the evil must manifestly be greater when the popular council, erected as the balance of a monarchical state, does not emanate from the people, but in its greater part from the crown which is to be balanced, and from a body of nobles, powerful from rank and property, who are to be balanced also ; and who have besides ¬a scale ¬

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 ¬a scale properly allotted to them, in which their great weight is judiciously deposited. — It must be obvious to the meanest capacity, that if those very powers which are thus to be balanced can create or materially influence the antagonist power which is to controul them, the consti- tution must at all events be theoretically im- perfect. — I have already informed you why, for a long period, this imperfection had not been felt, and the degree of its operation, when it began to operate, and as it now exists, ought to be correctly and temperately stated ; because, without a reverence for government, whatever defects may be discovered in it, a nation must be dissolved. ¬" You are not therefore to imagine that the portentous war I have described to you arose from a general and wicked prostitution of high station in those who had in a manner the choice of the popular council, nor from a vile corrupt sale of their voices by those who had been chosen, feeling at the time that they were de- voting ¬

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 ¬voting their country to disastrous consequences — this I think has never happened, nor is likely to happen in Armata ; because her people are so enlightened, their various classes are so happily blended with each other, and the interest in wise counsels is so universal, that a clear and general conviction of misgovernment would then and now have an irresistible effect upon the public councils however constituted ; but the great evil is in cases of doubtful policy, which the worst measures in their beginnings often are : and he must be but little acquainted with the human mind, who does not know by what de- ceptious means, even very honest and intelligent men may be brought to view questionable sub- jects in the light that best corresponds with their interest and their wishes. ¬" On the very occasion before us it was not very difficult to conceal some facts, and to over- state others, more especially when the matter to be judged of was at an immense distance, and complicated in the details; some had not ¬the ¬

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 ¬the capacity, nor many more the application to digest them, and even supposing the case to have been fairly stated, the rule from time to time to be applied to it was often beyond the reach of those who were to decide, and came for their decision adorned with gifts and graces to secure the most favourable reception. — The public effect also of the decision I have already ex- plained to you. — It was no longer the act of a power for ages the object of jealous appre- hension, but of those who for ages had faithfully controuled it, and the judgment of the people was surprized. ¬" The period of the delusion you have also heard. — The consequences of extreme mis- government must be universally felt, and the discontents they produce are irresistible ; but. unfortunately they seldom arrive until the evil complained of is beyond redress. The crown is sure in the dubious season to command the popu- lar council, and through them popular opinion, until errors become palpable and destructive, ¬when ¬

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 ¬when the most over ruling influence must give way. — This is the real and the only defect in the constitution of Armata; which, from its wisdom and the happiness it produces, casts into the deepest shade the most perfect institu- tions of mankind. — All the separate parts of it are excellent and well proportioned, if they were allowed to stand in their places, hut govern- ment had now hegun to he carried on by a con- spiracy of powers which should balance and controul one another." " How much then,'' I eagerly said, " is it not to be lamented, that when such an evil was first discovered it was not immediately corrected." " Your observation," answered my friend, " is far more important than perhaps you are aware of. — To have then corrected it, or even at many subsequent periods, could not in the nature of things have convulsed or even disturbed the balance of the different orders so vitally necessary for the security of all ; but by having suffered the defect to con- tinue for a long season, its consequences have also increased, and have produced so strong a ¬feeling ¬

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 ¬feeling of irritation, that the most cautious re- formation becomes, with every man of sound discretion, a matter which calls for the most impartial and even trembling consideration. — This observation is not, however, intended to convey an opinion that a safe and salutary amendment is impracticable. A surgeon often examines his patient with a trembling hand, when he is considering whether he shall attempt an operation; but when his judgment is satisfied, it trembles no longer. ¬" One mighty benefit', a well timed and judi- cious reformation, if it can be accomplished with safety, would most certainly produce. — The legislature would be more an object of respect and affection in the minds of the people, the highest security against a spirit of disaffection and revolt. — It is infinitely dangerous when bad men, who seek to promote revolution by ex- posing the defects of the public councils, can plead the truth, or even any thing approaching it, in their defence. — Positive law may protect ¬a strum- ¬

