O. The magiftrate. Y. Who would baptize? O. The first Chriftian that came in the way, as the church empowers every Chriftian to do. Y. Who would bury? O. That the civil magiftrate is to look to. Y. To hear you, the people might do without priests. Y. But if our laws and inftitutions fhould teach morality, religion would then be useless. O. Abfolutely, in your fenfe of the word. To love and to ferve our country, to be just to our fellow-citizens, is to do all that is most agreeable to man and to God. Y. You are an innovator. O. By no means; for my opinion was the fame when we had grand almoners and cardinals. Y. God will punish you. O. He has the power; but I honour him too much, to be afraid that he will. Y. What! no more priests! O. I do not fay that we will have no more priests; I fay only that we can do without them. Y. Why! this is precifely what ought not to be faid; for if the people once believe that they can do without priests, they will do without them. O. So much the worfe for the priests. Y. You are an impious wretch! an Atheift! and you will repent the hand you have had in contributing to make the French unhappy in the world to come. O. I will confole myself with feeing them. free and happy in this world. MILITARY MILITARY ECONOMY *. [From the Morning Chronicle.] HOBBES has maintained, that the natural state of mankind is a state of war. Notwithstanding the offence which this affertion has given to many, I cannot but be difpofed to think it well-founded. When we fee fovereigns wilfully plunging their people into wars, which muft, at leaft, put to fome hazard the advantages of their perfonal elevation-when we hear the multitude clamouring for hoftilities, the only confequence of which to them must be burdenfome impofts-when we fee the foldier impatient for a battle, in which his life and limbs are to be risked, without the profpect of any benefit to him in the oppofite fcale -what can be inferred, but that the innate propenfity of the animal overbears every dictate of reafon? This being the cafe, it is the part of a true philofopher to refrain from hopelefs attempts to correct this obliquity of the human mind, and to bound his endeavours to extracting a partial benefit from this general perverse, nefs of difpofition. Military arrangements must be confidered under two conditions, that of reft, and that of exertion for it is the characteristic of man's evil inclination, contrary to that of any other animal, that immediate provocation is not required to excite his malignity. But upon a remote and indiftinct view of eventual opportunities, he fashions and concocts beforehand the mifchief which he is to exercise against his fellow-creatures. Phyfical caufes may, upon due reflection, be found for every fingularity in nature. The difference of man, in the refpect alluded to, from the reft of the brute creation, may, perhaps, arife from his dereliction of that quadruped pofture, fo ably proved : This whimfical plan is not fo very diftant from fact as it may appear. Attempts have been made to fertilize barren tracts of land, by encamping cavalry upon them. by by Lord Monboddo to have been the original habit of the human race. I do not infer, as thort-fighted arguers have done, that man taking from his erect pofture a wider fcope of view, thence embraces at once more objects to animate his paffions: because I think the extenfion of horizon gained by an additional elevation of two or three feet, entirely inadequate to the effect. My hypothefis proceeds upon a much fimpler principle. We know that it is the nature of effluvia from all fubftances, to mount directly upwards; at leaft, where not exposed to a current of air. Now my conceit is, that, from the erect pofture of man, the vapour generated in his entrails-which we know from its cafual escapes to be highly exalted-must continually titillate and exacerbate his brain. Hence, when no prefent cause awakens him to fury, he is nevertheless gratified with the fhew of preparation for mifchief. This I take to be indubitably the caufe why flanding armies have become reconcilable not only to thofe who compose them, but to those alfo who, by their contributions, maintain them. The peafant, it is true, feels it a grievance, that the pittance hardly earned by his labour, Thould be fqueezed from him to furnish fubfiftence to thofe enrolled machines; and he may perhaps at times confider their force as no very comfortable curb on his convenience. But he rationally confoles himfelf for these petty diffatisfactions, with the gracious hope that, fome time or other, another community will fuffer out of all proportion more from thofe tormentors than he does himfelf. If one can leave to the true-born Englishman this pleafing imagination; and, on the other hand, give him a commutation for his difcontent, it must be deemed a national fervice of no ordinary importance. The late augmentation of the army in this country, and a grateful expectation that it will not be speedily reduced, led my mind to reflect whether it was indeed impoffible to extract fomewhat of utility from fuch a hoft, fup ported ported at the expenfe of their fellow-citizens. Fortune feemed to have fmiled in granting, at this juncture, the concurrence of a novel eftablishment, most admirably fuited to the point of my lucubrations. Nay, I am almoft tempted to believe, that a special Providence, acting always by modes inexplicable to men, has directed the formation of a National Board of Agriculture, for the exprefs purpose of giving adoption to my fyftem. To that Board, with great veneration, but with equal confidence, I prefent a plan for rendering the foldiers contributary to the public weal; and with the fimplicity which ought to mark a proposal so unprecedented, I display my fyftem without further introduction. The number of effective men, including the militia, now embodied in Great Britain, I fhall fuppofe to be forty thousand. From this number must be deducted the guards neceffary for the perfon of the Sovereign, in the capital of his empire. The Duke of Richmond, alfo, will indubitably require to have a camp formed fomewhere; but as a camp any where, of two thousand men, might be called the army, and his Grace only wifhes to have the command of an army, five thousand men will be found fufficient for the two objects; that is to fay, for this exhibition, and the protection of St. James's Park. There will then be five and thirty thousand men at liberty. I fay at liberty, becaufe, occupied as the French are in refifting the irruption of our allies on the continent, and covered as the feas are with one of the moft formidable naval armaments ever fet afloat by this country, I cannot fuppose that the mind of man has ever harboured an idea fo ridiculous, as that the Sans Culottes could moleft us at home. I would, therefore, have thefe five and thirty thoufand warriors affembled as fpeedily as may be, within one diftrict; which, for the fake of the experiment, I could with might be of the most barren foil ་ that that can be pitched upon in England. This army of Cincinnati fhould be under the abfolute direction of the New Board of Agriculture. The ground deftined for improvement fhould be accurately measured, and fubdivided into the partitions, that will be obvious, according to the following fcheme. For the fake of round numbers, I would allot five and thirty men to each acre; by which means, a thoufand acres would be undertaken in the day. On the morning fixed for the operation, an ounce and an half of ftrong purgative falts, diffolved in a quart of fpring-water, fhould be adminiftered to each individual on the parade; after which, the whole body fhould be marched to the fpot deftined for improvement, where each fquad of five and thirty fhould take poffeffion of an acre. The men fhould then ftation themfelves, as nearly as may be, at equal distances; in which fituation they fhould be liberally fupplied by their wives, or by drummers, with their gruel, prepared for the purpofe. It is impoffible to compute, with entire precifion, what may be the quantity of manure yielded to an acre by this process; but affuredly it is not neceffary to be very minute in afcertaining it. If the refpectable members who conftitute the new Board deem it advifable to be more particular, they can try the experiment by their own perfons; and from the refult eftablifh a fcale whence calculations may be unerringly drawn. Experience would, no doubt, extraordinarily improve the foldiers in their art; fo that, when they were thoroughly difciplined, a much smaller number of nien would equally meliorate an acre. For this we muft look to time. In the prefent calculation, as I faid before, I only reckon upon one thousand acres radically and effectually manured, in one day, by five and thirty thoufand men. apprehend that it would be fcarcely held politic to fubject the troops to this operation oftener than twice a week; that is, if they were to be worked for a con I ftancy |