first time, and left entirely to their natural impressions. But it is not the least proof of the empire of man over the animals, that by habit and education he can subdue those impressions, and can establish a degree of harmony and even of familiarity between the most discordant natures. The dog and the cat are domestic evidences of this assertion.

42. Pliny, speaking of an animal, (Machlis,) supposed to be the rein. deer, says the creature was only to be found in Scandinavia. Cæsar describes the same animal as a native of the Hercynian forest in Germany. M. de Buffon is struck with this contradiction, (Histoire Naturelle, tom. xii. p. 82.) which is indeed only apparent. Our author, who is a better naturalist than an antiquarian, did not know that the vast island or peninsula of Scandinavia was considered by most of the ancients as a part of Germany; (V. Cluver. German. Antiq. 1. iii. p. 159, &c.) that the ocean was the northern boundary of Germany; (Tacit. de Morib. German. c. 1, &c.) that the Hercynian forest lost itself in the most remote parts of that unknown country. (Cæsar de Bell. Gallic. 1. vi. c. 25.)

43. M. de Buffon asserts (Hist. Natur. tom. xi. p. 229.) that the camel has been so completely subdued by man, that there remains no individuals of the species in a state of nature and freedom. This may be true enough in our times, but it was not so in those of Diodorus Siculus. That curious traveller says there were wild camels in Arabia. (Bibliot. 1. iii. c. 44. Edit. Wesseling.) The fact seems probable in itself, and it confirms M. de Buffon's opinion, that the camel was originally a native of Arabia, for whose sandy deserts he and he alone seems formed.

44. M. Marmontel has made a singular mistake in his elegant translation of Lucan. That poet had said of the Gallic Druids, (Lucan. Pharsal. 1. i. v. 452.)

Solis nosse Deos, et cœli numina vobis

Aut solis nescire datum.

In the French version of the Pharsalia, this exclamation is turned into a panegyric of the doctrine of the Gallican church: "Vous seuls avez le privilège de choisir entre tous les dieux, ceux qu'on doit adorer, ceux qu'on doit méconnoître." But the poet was admiring not the truth but the singularity of the Druidical system of theology. Observing how much it disagreed with that of other nations, he cries out, "The knowledge of the Gods has been granted or has been refused to you alone." (V. le Lucan de Marmontel, tom. i. p. 32.)

45. The King of Prussia appears throughout his writings an enemy to the English. His description of the battle of Blenheim is a glaring instance of his partiality. (V. l'Art de la Guerre, chant vi.)

Ainsi le grand Eugène, à ce fameux village
Où Tallard et Marsin s'étoient très mal postés,
D'un effort général donna de tous côtés, &c.

The history contained in these lines is as erroneous as the poetry of them is indifferent. The great Eugene, to whom the sole glory of the day is ascribed, commanded the right wing of the allied army, and was so well opposed by Marsin and the Elector of Bavaria, that his repeated attacks made no impression on them. It was his colleague, the Duke of Marlborough, who improved the many blunders of Tallard, passed the rivulet, broke the centre of the French army, took the flower of their troops in the village of Blenheim, and, in a word, obtained a complete victory. (V. Mémoires de Feuquières, tom. iii. p. 357— 387. Kane's Campaigns, p. 57-61. Histoire Générale par Voltaire, tom. v. p. 277.)

46. The translator of M. de Haller's poems has inserted a note which is to me incomprehensible. The poet (p. 112.) had exclaimed with indignation, "Où coule aujourd'hui le sang des Muhleren et des Bubenberg?" Bubenberg, (adds the translator,) "famille d'une ancienne noblesse à Berne...... Muhleren, un officier de cette famille, qui étoit aussi d'une ancienne noblesse, fit paroître son courage dans la défense de

Morat

Morat contre Charles le Hardi en 1476." 1. If the family was noble, as it certainly was, it seems superfluous to add that each individual of it was so likewise. 2. I am perfectly well acquainted with the Bubenberg who defended Morat so gallantly against Charles the Hardy. His name was Adrian; and neither Schilling, a contemporary historian, nor that indefatigable collector, M. Leu, (in his Helvetic Dictionary,) makes the least mention of that extraordinary name of Muhleren, which I never heard of, but which M. de Haller himself seems clearly to separate from that of Bubenberg. This passage is more singular, as I have some reason to believe that the translator is M. de Tscharner, of one of the best families of Berne; and who has written with applause a history of his own country in the German language. (V. Choix des Poësies Allemandes, par M. Huber. tom. iii. p, 242.)

ALPHA

5

REMARKS

ON

BLACKSTONE'S COMMENTARIES,

REFERRED TO IN MR. GIBBON'S MEMOIRS.

THIS excellent work, which Mr. Blackstone read as Vinerian Professor, may be considered as a rational System of the English Jurisprudence, digested into a natural method, and cleared of the pedantry, the obscurity, and the superfluities which rendered it the unknown horror of all men of taste.

Unfortunately for this useful science, the foreign clergy, who poured in shoals into England after the Norman conquest, had little relish for the old common law of this country; they had formed the design of erecting upon its ruins the new system of civil and canon law which had just begun to revive in the court of Rome and the Italian Universities. The artful designs of these ecclesiastics were however constantly disappointed by the steady opposition of the nobility and laity, who supported the municipal law of England against these innovations; till at last, despairing of success, the clergy affected to despise what they were unable to destroy, and withdrew almost entirely from the secular tribunals. The Court of Chancery, of which they retained the direction, adopted many of the forms of the civil law, and as they were the sole masters of the two universities, they easily proscribed a science which they abhorred, and reduced the students of the common law to the necessity of erecting peculiar schools in London, and within the neighbourhood of the courts of justice. Although two hundred years have now elapsed since the Reformation, yet the reverence for established customs will easily account for so material a defect in our academical character not having been sooner corrected.