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 ¬a strumpet when her reputation is invaded, but the appeal to it only serves to make her prosti- tution more notorious, and the libeller, when punished, an object of compassion. ¬" When any palpable imperfection exists in a government, it becomes the hotbed of sedition; and it is the more impolitic to suffer it to con- tinue when its great leading principles, like those of Armata, are so perfect. — Where a ty- ranny indeed exists, or any government, how- ever composed, whose interests are different from those of the people, no reformation could be hoped for with their consent, because they could not be reformed without the surrender of in- jurious powers which they won id have a cor- rupt advantage in preserving; but in a country like this, that has opened her arms to receive you, where there is but one sentiment of public spirit and virtue pervading alike the public councils which from defective forms may re- quire reformation, and those who seek to reform them, there can be no difference in opinion ex- cept ¬

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 ¬cept in the consequences of any change. — That part of the subject is too deep for my decision; yet I find it difficult to conceive how a repre- sentation embracing a larger proportion of a wise and moral people could have a greater tendency to produce insecurity, than when it emanates only from those whom the laws have directed to be balanced. — A few individuals might seek to extend their own powers at the expense of the liberties of the people, but the people them- selves could surely have no interest in usurping a greater authority than was consistent with the equilibrium of a constitution which for centuries had been the just object of their na- tional pride, and the admiration of a world it has enlightened. ¬" Attending to all these considerations, have you now" said Morven, " any difficulty in form- ing an opinion on this important subject, put- ting England wholly out of the question?" ¬" For the reasons I have already given you," v I an- ¬

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 ¬I answered, " I can form no useful judgment in a case so new to me; but there is one princi- ple so clear and so universal, that it must apply equally to all subjects, to the affairs of all countries, and even of all worlds. The first step towards public reformation of every de- scription, is a firm combination against rash and violent men. — Very many of them (perhaps the bulk) are perfectly well intentioned, but not for all that the less dangerous to the cause they would support. — Some of them, indeed, one would think were in our world set on to take the lead by those who opposed any changes, that wise men might retire altogether from the pursuit. For my own part, I would not only submit to the imperfections of such an admirable constitution at you have described in Annate, but would consent to the continuance of the worst that can be imagined, rather than mix myself with ignorance, thrusting itself before the wisdom which should direct it, or with per- sons of desperate fortunes, whom no sound state of society could relieve; but such men, I think, ¬could ¬

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 ¬could work no mischief, if rank and property stood honestly and manfully in their places. ¬" From your own account, however, it appears to me, upon the whole, to be a question which demands the most dispassionate consideration, because the consequences are far from being clear. — The principle of balance has been long departed from, and reciprocal jealousies between your crown and your commons have been laid asleep. — Prerogative (depending wholly upon influence) has exerted itself in nothing, and the whole executive government has been, with its own consent, carried on in your popular council. — This has bestowed upon it an entirely new character, and from the operation of other causes, its powers have no actual limitation, though theory defines and limits them. — How far, therefore, under such circumstances, it might be safe entirely to recast this great assembly, and to disturb a system, which without any new organization has in a manner created a new con- stitution, it is not for a stranger to pronounce. ¬f 2 On ¬

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 ¬On the one hand, I should he sorry to ncc the powers of your commons in the smallest degree diminished or struck at; but on the other, in proportion as they are transcendant, they should he, as far as can be made safely practicable, in the choice and under the controul of the great hody of your people." ¬ CHAP-

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 ¬ CHAPTER VII. ¬In which Morten still continues his Account of A r mat a, anil points to the origin of a great Revolution. ¬" No country but Armata could have sur- mounted, as she did, so disastrous a conflict as the Hesperian war; but such is the energy of her extraordinary people, that after a short depression, she roused herself like a strong man after sleep, and stood again erect, to sustain the shock of events still more disastrous, which fol- lowed in its train. ¬" The nearest country to us is Capetia, a kingdom of great extent and population; but notwithstanding our vicinity and common origin, the people perhaps of no two planets or worlds can be more completely different, and from a mistaken policy in the governments of both for many ages, this difference between them has been always increasing, and ancient F 3 an- ¬

