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fame, thy profit will be as great as minė. I am, as ever, thine to ferve thee,

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RICHARD SAUNDERS.

As it is a principal part of our plan, to select valuable fugitive papers, wherever they can be found, to be pre ferved in this mifcellany, we deem the following, which appeared a fhort time ago in a morning paper, too valuable to be fuffered to perish. When we meet with any other of equal merit on the oppofite fide of the queftion, it fhall be admitted with equal readiness.

SIR,

On the Late Convention with Spain.

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WERE à party of armed then to break into your houfe and office, and, after thrusting you out, carry off or demolish the contents; fhould you look upon yourself as made whole again, if, two or three years hence, after a heavy law-fuit, the empty walls were to be given back to you, you fitting down with your own cofts?-Were the fame treatment again repeated, would the fame amends again and again content you?-Could a livelihood be gained, do you think, or trade carried on, upon fuch terms?-Such are the terms for which we have been called upon to join in thankfgiving to the minifter.

The convention has two objects-adjustment of limits, and fatisfaction for known or eventual injuries. First, let us caft an eye on the latter or remedial part, and then on the geographical.

The injuries in question, I observe, are spoken of under three heads.

1. Acts of " Difpoffeffion" committed about the month of April 1789. Thefe form the fubject of the first article.

2. Acts of " Difpoffeffion" committed fubfequent to the fame period. These form the fubject of the latter part of

the fecond article.

3. Acts of " Violence or Hoftility" at large, committed fub fequent to the fame period. Thefe form the fubject of the former part of the fame article.

From these several claffes of injuries, what are the allotments of fatisfaction refpectively provided.

For the first clafs-fpecific reftitution, and reftitution merely. Reftitution, too, of what?-of" lands, buildings, veffels, merchandize, or other property whatever," as fpecified with regard to the injuries spoken of under the fecond article? No fuch thing-No veffels, no merchandize, no moveable property whatsoever-nothing but "building's and tracts of land," bare ground, and emptied walls. The veel and cargo, which were the original fubject of complaint, are left in the hands of thofe, whofe violence gave birth to it.

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Ob! but, fays fomebody, you forget there was a former Convention; and that whatever fatisfaction for this affair is not Specified in the prefent, will be found provided in that former one. -Not fo neither. Of the bufinefs done in this concluding convention, the first part is the turning every thing that preceded it into waste paper. In this "folid agreement, (fays the preamble) the differences that have arifen are declared to be terminated." By this, all retrofpective difcuffion of rights and pretenfions are exprefsly declared to be "fet afide." After a waver fo full and explicit, had it been agreed to keep alive the benefit of the former ftipu lation, is it conceivable that a faving claufe for that pur pofe would not have been inferted?-One part of what is due to us, given up in exchange for another part-moveable for territorial what coft thousands of pounds, for what is not worth a ftrawi-Such are the terms, which, in the language of minifterial exultation, I have heard called our own as if prowefs had extorted them from us, at the expence of jufticeni na!.

One principle is uniformly obferved-that in all cafes of difpoffeffion, the fatisfaction is to be a nominal and not a real one-that it is to afford ruin to the objects, triumph to the authors of the injury. If there were any difficulty in the conftruction of this releafing claufe; analogy would clear it up. Have you still a doubt as to this point, with regard to the first of these heads of injury?turn, then, to the next What fays the fecond article?" Reftitution” of property, together with "compenfation" for the damage restored or not reftored, and for the fufpenfion, perhaps the deftruction of the trade? Neither the one nor the other, determinately much lefs both, but either the one or the other, as fomebody shall please.-Who is to be that fomebody? Which of the two powers is to determine what this "terinati ng" convention leaves exprefsly undetermined? This

we are to learn, from future negociations and future armaments. Thus much, however, feems to be tolerably clear already that when the goods, whatever they may be which the Spaniards at any time may chufe to take from us, are become good for nothing--the arms, for inftance, honey-combed-the powder wetted-the biscuit mouldy-and the beef putrid-they have but to give it us back again, and the account is fettled,

What, then, is the security provided for fo much of our trade, as we might be defirous of transferring to these immenfe regions? Power fecured to the Spaniards of ruining our fettlers and traders, as often as their profperity may attract notice; and liberty to fucceeding fettlers and traders, to run toties quoties into the fame fnare.

So much for the remedial part.-A word or two of the geographical.

