knowledgment of her inability to reduce them (if she be unable) will be too public a confession of weakness, and her rank among the states of Greece will instantly be lowered.

"But, whatever I might advise, if my advice had any chance of being taken, this I know, and positively pronounce, that, while Athens is Athens, her proud but brave citizens will never ezpressly recognise the independence of the Islands; their resources are no doubt exhaustible, but will not be exhausted in the lives of us and of our children. In this resolution all parties agree. I, who am of no party, dissent from them; but what is a single voice in so vast a multitude? Yet the independence of the united States was tacitly acknowledged by the very offer of terms, and it would result in silence from the natural operation of the treaty. An express acknowledgment of it is merely formal with respect to the allies; but the prejudices of mankind have made it substantial with respect to Athens.

"Let this obstacle be removed. It is sight, but fatal; and, while it lasts, thousands and tens of thousands will perish. In war much will always depend upon blind chance, and a storm or sudden fall of snow may frustrate all your efforts for liberty; but let commissioners from both sides meet, and the Islanders, by not insisting on a preliminary recognition of independence, will ultimately establish it for ever.

"But independence is not disunion. Chios, Cos, Lesbos, Rhodes, are united, but independent on each other; they are connected by a common tie, but have different forms and different constitutions. They are gems of various colors and various properties strung in one bracelet. Such a union can only be made between states, which, how widely soever they differ in form, agree in one common property, freedom. Republics may form alliances, but not a federal union, with arbitrary monarchies. Were Athens governed by the will of a monarch, she could never be coordinate with the free Islands; for such a union would not be dissimilarity, but dissonance. But she is and shall be ruled by laues alone, that is, by the will of the people, which is the only law. Her Archon, even when he was perpetual, had no essential properties of monarchy. The constitution of Athens, if we must define it, was then a republic with a perpetual administrator of its lanes. Between Athens, therefore, and the freest states in the world, a union may naturally be formed.

“There is a natural union between her and the Islands, which the gods have made, and which the powers of hell cannot dissolve. TT

VOL. VIII.

69

Men, speaking the same idiom, educated in the same manner, perhaps in the same place, professing the same principles, sprung from the same ancestors in no very remote degree, and related to each other in a thousand modes of consanguinity, affinity, and friendship, such men, whatever they may say through a temporary resentment, can never in their hearts consider one another as aliens.

"Let them meet then with fraternal and pacific dispositions, and let this be the general groundwork and plan of the treaty.

"I. The Carians shall be included in the pacification, and have such advantages as will induce them to consent to the treaty, rather than continue a hazardous war.

"II. The archon, senate, and magistrates of Athens shall make a complete recognition of rights of all the Athenian citizens of all orders whatever, and all former laws for that purpose shall be combined in one. There shall not be one slave in Attica.

"Note. By making this a preliminary, the Islanders will show their affection for the people of Athens; their friendship will be cemented and fixed on a solid basis; and the greatest good will be extracted, as I at first proposed, from the greatest evil.

"III. There shall be a perfect coördination between Athens and the thirteen united Islands, they considering her not as a parent, whom they must obey, but as an elder sister, whom they cannot help loving, and to whom they shall give preeminence of honor and coequality of power.

"IV. The new constitutions of the confederate Islands shall remain.

"V. On every occasion, requiring acts for the general good, there shall be an assembly of deputies from the senate of Athens, and the congress of the Islands, who shall fairly adjust the whole business, and settle the ratio of the contributions on both sides. This committee shall consist of fifty Islanders and fifty Athenians, or of a smaller number chosen by them.

"VI. If it be thought necessary and found convenient, a proportionable number of Athenian citizens shall have seats, and power of debating and voting on questions of common concern, in the great assembly of the Islands, and a proportionable number of Islanders shall sit with the like power in the assembly at Athens. "Note. This reciprocal representation will cement the union. "VII. There shall be no obligation to make war but for the common interest.

"VIII. Commerce shall flow in a free course for the general advantage of the united powers.

"IX. A universal, unlimited amnesty shall be proclaimed in every part of Greece and Asia.

"This," said the Athenian, "is the rough sketch of a treaty founded on virtue and liberty. The idea of it still fills and expands my soul; and, if it cannot be realized, I shall not think it less glorious, but shall only grieve more and more at the perverseness of mankind. May the Eternal Being, whom the wise and the virtuous adore, and whose attribute it is to convert into good that evil which his unsearchable wisdom permits, inspire all ranks of men to promote either this or a similar plan! If this be impracticable, Oh miserable human nature! But I am fully confident that, if more at large happiness of all.” ———

No more is extant of this interesting piece, upon which the commentary of the sage Polybius would have been particularly valuable in these times.

No. II. p. 472.

MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN DALRYMPLE;

OR

A PROJECT OF LORD ROCHFORD TO PREVENT THE WAR.•

Translation.