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 ¬antipathies have been exasperated and confirmed. You will not, therefore, be surprized, that when Capetia saw this domestic quarrel she should seize the opportunity of turning it to her own advantage. — In the cause of it she could take no other interest than mischief, as the colonies of Armata were contending for their liberties; whereas the Capetians had been for ages the de- voted subjects of a monarchy nearly despotic, and seemed to glory in their degradation.— The apologists of Capetia have said that her king was advised to assist the revolted subjects of Armata at a distance, to turn the thoughts of his people from disturbing their own government at home: but be that as it may, a large army was sent by him beyond the seas, was encamped with the insurgents, and fought side by side with them in Hesperia — became enthusiasts in their cause, and was schooled for the first time in the princi- ples of a free government, to which the Capetian people had before been strangers. — To maintain this auxiliary army, and to support the war which was of course declared against her for ¬this ¬

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 ¬this perfidious alliance, the treasures which had been set aside for the extinguishment of her public debt were devoted to the prosecution of this expensive contest; and on its successful termination, the Capetian soldiers, after having been sharers in the triumphs of freedom, were recalled by their self-devoted country into her own bosom — she found a nest of serpents — Her finances were exhausted by her profligate ex- ertions, her people were discontented, and the ordinary machinery of her government being unequal to the supply of the deficiencies in her revenue, she was driven in a most inauspicious moment to resort to an ancient constitution, which had been long trampled upon and set aside, but she had neither the skill to wield a weapon, the use of which had been long for- gotten, nor the honesty to stand fairly by the popular assembly, whose assistance she had in- voked. — It is not for me to become the historian of Capetia, above all to an inhabitant of another world, who can take no interest in her affairs; it is enough to say, that her government fell to ¬f 4 the ¬

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 ¬the ground, and was dissolved in blood — that her monarch was cut off — her ancient magis- tracies annihilated, and the persons of her magis- trates destroyed or exiled; whilst the great mass of her people, who in no country are ever indig- nant but when they have suffered indignities, deprived of the support of their departed govern- ment, defective as it was, and too unskilful and distracted to proceed with wisdom or justice in the organization of a new one, became at once the perpetrators and the victims of crimes too horrible for the ear. ¬" It is but justice, however, to this unhappy people to remark, that their history had been widely different from ours. — In the remoter ages, when nations were the property of kings and the people were like the cattle upon the soil, inferior sovereignties had from time to time fallen in by inheritance, or had been annexed by conquest, until the sceptre extended over an immense and various population, with customs as numerous and as different as their origins; without any ¬common ¬

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 ¬common bond of union, and with minds en- thralled by priestcraft, or subdued by despotism, to suffer without a murmur, and even to glory in the fetters which bound them. — On this base condition, no light had been let in, as in Armata, by an early commerce encircling a world; by the influences of a purer religion, bursting from the chains of superstition, nor by the combi- nation, as with us, of all classes of the people, with the same interest to resist injustice when it pressed equally upon the whole: — but by an uni- versal law of nature, all violent inequalities have their periods. — The air under its rough dominion is brought to its equipoise by tempests, and civil life by revolutions. — As Capetia grew in power and greatness, these inequalities be- came* more odious; the simplicity of her ancient government, which I before described to you, as the general system of the robuster nations, had lost its character of freedom, and had given way to a dominion in which the people had no share, whilst the nobles and great landholders, instead of standing in their places, as in Armata, ¬became ¬

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 ¬became the obsequious satellites of the throne, whilst the clergy, who depended upon both, in- culcated submission. — Yet still, whilst the mul- titude felt no extreme changes in their condition, such a government could suffer no change; but when, from the causes I have brought before you, the defects of this system began to be grievously and universally felt, then was the time for the few to have been wise, and not to have waited for an infuriated multitude to break in upon them. — The impending ruin was so long visible before it came to its fatal crisis, that many wrongs and sufferings may be said to have been almost chargeable upon the victims. Such scenes of horror, though cast in my infancy into this new scene of existence, thanks to the Al- mighty! can never reach me here. — We have our faults and our follies, and we seem now and then so enflamed against one another, as if some mighty contest were approaching, but such sudden heats have no more power to subvert our constitution, than a common pimple upon the skin to destroy the body. — Our rights, our ¬pro- ¬

