fome fuch effort to deliver themfelves from our tyranny? This is certainly the point to which their murmurs and complaints, fooner or later, muft tend. Hitherto accustomed to their chains, they have no thoughts of breaking them; but fhould any one of thofe unhappy people, of a bold and enterprizing difpofition, lay the plan, and foment the spirit, of a revolt, what mound can be oppofed of fufficient strength to withftand the impetuofity of the torrent? Will it not force its paffage through many terrible breaches and overwhelm the republic? We have a recent example of what may be dreaded in this particular, by the late rebellion in the Ukraine; which was occafioned only by the oppreffion of thofe among us, who have acquired domains in that diftrict. We defpife the courage of the wretched inhabitants of that country, but they find refources in their very despair; nor is there any thing more terrible than the defpair of cowards! In the fecond place, let us take a review of the ftate to which the people of our kingdom are reduced. Rendered brutal by their extreme poverty, they spend their days in a ftupid indolence, which is frequently taken for infenfibility. They apply themselves to no art, nor pique themfelves on any kind of industry; working only juft so much as they are compelled to, by the fear of punishment. Convinced that they cannot reap the fruits of their ingenuity, they check their natural talents, and do not even make attempts to difplay them. Hence arifes that frequent dearth, of which we ourfelves are generally the caufe: and would it be furprizing, that we fhould want even the common neceffaries of life, if those who are to furnish them, cannot hope to reap the profit of the labour and pains they take in fo doing? It is among freemen only that we fee emulation; flaves will exert themselves no farther than is abfolutely neceffary for felf-prefervation. Providence feems to have distributed its various gifts in fuch a manner, as to have established a kind of equality in the diferent conditions of mankind. To fome it hath given riches and power; to others an happy capacity, or ufeful talents to undem nify them for those other diftinctions it hath denied mom former would be too vain if they poffeffed born geni wealth at the fame time; and the latter too happy f mar mental qualifications did not raise them abore me menaces of

their birth. Thus the great and the mean i

dependence on each other; the Gentleman belat temel have recourse to the industry of the Artizan, and med his turn, having no other means of funttrence man ing the wants of the Gendera.

hold the merit of the Artizar, I me

doth the advantages we proc 1eciprocal intercourfe of

higher and lower ranks of people, every State must neceffarily fall to decay, and become as defective as that of Poland, in the arts of invention or commerce, and, indeed, of all thofe neceflary fupplies which tend either to the ornament or ufe of fociety.'

This humane and fenfible Prince is not content with thus expofing the evils and difadvantages which the Polish Gentry bring on themfelves, by their cruelty to their vaffals, but he endeavours to convince them, that nothing can be more frivolous, than the imaginary advantages they reap from such a severe exertion of their prerogative.

A Polish Nobleman, fays he, frequently condemns his fubjecs to death, without any trial or formal procefs; or, if he has recourfe to a jufticiary tribunal, of what is it compofed? Will not fuch a tribunal, inftituted by himfelf, confift of pliant Judges, who will confult the gratification of his paffions and inclinations, rather than tenaciously perfevere, at their own ha zard, to act agreeable to the dictates of honour and confcience.'

After fhewing the neceffity and utility of a general and impartial adminiftration of juftice in every State, he proceeds to make a farther difplay of the national difadvantages of flavery.

Experience every day informs us, that the flavery of our fubjects depopulates our country. I will fuppofe, that a peafant born my fubject, fhould fettle himself in the district of a neighbouring Lord, in hopes of milder treatment from his new Maiter; I difcover it, and reclaim him. In this cafe, however, I do an injury to his new Sovereign, who would not have received his homage, had he no ufe for him, and I ruin my fubject, in taking him from an happier fituation, to plunge him into his former indigence. Again, I will fuppofe, that a Gentleman fhould peffefs a town or village, fo populous, that the lands depending on it fhould not be fufficient to fupply the inhabitants with neceffary fubfiftence, and that his neighbour, on the other hand, fhould poflefs more land than he had hands to cultivate it; what would be the neceflary confequence of this inequality? A number of fubjects, without a fufficient quantity of land to afford them fubfiftence, are as ufelefs to a State, as a quantity of land without fubjects to cultivate it. Hence it is, that many diftricts lie uncultivated, and almoft uninhabited, in Poland. The republic, in general, is a fufferer by it, and the Proprietors of thofe diftricts, in particular, much more. The latter want fubjects, and yet dare not feduce those of other Nobles, who will demand them back, from a falfe notion of honour, even in cafes where fubjects are a burthen to them.

It is almost inconceiveable, that a country fo abundantly fertile by nature as ours, fhould, in proportion to its vaft extent, contain fo finall a number of inhabitants; infomuch, that a fourth part of the kingdom lies totally wafte. Add to this, that we have no manufactures, no traffic, no commerce; while the navigable rivers that traverfe the country, and even our vicinity to the fea, prefent us, in vain, with the means of carrying on a foreign trade, which we give up to other nations.

