principle of legiflation, which tends by its nature to lead to disputes, to oblige the legislature to weigh perpetually in a balance, opinions alone, what may be prohibited or permitted, and to develope commotions, of which the popular government have always a principle? But if the republican manners recal the order of which the diffentions are removing, then manners will be the rampart against luxury; and if they are not fo, the citizens will prefer their enjoyments to the enthusiasm of the republic, and will make every effort for preventing the introduction of new fumptuary laws. It will refult then, that they will have for thefe laws the fame refpect as for other laws; they never alter or correct them, and then by that alone it is clear that thofe laws are void. adly, They are null, because luxury exercises itself in cafes not forefeen. Thus, at Bafle, if it is prohibited to wear clothes of filk, they take thofe in which there is a little mixture of cotton, or thread, or wool. Thus coaches are become common, though it is prohibited to have footmen behind; they open on the infide, as with the phyficians at Paris; and although the population of the city does not exceed 13 to 15,000 fouls, yet they reckon more than 200 coaches, and are coftly in the choice of their horfes. The ladies cannot be dreft in filk, unless it be black; but the law has foreseen nothing of the head-dreffes, and nothing can be more contrary to the spirit of reformation than the parade of their heads, which they run into as much as in France; and the expence of gauzes is certainly greater in the end than that of laces. sdly, In fhort, it is impoffible to place bounds to the enjoyments of a rich people. It is not luxury which Corrupts, but riches. It is thefe which give confideration and diftinc tion, and nevertheless, the principle of a popular government is to re-in force the means of becoming rich, in affuring to every one the fruits of their industry and their property, and in preventing idlenefs; without giving in em ployments and abuses the means of fubfifting by doing nothing. This exifts admirably at Bafle; and at the fame time they would deftroy the principle by fumptuary laws; for they would limit enjoyments, tho' men labour only to enjoy; thus, befides the examples which I have given, it is clear, that if the law prohibits to have more than four dishes at dinner, it can place no bounds to the choice; and if furniture is not magnificent, they can have pictures of the higheft price; from all which it appears, that the laws can place no real barriers against luxury. Manners alone are the true obftacles to it; here I can only develope the ideas which I have acquired elsewhere but it is true, that at Bafle, they are ftill fimple and mild, but they nove towards the level of their riches, and of the rest of Europe. Prostitutes are known, and kept there under different pretexts: fuch a fact is fomething. But that which I have feen, heard, and obferved in general, at Bafle, with the most pleasure, is the action and reciprocal re-action of letters on the democratical manners. The youth are educa. ted at the univerfity: of whatever ftate the parents may be, their children are well inftructed; becaufe, bring a part of the fovereignty, and eligible to be a part of the government, it is neceffary they fhould be instructed, and inftruc tion in literature comprizes the Greek and Latin authors. Those authors ha+ ving their minds animated by the in fluence of republican education, even to enthusiasm, it results, that this continued reading gives a new forte to the love of liberty; a new intention of the fentiment of their fuperiority to other people; and, in a word, that enthusiasm which reafon does not always juftify, but which enchains and fubdues men who are even in a different fituation. This education produces another effect, it gives the tafte for letters, for retirement, and for employment; and thence it still ferves, perhaps, more to further the republican fpirit than by its firft effect. It removes fubjects of diffipation; it renders home agreeable, and maintains that fimplicity of manners-that manly and nervous turn of mind, which knows how to appreciate the good, and to avoid the trifles of life and it is this fimplicity of man ners, this love of retirement, this contentment with home, this inutility of diffipation, which makes, properly fpeaking, the foul of a republic more fill, in my eyes, than knowledge, if it was poffible to feparate them. The study of letters in a republic perpetuates, therefore, the love of its liberty; it produces, it is the cause of manners analogous and neceffary to fuch a state; and by an admirable res action, these manners, in their turn, give a new tafte for letters where they are cultivated, not by neceffity of oc cupation only, but as an agreeable relaxation and if this happy habit, this turn of mind, is not always that which we should call amiable, it renders men fimple and mild, and their minds become more in unifon with the form of government which they love. : This had been proved to me during my refidence in England; and every man who would read with fome attention the works which are published there, will recognize the pencil and the turn of the ancients. of it prove more than any thing I could fay. It feems, by the fpirit of laws at Bafle, that they would eftablish in favour of the citizens, at the time when the republic was formed, a fort of general and perpetual entail, of which the effect ought to be the fame as that of common entails. Not only none are citizens, except the defcend ants of those who formed the republic, but it is impoffible to inhabit Bafle without permiffion, and to become a proprietor of land within the extent of the Canton. That none can become a citizen, appears to me fimple, in a democratical government: it would render the fovereignty communicative; and with the jealous; interested, and ever-felfifh fpirit of that kind of government, I do conceive it; but am not able to conceive, how an indivi dual, when he has obtained permission to refide, has not that of becoming a proprietor. It is to remove competi tors-it is, as it were, a monopoly of the citizens against themselves; it is to contract the line of extending the principles of competition and of