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 ¬properties, and our securities, are so bound up and intervoven, that from the prince upon the throne to the beggar in the streets with his tattered hat held out to you, we are as it were but one being, and nothing but universal death can dissolve us. ¬" In reverting to the undone Capetia, I wish I could throw a veil over this afflicting period. — In following my rapid abridgment you must be aware, that such a tremendous accumulation of horrors could not be condensed into a day. — They began in the delirium of popular fury, which could no more be calmed or resisted by the higher orders amongst themselves, nor by foreign assistance, than the desolations of an earthquake can by any human means be avert- ed; but when the victims of the distracted insurrections had been dispersed, and when arranged under more civilized and reflecting leaders, they began to contemplate the preserva- tion of their monarchy ; then was the moment for Armata to have stood forward — then perhaps ¬she ¬

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 ¬she might have put aside the calamities which followed, the consequences of which are not yet wound up, nor within the reach of the wisest to foreknow. ¬" The Capetian people, except in the frantic moments of this sanguinary crisis, were noto- riously devoted to a monarchical government; and even in the whirlwind of revolution could never have been driven from it, if proper means had been taken to prevent it. — Their earliest leaders professed openly and with an undisturb- ed support from a national council, to preserve the kingly government in the person of their King, under a balanced constitution, and when the storm was gathering at a distance to over- power it, the supplication which in his name they addressed to the Sovereign of Armata will be considered hereafter as the most afflicting and affecting document which history can ever have to record. — That unhappy prince only asked the commanding influence of this great Country with alarmed and confederating govern- ments. ¬

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 ¬ments. — He complained of the hostile armies which were surrounding his territories, and painted with but too prophetic a pencil the cala- mities impending over the nations that were assembling them ; yet asked nothing for himself or for his people, than as they themselves should preserve peace, and respect the independence of all other nations. I will translate for you here- after into the English language the whole of this pathetic supplication, with the answer to it, which I shall at present only abridge. — You ought to carry them into your own world, if you ever shall return to it, as the greatest curiosity that can be furnished by our's, or per- haps amongst all those that are now twinkling over our heads, even if they were to raise one by way of subscription through infinite space. — Perhaps the most curious part of the latter composition is, that the ink was not frozen in writing it. — It was a grand effort for an able statesman capable of saying every thing, to succeed so perfectly in saying nothing, and with the ¬strongest ¬

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 ¬strongest and most animated feelings of his own, to become the torpedo of the Armatian cabinet. ¬" That you may fully understand this answer, I ought to premise that it was not even alleged in it, that the suppliant monarch had forfeited his claim to the compassion or favour of Armata, as he was covered all over with assurances of the warmest friendship ; yet his Majesty's con- currence in the preservation or re-establishment of peace with the powers in question, was pro- mised only through means compatible with his dignity, and with the principles which governed his conduct ; and that the same reasons which had induced him to take no part in the internal affairs of Capetia, ought equally to induce him to respect the rights and independence of other sovereigns, especially those who were in friendship with himself. The mediation was thus declined with another concluding reason : — because the war being now begun, the inter' ¬mention ¬

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 ¬mention of the King's good offices could be of no use, unless they were desired by all parties in- terested. ¬" Now, bringing down this proceeding from the high forms of diplomacy, what was it? ¬" The surrounding sovereigns, and even those remotely distant, were preparing to invade Ca- petia, then grievously and dangerously con- vulsed ; but making an effort through her still- existing sovereign to tranquillize herself by entering into solemn engagements for the tran- quillity of other nations, and Armata was fixed upon as the most powerful amongst them all, to take the lead in this sublime object of morals and policy when a storm was gathering which threatened almost to deluge our world with blood. ¬" It may be admitted that there might never- theless have been reasons for Armata, though thus invoked, to pause upon the proposition ¬made ¬

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 ¬made to her. — She was not bound to be con- tented with general professions, but might have claimed the character of arbitrator upon her own terms, and have demanded preliminary securities for the performance of her award; and if she found that notwithstanding the dispositions of the sovereign who addressed her, his subjects were incapable of performing any engagements he might stipulate, that reason, after due inves- tigation, might have been acted upon, and even publicly assigned for declining the mediation; or supposing them to have been capable of acting as a nation, yet, if there were doubts of their performing their parts with sincerity, Armata, as the sovereign umpire, might have proposed to add her mighty strength to that of confede- rating monarchs upon any breach of the con- ditions she might propose. But instead of this, or any part of it, or the profession of any one principle which ever entered a negociation for peace, this wretched prince, whose life then hung by a thread, but which might have been strengthened into a cable if the mediation had ¬been ¬