In a treaty for adjusting territorial differences, you may take one or other of three courfes. One is, to draw boundary lines in the treaty itself:-Another is, to leave them to be drawn in a fubfequent treaty by commissaries : The third is to fay nothing about boundary-lines, but to make it as if they were drawn already. The first of these courfes, was that pursued by the authors of the peace of 1748; and the war of 1755 was the refult ;-the fecond was that obferved by the then Earl of Shelburne, in the peace of 1783-The third is that preferred by the now matured judgment of Mr. Pitt.

We are to "retain" (fays the fixth article) the liberty of "landing on the coafts and islands fituated" fo and fo with regard to "the coafts and iflands already occupied by Spain."— What are the coafts and islands thus already occupied? How far along the coafts in queftion fhall the virtue of the occupying foot, be in fuch cafe admitted to extend? By what fpecification of natural limits, fhall this otherwife undeterminable propofition be determined?-This is the very thing which ought to have been done-which, in 1748, was meant to be done-which, in 1783, was done and which now, in 1790, has neither been done, nor attempted to be done. We are to have-what? what we had before. What is it we had before?-That is the very point that was in difpute; and that is the very point that remains to be disputed.

In 1783, the minifter of 1790 was in leading-ftrings, of which he did not know the value.-Having broke loofe from his nurfe, he now ftands upon his own legs--Behold the confequence ! A Citizen.

SINCE the establishment of the British power in India, a Spirit of inquiry has begun to prevail there, refpecting those Afiatic countries in which we have now so near an intereft. This had a beginning feveral years ago; but its operations were feeble, before the arrival of Sir William Jones in that country, whofe ardent tafte for literary purfuits is well known, and who no fooner fet foot in Afia than he excited a general fpirit of inquiry there, which promifes to be productive of the happieft effects. The Afiatic fociety, which owes its inftitution entirely to him, has already fent a printed volume of their tranfactions to Europe, which affords the happieft prefage of farther advances in that country in the paths of literature and oriental knowledge: And we are glad to think, that Sir William will obtain a powerful coadjutor in this department, in Mr. Richardfon, the well known author of the Perfian grammar and dictionary, who has lately gone to Calcutta in a high law department.

Cochineal.

Among the individuals who have diftinguished themfelves in India by an active spirit of literary research, Dr. James Anderfon, phyfician to the prefidency of Madras, deferves to be particularly mentioned. In the courfe of his usual inveftigations, this gentleman, in the year 1787, discovered an infect of the coccus tribe, very like the real cochineal infect, in great numbers, feeding on a kind of marine grafs, frequent in the neighbourhood of Fort St. George. It immediately occurred, that if this infect poffeffed any thing of the qualities of the true cochineal, it might turn out greatly for the benefit of this country, by rearing it there; as he eafily forefaw it would be furnished at a much less expence, VOL. I.

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than is paid for cochineal imported from the Spanish Main. He profecuted this thought with his ufual ardour; but a little time, and fome accurate experiments, fatisfied him that this infect could not be made to answer the fame pur poses with the true cochineal in dying; and the farther purfuit of that object was given up.

But in the course of his inquiries, in confequence of a very extenfive correfpondence through all the territories of India, he discovered, in different parts of those regions, no lefs than fix different animals of the coccus clafs, which he has defcribed with great accuracy in a series of letters to Sir Jofeph Banks and others, printed at Madras, but not for fale, and has fpecified the plants on which they refpectively feed. As it is well known that all the animals of this clafs afford juices that ftain woollen goods of a permanent dye, it is probable that, in future times, thefe inquiries may lay the foundation of feveral useful discoveries in arts.

In the mean while, Dr. Anderfon was active in his refearches to difcover the Cactus Cochinilifer, which is called Nopal in America, on which plant alone the true American cochineal is reared: But after the moft diligent fearch, it could not be found in either the British, French, or Dutch fettlements in India. Chance, however, made him difcover it in China. From thence it was brought to Madras, where it was cultivated with care, and profpered abundantly, Another plant of the Spanish nopal was obtained from Manilla: A third from the Cape of Good Hope; and a fourth from the King's garden at Kew, by the intervention of Sir Jofeph Banks; all of which arrived fafe at Madras, and proved to be exactly the fame plant. The East India Company, on being informed of thefe facts by Sir Jofeph Banks, very easily perceived the advantages that might accrue to this country from the cultivating of this article in their fettlements in India, and gave orders for a garden to be laid out in the neighbourhood of Madras, under the eye of Dr, Anderson, to ferve as a popalary, or nursery of nopal plants, from whence the natives can be fupplied with what number they may want. Measures have been alfo adopted for fending out the true cochineal infect thither, which are no doubt arrived there before this time, and where there is no reason to fufpect they will not profper abundantly: And on account of the furprifing cheapnefs of labour by the Tamuls,