indus try and, in one word, it is to des ftroy the most certain effects of á freë government. But it is true; that af ter a long habitation, permiffion is obtained of buying a house; but befides its being neceffary to depend on the favour of the great council, it is only an exception to the general prohibition of buying. I note particularly this law, becaufe its effect is ftriking. An arpent of land in the districts leaft fought for in the interior of the ci4 ty, cofts only 3000 livres, and about 10,000 in the other quatters; and this in a city, free, rich, and manufacturing, is little to pay for building ground. Eftates in the country are fold at 25 to 30 years purchase; and it thould be remarked, that they would not be fo dear if they were not pre vented from purchafing in Alface by the effect of our ruinous forms; and, fecondly, that in the Cantons, where they pay neither the feal nor the hun3 F What I have faid is confirmed by facts, which are fo extraordinary in France, that they will be thought incredible. We have feen the third magiftrate, (the treasurer) who is a baker, who ftill fells bread, and who amufes himself with the ftudy of the Greek and Latin poets. A butcher alfo, has been named to us, who stirs not to go to a fair for buying cattle, without a Greek poet in his pocket. It is a fpectacle interefting enough, that there exifts fuch a taste, and two examples VOL. VII. No 42. dredth penny, nor any thing that in creases fo much the price of acquifitions in France. It feems to be im poffible to produce more characteristic effects of a law, efpecially if we take into our calculation every circumftance that ought to enter into it. In fpite of the removal of the citi zens for acquiring without their territory, they have fome poffeffions in Alface, in the Margraviate, and in the empire in general. They become more curious for agriculture; and in Alface, they have introduced the ufe of clover for artificial meadows, which will operate in a fhort time a confiderable change. They harness their oxen in collars, and gain by that means a greater degree of quickness in their labour. They have turnips, which they do not cultivate well. They have moderate ploughs, with which they labour much better than could be expected; but, as in the part of Alface which we traverfed, they harness too many oxen, and make the extraordinary and fuperfluous expence of a driver; a thing which appears incredible with the example of fome Cantons of Alface, where I have feen them plough with a fingle horfe. Their meadows are well managed, and I have been affured, that they have a powerful manure in Plasterstone, or Gypfum, not burnt, but pounded to powder. An intelligent perfon, who cultivates for his amufement, and as an amateur, told me, that the effect was aftonishing upon clover, and in general much greater upon light than upon ftrong lands it is fo fure, that flight failures must not difguft. This is a thing to try. They have at Bafle, both commerce and manufactures; they have of the latter, many objects in the city. It is alfo an entrepôt for the commodities drawn from foreigners; in which the English haberdashery is a great article. I speak of this only to have an opportunity to touch upon a gafconade Baloife. They pretend, that they manufacture ribbons to the amount of eight millions of our livres, which is the third part of the whole fabric of Lyons; and fuch a fum, for this article, appears to me not only an exaggeration, but an abfurd boafting in. our neighbourhood, whom they can. not rival either in taste, or the choice of filk; and though they introduce their ribbons into France clandeftine. ly, I know that they fear in good ear nest not to be able to ftand against our fabrics, which they will be able yet to do a longer time than the circumftances would feem to allow them, on account of the extent of their capitals. At Bafle, as in all the free ftates, the voluntary charities are numerous. By them are maintained, in a great meafure, the houfe of orphans, in which are kept the men condemned to prifon. There is a gradation to punishments in the criminal justice of this city, which is perfectly ordained; fimple fines, imprisonment with labour, imprifonment and public works for a time longer or fhorter, but always li mited; the gallies of France, to which they fend their condemned without any contribution to the expence; the pillory, the whip, and death. It has not appeared to me, that this part of their legiflation was perfect. They have preferved the torture. The Lit the Council has refused the abolition, under the pretext that it might be use. ful in extraordinary cafes: a reafon abfurd and incredible in a popular go vernment. We find every where the manner in which civil juftice is administered, but we are not fo commonly told the way in which they fettle their mortgages. The fecurity of the lenders, when they have not their only confidence in the perfon, and the character of the debt ors, exifts in a public act, and the priority of this act. The difficulty then is to affure themselves of the priority of fuch act. In France, for example, nothing prevents the fame eftate being mortgaged many times, without there being the means of know ing how many times, "and in what order it has been fo. Here, when a citizen would borrow money, he indicates the fund which he propofes as the fecurity, and this fund is regiftered, and it is valued; and if the eftimate goes to twice the fum borrow ed, the officers charged with this function ratify it. It is neceffary that the eftate propofed be of twice the value of the fum borrowed, because the tribe, and in general the public, answers for the fecurity. By means of this precaution, mortgages are fecured. They are fond of this form at Bafle; but to me, I do not know what to fay of it; it might be useful, perhaps, in a state wholly agricultural, altho' not without difficulties; but in a commercial ftate, in which there should be great facilities of borrowing at the rifque of fome frauds, this form feems rather mifchievous. I have feen at Bafle, two objects which have fixed my attention: the one is the manner of printing geographical maps with characters. This method is not better than by wooden plates; it does not appear even to be exact. It is impoffible, at a fimple view, to vary enough the form of the characters for giving the variety of contours, and the multiplied forms which exactnefs demands. It would be neceffary often to caft the type ifelé, for being correct; inot her words, it would be neceffary to caft particular types for each map, or, 1°, the fixed characters, upon the rules of Mofaic, and in a strong cafe, can ferve but to draw a certain number of copies; for they are too voluminous, too much expofed to derange themselves, for being warehoused; an inconvenience not attending engraved plates. 