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 ¬been accepted, wasfrst told (as you have heard) that the King of Annata could only concur in maintaining the peace of nations by such means as were compatible zvitli his dignity, without even a hint of how his dignity could be lowered by becoming blessed as a peace-maker; and, secondly, that he could only act according to the principles which governed his conduct ; without saying a syllable of what those principles were, or how, without his changing them, the supplicant might bring himself within them. ¬" The King of Annata was then further ad' vised to say, that not having interfered with the internal affairs of Capetia, the same sentiments ought to induce him to respect the rights and independence of other princes, as if it ever had been heard of as an invasion of the rights of man or nation, to propose (if they themselves should see no objection) to become an arbitrator to avert desolation and bloodshed. ¬* The conclusion was in the happiest har- <s monv ¬

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 ¬mony with the introductory parts; bis Majesty being advised to finish by declaring, ' that the ¬' WAR BEING THEN BEGUN, h'lS good offlCCS COuld ¬' be of no use unless they should be desired by all ' parties interested.' Now according to this doc- trine, it must be taken to be always too late to mediate after a quarrel has begun, which I had always before considered to be the very cause, in all concerns, both public and private, for pro- posing a mediation; and if, according to this answer, mediation can be of no use unless de- sired by all parties, then not only no mediation could ever be useful, but few if any could pos- sibly exist, because the desire of settling differ- ences between contending parties, can rarely be to a moment simultaneous; and all that was asked of Armata was only that she should be the first proposer of this pacific umpirage, and that she should strengthen her proposal by the justly commanding influence of her w r ise and liberal counsels. ¬" If indeed she had accepted this god-like ¬office. ¬

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 ¬office, and its usefulness had been disappointed by the obstinacy of other nations, the concluding sentence would then have been correct; but without even sounding- the inclination of other princes on the subject, it is without parallel in the annals of nations, in the records of the courts of justice, or in the transactions of individual men. — The truth is, that it was the answer of a government which had determined to do nothing, and to give no reasons. — There was at that time, in my opinion, a conspiracy of kings against this unhappy nation, because, though 'without knowing how to accomplish it, she had determined to become free without asking their consent. — When you hear this from my lips it deserves some credit, because I am no friend to republics, and would shed the last drop of my blood for a monarchy like our own. — But, be it remembered, as I have before related, that it was re-established by our own people when its true principles had been overborne. ¬" Wishing however to do all justice to others G 2 whilst ¬

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 ¬whilst I maintain firmly my own opinions, I admit that this was the answer of a most able statesman, of cool reflecting habits, not less re- markable for enlightened opinions than for elo- quence in their support, and I verily believe incapable of betraying the honour or interests of his country. — Were he now to hear what I am saying to you, he would, I am sure, give me credit for equal integrity, but from having long considered the subject in an opposite point of view, would wonder as much at my delusion as I have always wondered at his. — I must add, however, that he was not the minister, though he held the official pen, and I have never been able to persuade myself that it could have been a feather from his own wins:. ¬

" At this critical period, when mediation was thus rejected — critical even to a moment of time, if Armata had raised her voice amongst the nations, and had invited them to concur in the support of the party (no matter what else belonged to it) which then supported the throne, ¬or ¬

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 ¬or at all events to take no concern in the in- ternal government of that country whilst their own territories were not invaded, she might have given to that distracted people a free con- stitution, have put down for ever the prejudices which had so long heen the sources of perpetual warfare, and raised perhaps an immortal monu- ment of universal freedom. ¬" In the history however of this momentous crisis, and to support this opinion, the utmost precision as to time is necessary, because many still deny that there ever existed any confede- racy of hostile nations antecedent to hosti- lities against themselves; but to dispose of this assertion it may be accepted as truth, and the argument will then stand thus : — With the powers then confederated, or confederating or that only afterwards in their own defence did confederate, the mediation of Armata, if not imperative and conclusive, would have had a most healing and conciliating effect. — At that period no invasion of other nations r; 3 had ¬

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 ¬had taken place, since even the paper war of her frantic democracy had ceased, and its offensive character had been disavowed. — The long succession of unprincipled, ferocious factions, which followed the rejected mediation, has always been resorted to as proof that there was no safety but in the hostile system which was adopted; but they who hold out those insecurities at a later period than the one I have pointed out, should at least be prepared to shew the danger which the earlier mediation might have produced. — It would be no argument in favour of a physician who was skilfully coercing a maniac, and reducing his dangerous strength, if it could be shewn, that by a dif- ferent treatment in the beginning, his fever might probably have been subdued, and his reason completely restored. — It would surely at least lie upon him to shew that he had made some trial of his art on the first symptoms of the disease.

