profligate. Since the revolution, our kings have been reduced indeed to a feeming annual dependance on parliament; but the bufinefs of parliament, which was esteemed in genera a duty beiore, has been exercised in general as a trade fince. The trade of parliament, and the trade of funds, have grown univerfal. Men, who ftood forward in the world. have attended to little elfe. The frequency of parliaments, that increased their importance, and fhould have increased the refpect of them, has taken off from their dignity and the spirit that prevailed, whilst the service in them was duty, has been debafed fince it became a trade. Few know, and scarce any respect, the British confti. tution: that of the church has been long fince derided; that of the State as long neglected; and both have been left at the mercy of the men in whoever thofe men were. power, Thus the Church, at least the hierarchy, however facred in its origin or wife in its inftitution, is become an useless burden on the State: and the State is become, under ancient and known forms, a new and undefinable monfter; compofed of a king without monarchical fplendor, a fenate of nobles without ariftocratical independency, and a fenate of commons without democratical freedom. In the mean time, my lord, the very idea of wit, and all that can be called tafte, has been loft among the great; arts and sciences are scarce alive; luxury has been increafed but not refined; corruption has been established, and is avowed. When governments are worn out, thus it is: the decay

appears in every inftance. Public and private virtue, public and private fpirit, fcience and wit, decline all together.

That you, my lord, may have a long and glo rious share in restoring all these, and in drawing our government back to the true principles of it, I wish most heartily. Whatever errors I may have committed in public life, I have always loved my country: whatever faults may be objected to me in private life, I have always loved my friend: whatever ufage I have received from my country, it fhall never make me break with her: whatever ufage I have received from my friends, I never Thall break with one of them, while I think him a friend to my country. These are the fentiments of my heart. I know they are thofe of your lord, fhip's and a communion of fuch fentiments is a tie that will engage me to be, as long as I live,

My lord,

Your most faithful fervant.

A PLA N

FOR A

General History of EUROPE.

LETTER IX.

I SHALL take the liberty of writing to you a

little oftener than the three or four times a year, which, you tell me, are all you can allow yourself to write to those you like best: and yet I declare to you with great truth, that you never knew me fo bufy in your life, as I am at prefent. You must not imagine from hence, that I am writing memoirs of myself. The fubject is too flight to defcend to pofterity, in any other manner, than by that occafional mention which may be made of any little actor in the hiftory of our age. SYLLA, CESAR, and others of that rank, were, whilst they lived, at the head of mankind: their story was in fome fort the ftory of the world, and as fuch might very properly be tranfmitted under their names to future generations. But for those who have acted much inferior parts, if they publish the piece, and call it after their own names, they are impertinent; if they publish only their own

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Let. 9. A PLAN for a General History &c. fhare in it, they inform mankind by halves, and neither give much instruction, nor create much attention. France abounds with writers of this fort, and, I think, we fall into the other extreme. Let me tell you, on this occafion, what has fometimes come into my thoughts.

There is hardly any century in history which began by opening fo great a fcene, as the century wherein we live, and fhall I fuppofe, die. Compare it with others, even the most famous, and you will think fo. I will sketch the two laft, to help your memory.

The lofs of that balance which LAURENCE of Medicis had preserved, during his time, in Italy'; the expedition of CHARLES the eighth to Naples; the intrigues of the duke of MILAN, who fpun, with all the refinements of art, that net wherein he was taken at last himself; the successful dexterity of FERDINAND the Catholic, who built one pillar of the Austrian greatness in Spain, in Italy, and in the Indies; as the fucceffion of the houfe of Burgundy, joined to the Imperial dignity and the hereditary countries, established another in the upper and lower Germany: these caufes, and many others, combined to form a very extraordinary conjuncture; and, by their confequences, to render the fixteenth century fruitful of great events, and of astonishing revolutions.

The beginning of the feventeenth opened ftill a greater and more important scene. The Spanish yoke was well-nigh impofed on Italy by the famous triumvirate, TOLEDO at Milan, OSSUNA

at Naples, and LA CUEVA at Venice. The diftractions of France, as well as the state-policy of the Queen mother, feduced by Rome, and amused by Spain; the despicable character of our JAMES the first, the ranefs of the elector Palatine, the bad intelligence of the princes and ftates of the league in Germany, the mercenary temper of JOHN GEORGE of Saxony, and the great qualities of MAXIMILIAN of Bavaria, raifed FERDINAND the fecond to the Imperial throne; when, the males of the elder branch of the Auftrian family in Germany being extinguished at the death of MATTHIAS, nothing was more defirable, nor perhaps more practicable, than to throw the empire into another house. Germany ran the fame risk as Italy had done: FERDINAND feemed more likely, even than CHARLES the fifth had been, to become absolute master; and, if France had not furnished the greatest minifter, and the North the greatest captain, of that age, in the fame point of time, Vienna and Madrid would have given the law to the western world.

As the Austrian scale funk, that of Bourbon rofe. The true date of the rife of that power, which has made the kings of France fo confiderable in Europe, goes up as high as CHARLES the seventh, and LEWIS the eleventh. The weakness of our HENRY the fixth, the loofe conduct of EDWARD the fourth, and perhaps the overfights of HENRY the feventh, helped very much to knit that monarchy together, as well as to enlarge it. Advantage might have been taken of the divifions

which