Hence arifes that aftonishing fcarcity of money, which univerfally prevails, and the difficulty of raifing the fubfilles of the kingdom; hence the penurious method of living, and fordid appearance of almoft all the houfes, of our Nobles: but if each of them, difburthened of the care of maintaining their blets, should allow them to reap the fruits of their own labour, the State would foon put on a new face. The flave, whofe mind is depreffed, from weight of the yoke he hath borne from his infancy, however dull and flow of conception, will foon difcover the fear.t of earning a livelihood, and even the means of acquiring riches. We fhould foon fee Poland become a kind of public mart, for all its neighbouring nations; thefe would prefently fupply us with every thing we might want, and we should gladly in return give up to them our ufelefs fuperfuitics. We should no longer fee the grafs grow in the ftreets of our towns and village); which would, probably, foon require to be enlarged, for ariling generation of inhabitants, who, fo far from confining themfelves to the narrow views of their forefathers, wod indulge in the enjoyment of that plenty which firit contributed to their ex itence. We should no longer blush to see our public edifices falling to ruins; we should no longer be afaamed of the poverty of our Citizens, the ignorance and incapac ty of our Artizers, or any of those disorders which are now the effect of our bed por lice; but might, in time, fee one of our valuesne more confiderable fums than the whole amount of the prid revenues of the State.'

To thefe obfervations the Editor hath profived a cot count of the ftate of Poland, extracted from the of Solignac's general History of that kingiem. here take leave of this royal Author; rem Readers, who are curious to fee his oth works themfelves; wherein they w fentiments are far from being rewri neral, pertinent and fut. The P indeed, a Philofophe de Som En that fingularity, novelty, and p of great than good chathen.

Saggio fopra l'Academia di Francia che è in Roma.

An Efay on the French Academy for Painting at Rome. By Count Algarotti. 12mo. Printed at Leghorn, 1763.

TH

HERE is not, perhaps, a more difagreeable fituation in

the world, to a man of ingenuity and modefty, than to be obliged to hear his deferts exaggerated, and to blush at those partial encomiums which he is confcious are not his due. Immoderate panegyric on moderate merit, tends, in fact, to depreciate its real claim to applause, and is like a negative quantity in Algebra, fo much worse than nothing as it exceeds the truth. It were unreasonable to expect us to blush for all England, and yet we felt something like a kindred fenfation on reading the dedication to this performance; the very obliging Author having therein been uncommonly lavish of his eulogiums on the English, as the Inventors, Cultivators, and Patrons of all the Arts and Sciences. Extravagant, however, as thefe encomiums are, they would have been lefs difgufting, if they had not been paid us at the expence of a fenfible and ingenious nation, generally fo unfortunate as to be our enemies. The English very well know how much the world is indebted to them for their difcoveries and improvements in fcience, and fet too juft a value on those obligations, to accept of the paltry incenfe of mere compliments, or to think the merit of other nations need be depressed to exalt theirs. They defpife a reputation raifed on the ruins of any other people, whether ancient or modern; much less would they ftoop to build their glory on the inferiority of France. Our ingenious Author was miftaken, therefore, if he thought to pay his court to the English nation by difparaging the French: yet this is the principal defign of a dedication prefixed to the performance, addreffed to Mr. Hollis, a Gentleman to whom the literary world, as well as the arts, owe some peculiar obligations.

The intent of the Effay itself, is to ftimulate the French nation to pay a greater attention to the establishment in queftion, than he conceives they have lately done; owing, fays he, to their national prejudice in favour of every thing that takes its rife in their own country. How far fuch pretended neglect, or the motives to which it is imputed, be real, we cannot pretend to fay; but certain it is, that the French have now more great Mafters, as well as models, to copy after at home, than they had in the time of Louis the XIVth, when that academy was first inftituted. It hath been the custom ever fince

And thro' their fides, poffibly, to infinuate to other nations, the abfolute neceffity of fending their youth to ftudy the fine arts at Rome.

that

that time, for the royal academy of painting at Paris, to fend a certain number of their best Scholars to Rome, where they are maintained and inftructed at the expence of the King. This establishment was in a great measure owing to the celebrated Le Brun, who modelled it in fuch form, as to preserve itself hitherto refpectable: at prefent, however, this noble inftitution is faid to depend only on a few Frenchmen, who are as much afhamed of paffing the Alps, to become Painters and Architects, as others of their countrymen are of croffing the fea to become Philofophers.

The French, fays Count Algarotti, will attribute to Italy the reftoration of Letters, the honour of having produced great men of every kind, and having had all other nations for its Difciples, as it formerly had for its fubjects; but they pretend, that fince the arts have been tranfplanted into France, and taken fuch deep root in their own country, they have the less need to repair to Rome as heretofore. In fuch an enlightened philofophical age as the prefent, fay they, men fhould be ashamed of being governed by ancient prejudices, and of paying that homage to the name of a foreigner which is due to merit. Add to this, their boaft, that their two great Mafters, Jouvenet and Le Sueur, never faw Italy, and yet they have excelled in their

art.

To these arguments our Author replies, that two examples are by no means fufficient to prove it unneceffary for young Painters to study in Italy; efpecially when opposed to the examples of Le Brun, Mignard, Le Moine, and Pouffin; particularly the latter; who, on his return to Rome, faid he was haftening back to regain, what he felt he had loft during his journey into France. Count Algarotti is, indeed, very far from holding Jouvenet in efteem as a great Painter; his colouring, says he, is disagreeably yellow; his compofitions are laboured and heavy, without imagination or choice in the defign: his figures have all the air and attitudes of Frenchmen, and not that natural and graceful mien which is common to all ages and countries; in a word, Jouvenet is fo entirely a Mannerift, that for a Pupil to propose him for a model, would be to turn his back at once on truth and nature.

Le Sueur, our Author admits to be deferving of his great reputation; but objects to the practice of making an extraordinary genius, who is an exception to general rules, ferve as a rule and example for the generality of mankind. What if Corregio, fays he, without having feen the mafter-pieces of Greece, was capable of giving to his figures the inexpreffible graces of the Grecian Artifts, muft we therefore conclude, that all the time,