"My confidence in this opinion is the more ¬unshaken ¬

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 ¬unshaken from the recollection that I held it at. the very time, in common with a man whom to have known as I did would have repaid all the toils and perils you have undergone. — I look upon you, indeed, as a benighted traveller, to have been cast upon our shores after this great light was set. — Never was a being gifted with an understanding so perfect, nor aided by a perception which suffered nothing to escape from its dominion. — He was never known to omit any thing which in the slightest degree could affect the matter to be considered, nor to confound things at all distinguishable, however apparently the same, and his conclusions were always so luminous and convincing, that you might as firmly depend upon them as when sub- stances in nature lie before you in the palpable forms assigned to them from the foundation of the world. — Such were his qualifications for the office of a statesman : and his profound know- ledge always under the guidance of the sublime simplicity of his heart, softening without un- nerving the giant strength of his intellect, gave g 4 a cha- ¬

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 ¬a character to his eloquence which 1 shall not attempt to describe, knowing nothing by which it may be compared, ¬" Had the counsels of this great man been ac- cepted, much more if he himself had been to carry them into execution with his eminent companions, I must ever think that the peace of our world might have been preserved. — I have not forgotten that great numbers of wise and independent men then held and with equal firm- ness persevere in the contrary opinion ; but their grand reason in support of it was never support- ed by the fact. — Their whole argument resting upon the danger to our monarchical constitution from republican infection; but if the course I have insisted on had been adopted, the Capetian monarchy might most probably have been pre- served, and there would have been then no re- public to infect us /" ¬My blood now rising in every vein, I could not help exclaiming, "Oh, that England had ¬been ¬

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 ¬been Armata. — how differently would She have acted! — As nothing ought to have detached you from the forms and principles of your own government, it might have been incumbent at that period to watch over them with extraordi- nary caution ; but self-preservation, though it vindicates our securing our dwellings by any means from an approaching conflagration, can never justify the refusal of personal assistance to snatch the sufferers from the flames. — As to republican infection, even if Capet ia had then been a republic, you, surely, must be infected yourself with some strange delusion to apply it to such a subject. — The nations preparing to in- vade her whose governments had never been reformed, might, according to your new phra- seology, have dreaded such a contagion; but after what you yourself have within a moment related of Armata, what had she to fear from it? — nothing below is perfect — her almost divine institutions might have been thought capable of still higher improvements, but there was no food within her land for revolution. — Thus ¬when ¬

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 ¬when our world is visited by one of its most malignant and contagious maladies it is alarm- ing only to those who have never had it. — It is a disease only attracted by some morbid matter in almost every human body ; but which, when once dispersed by the lever it excites, can never be excited again. — Wisdom therefore with us has disappointed its tremendous ravages, by raising this fever herself; chusing her own mode and her own time for doing it; safely and mildly reforming the constitution which had formerly perished by a revolution, in all the springs of life. — I cannot dismiss this metaphor (it is indeed too close to the subject to be called one) without applying it to Capetia also. — She, no doubt, caught the infection, as you are pleased to call it, from her contact with Hespe- ria, but she was in a condition only to receive it with confluent inflammation. — Her state was so foul that its foulness could not be extracted Without such a shock, as in the natural body would have been death ; but if her history had been like that of Armata, as you yourself have ¬told ¬

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 told it — if all the classes of her people had been, like your's, harmoniously blended, and she had been purified as you progressively became purer, she could no more have expired in the convulsions you are describing than a patient who with us has been vaccinated can be stretch- ed out by it a loathsome carcass covered with putrid blotches, spreading pestilence and terror till the earth swallows him up. — Go on, then, to explain the mystery of this conduct. — You had been placed by Providence, as you set out by telling me, as its instrument and agent in your world, and it appears to me that you slept upon your post when you ought to have been most upon the alert in the fulfilment of your duty." " I feel the force of all you say," an- swered Morven, " but I hasten to pass by this painful subject. — Individual opinions ought to be held as nothing against public counsels, though it is our best privilege to express them, and I should not have insisted upon them at so remote a period, but that they usefully con- nect themselves with the events which will ¬soon ¬