2o. Although they fhould perfect these characters, never will they find them reach the perfection of the graver. This invention, however it may prove the genius of the artift, feems rather to place bounds to the art, instead of advancing it. The fecond object is a curious dif covery, and which may be employed to the fatisfaction of the lovers of electricity. It is a barometer of an extroardinary kind. A Curé, fhort-fight. ed, who amufed himself with firing at a mark, had thought of stretching a wire in fuch a manner, as to flip the mark on the wire, in order to draw it to him, to fee how he had aimed. He oblerved, by chance, that the wire founded fometimes, and gave a found as if it had been ofcillatory; and he had obferved, that this phenomenon happened, when a change in the atmofphere was to enfue; fo that he came to predict, with exactness enough, fine weather or rain, and himfelf to be regarded as an extraordinary man. M has multiplied obfervations, and has found that this extroardinary barometer is more juft, and more exact, and more marked in its founds, when the wire is extended in the direction of the meridian. He told me, that the founds were more or lefs foft, more or lefs continued, according to the future changes of the weather, more or lefs marked. It did not appear to me, that his obfervations were multiplied enough for claffing and reducing the phenomena to marks fuf, ficiently precife. He pretends, yet, that the founds of counter-tenor announce fine weather; and thofe of the bafs, rain. But I believe they are fure only to a certain point. It is fufficent to the principal phenomenon, that it occurs; and it feems to open a new career, in which observations have already been attempted. The Profeffor Volta has mounted at Pavia 15 chords, and it is faid, that the fymphony is agreeable enough. It lasts more or lefs time, yet without there being any figns which indicate what will be the duration. 3 F 2 Thoughts Thoughts on the Abolition of the African Slave Trade, confidered chiefly in a Prudential and Political View SIR, S a lover of his country, and a circumstances of the times; and, on A friend to its political and com- certain emergencies, he may find it mercial interefts, a patriotic citizen might be prompted to apologize, on the grounds of national expediency, for the continuance of a traffic in the human fpecies: but as a citizen of the world, and a friend to the collective body of mankind, he might be induced to hesitate, fhould the fignature of his approbation be required. Were we to examine the fubject of the African commerce as an advocate for the caufe of humanity, and for the natural rights of human kind, without any regard to the condition of rival states, we might be induced to mingle with the general voice, and exclaim against the inhumanity of fuch a traffic: but when the fubject is confidered in a political view, when we reflect on the fituation of conending powers, afpiring to fuperiority in wealth, in commerce, and in greatnefs, we are inclined to frame our tudgments on the maxims of political prudence, and on the views of national expediency. Though the actions of individuals in private life fhould be governed uniformly by the principles of morality, the jarring interefts of rival communities may render it inexpedient and even dangerous, on fome occafions, to adhere invariably to this rule of conduct in the government of nations. Self-preservation is the primary law of nations, as well as nature; and, in the prefent ftate of things, the rigid maxims of morality, under the moft virtuous adminiftration, may fome imes be facrificed to the claims of national policy and the public good. The lovers of justice and humanity may deplore the neceffity of thofe occafional deviations from moral rectitude; but, in the prefent fituation of human affairs, there is no alternative. The moft virtuous ftatesman, when reduced to the neceffity of temporizing, must accommodate his measures to the indifpenfably neceffary to follow the dictates of policy rather than of confaience. The fcrupulous moralift, and the rigid devotee, may object to these fentiments, as incompatible with the refined morality of the gofpel; but, fince it falls not within the compafs of my plan to engage in a difcuffion of this nature, I fhall difmifs this part of the fubject as soon as poffible. Whilst the ncroachments of ambition, the jealoufy of power, and the difcordant interefts of nations fhall continue, the pacific and humane maxims of Chrif. tianity, fo well adapted to the regula tion of private life, can never be reconciled with some of the fundamental and leading principles of civil policy. Such has been the depravity of man in all ages, and fuch the condition of human affairs, that the most virtuous ftatefman could never regulate his political conduct by principles analogous to thofe which peculiarly cha racterize the gospel: on the contrary, the measures of the beft adminiftrations have proceeded on the grounds of neceflity, of intereft, and of pru dence; have been adjusted to the cir cumftances of the times, and have fluc tuated with the conduct and fituation of furrounding powers. When fufficient barriers hall have been erected against the encroachments and diforders of the paflions, by exalting human nature from imperfection to undeviating rectitude, the government of empires and the morality of the gofpel will be every where the fame; but till the establishment of fuch a visionary fyftem, which never yet exifted but in the productions of poetic genius, or in the difordered imagination of fanatics, the tide of human affairs, moved and directed by the paffions, the interefts, and the prejudices of mankind, will continue to flow in its ancient Gent. Mag and |