Before the declaration of France in favor of America, Lord Rochford, formerly ambassador in Spain and in France, formed a project to prevent the war. It was, that England should propose a great treaty of confederation between France, Spain, Portugal, and England, the objects of which should be the three following.

• Sir John Dalrymple passed from Labon through Soan to Paris. Whale he was in Madrid, he called on Cant de Fr la Blanca, the Spanish minister of Foreign Affairs, and, after some general einversation about the war, the minister requested him to state in writing what he had to say on that subject. He accordingly sent this Memoar, which he called & Historical Anecdota. It had been drawn up sue tume previously, and it purports to have been the work of Lord Richord but its pre use dyte is not known Count de Florida Blanca gave a copy of the original to Mr. Jay, who was then the American minister at the court of Spain, and Mr. Carmichael went a transcript of the same to Dr. Franklin. See Diplomatic Correspondence, Vol. VIL р. 206.

The first, a mutual guarantee between these four powers of their possessions in America and the two Indies, with a proviso, that a war in Europe should never be a war in those remote regions on any pretext whatever; fixing also the number of troops and vessels to be furnished by the contracting powers against the power, that should contravene the peace in those distant parts. The second object was, to grant a participation in the commerce of America to France, Spain, and Portugal, as far as such participation might not be incompatible with the common interests, and without the rivalship of English America in England. The third object was, the adjustment of the contested privileges of the Americans, upon principles just and honorable for them. Lord Rochford was at that time Secretary of State. He told me, that the first person, to whom he had communicated this project, was the late Prince of Mazarano, ambassador of Spain, and that, though old and indisposed, he arose and embraced him, and said, "Ah! my Lord, what divinity has inspired you?" Lord Rochford also communicated it to a friend of his, who was then, and still continues, one of the ministers of the King of England, who gave it his approbation; but Lord Rochford soon after quitted the ministry and retired to the country, by which accident the project failed of being presented to the cabinet of the King.

I have given a relation of this anecdote, because I am one of the four or five persons who alone know the truth of it, and because I am of opinion, that it is not yet too late to revive a project, which will save a million of Christians from becoming widows and orphans. As to the first object of such a confederacy, Lord Rochford did not doubt of the proposition's being accepted by all the powers, because it was the interest of all to accept it. The losses of France in the two Indies the last war, and their misfortunes in the East Indies in the present one, where, in six weeks, they have lost all they possessed; the losses of the Spaniards in the last war in the two Indies, and even the stroke the other day in the Bay of Honduras, by a young captain with a handful of soldiers; the facility with which Portugal lost the Island of St. Catharine in the Brazils, and the misfortunes of the English armies the three last years in America, all prove, that France, Spain, Portugal, and England, have their tender parts in America and the two Indies, and, of consequence, that they have all an interest in a mutual guarantee of their possessions in those three parts of the world.

As to the second object of the confederacy, I am sensible, that

the idea of the other three powers participating in the commerce of America, under the limitation of its not being incompatible with the common interests of English America and England, is an idea somewhat vague, and subject to disputes. But, fortunately for humanity, there are five persons in those five countries, of characters which render them proper to draw the outlines of some determinate regulations, which will admit of no disputes, and may enrich France, Spain, and Portugal, without impoverishing England and her colonies. In America there is Doctor Franklin, perhaps the first genius of the age, who is well acquainted with the commercial connexions between America and England; France has her Comptroller-General, who, from his youth, has been brought up in the practice of commerce; in Spain, we find M. Campomanes, who has employed the maturity of his life in studies, that give him a superiority in discussions of this kind; Portugal will be assist ed by the counsels of the Duke of Braganza, who has gathered knowledge in almost every field, in courts, in libraries, and even on the exchanges of the merchants of Europe; and, as for England, she has a minister, who, thoroughly versed in the true interests of commerce, will not refuse to America what he has just granted to Ireland.

As to the third object of the coufederation, England, who much boasts of her own Magna Charta, will make no difficulty in granting a magna charta to the liberties of America. Perhaps the best means to expedite this measure would be to give a carte blanche to Dr. Franklin. A geaerous confidence is the surest means to secure a generous man. Spain has, too, very solid interests in the success of such a confederacy, and against the independence of America. The first is, that if English America becomes independent, Spanish America will be overrun with the contraband of the Americans thus independent of England. 1. England is bound by treaties with Spain not to carry on the contraband trade. 2. She is restrained by the fear of this contraband's drawing a war upon her in Europe, which was the consequence of it in the times of Sir Robert Walpole. 3. The dearness of Enghish and European commodities sets natural bounds to the quantity of this contraband.

But, when the Americans are independent, they will say, first, they are not bound by the treaties of the English; secondly, they will not be restrained by fear, being so far from Spun, and, having defended themselves against eighty thousand Eng.sh soldiers and marines, they would but little dread the forces of Spain, and,