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 ¬soon conclude my narrative, in disclosing to you our present condition." ¬? ¬" That might be a good reason," I said, " for reserve, if you were publishing a history, but none for baulking the curiosity you have set on fire to find the clue to so extraordinary a state of things." — " I can give it you, then," replied Morven, " very shortly;" and he then pro- ceeded as the reader will find in the following chapter. ¬ CHAP-

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 ¬ CHAPTER VIII. ¬In uhkh Moreen points out to the Author some additional Causes of the Rcxolutionary War with Capetia. ¬" Materials for the annals of nations are diffi- cult to be obtained ; they are often secret, and are fugitive even when they can be traced. Histories, therefore, when written at distant periods, except when they are built upon contem- porary information, judiciously selected by eminent men of letters, cannot but be erroneous. — This very period, involving the interests of almost all nations, most strikingly illustrates this truth. — It depended upon the combination of so many circumstances, that, without being a predesti- narian, I am almost puzzled otherwise to ac- count for them. ¬" The astonishing events which are soon to close my narrative, could not, upon any human calculation, (at least in my opinion,) have hap- pened ¬

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 ¬pence! as they did, without the commanding ¬talents of an extraordinary young man, who vet miidit not have flourished at so early an age, but from being the son of another man who had justly acquired a great reputation in our country by superior eloquence, always ex- erted in the cause of freedom ; nor could his descendant, eloquent as he was, have risen to so premature an eminence but by treading in his father's steps, pleading the cause of public reformation, which at that time was highly po- pular, and of which he too took the lead in his very earliest youth : neither could even this illustrious course have produced the events which followed, but on the contrary might have averted them, if he had not turned short round on a sudden and not only renounced his former opinions, but sounded the alarm when others persevered in the sentiments they had imbibed from his own lips. — But history is a libel when it departs in any thing from the truth. — It must be admitted that the influence of the Capetian revolution had given an in- flamed ¬

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 ¬flamed and dangerous character to the proceed- ings of many who had mixed themselves with this cause, demanding the most prompt vigi- lance of our government, and the firmest ex- ecution of the laws; but perhaps no man exist- ing was therefore so well qualified as himself to have changed those turbulent excesses, and turned them, upon his own principles, into a safer course; a duty which, without assorting himself unfitly, he had the happiest opportunity of fulfilling, through an association of his own equals in rank and eminence, who were then discountenancing by their influence and example every departure from the sound opinions and declarations recently published by himself in his own name, and widely circulated amongst the people : yet the birth of this very association, (as far at least as times coincide,) \vas made the signal of universal alarm, and a proclamation by his authority almost in- stantly followed, which being the obvious fore- runner of war, put wholly out of the question that politic and humane consideration for the ¬suf- ¬

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 suffering people of Capetia, which I shall die in the opinion of having been at the period before related the interest and the duty of the whole civilized world.

"I take no delight in these observations.—Posthumous reputation is often held too lightly.—We consider that the dead can gain nothing by our applauses, nor surfer from our censures: but supposing a man whilst living to have stood alone like a rock in the ocean, without children or kindred to represent him, I should still remember that this life was but a portion of an immortal existence, and fame being the highest inheritance, I should feel like a felon if I robbed him of what I believed to be his own.—I knew, then, this great minister in his youth, and foresaw his future destination.—His understanding was vigorous and comprehensive—his reasoning clear and energetic—his eloquence powerful and commanding—and as he was supported throughout his eventful career by immense numbers of disinterested and independent men,

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 men, it would be unjust not to believe that he was himself disinterested and independent.—His memory after death received this tribute from many illustrious persons who had differed from him in opinion, and it is not only held by his friends and adherents in affectionate remembrance, but in reverence as the saviour of his country.—Having from a sense of justice recorded this last testimony of an exalted reputation, I hold it to be a solemn duty to question and deny it, being convinced that if we revere, or even abide by the system which characterized his administration as having formerly saved his country, we shall not save it.

"But to resume my history.—The circumstances which attended this ill-fated period are not yet summed up.—When the war with Hesperia was approaching, a warning voice, as it were out of Heaven itself, from its wisdom and eloquence, though drowned by the clamours of ignorance and folly in the outset, yet in the

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