But by this memorable atchievement, he meant nothing more than to advance himself in the road to greatnefs. To this point all his actions were directed. It gave the limits to his generofity, which has been extolled as unbounded. His praife, his carefles, and his fervices, his diffimulation, his perfidioufnefs, and his enmities, were all facrifices to ambition: and miscarriage, which has ravished fo many laurels from great men, did not tarnish his glory. His fuccefs was fo confpicuous, that he feemed to have the command of fortune.'

From the merit of this fpecimen we are led to regret that the Author has not attempted to give a delineation of the character of the famous John Knox. Dr. S. has probably restrained himself from this undertaking, because Knox had been fo often painted by former writers, of great reputation. We could wifh, however, that he had ftill added a few strokes of his pencil, which, we are perfuaded, would not have hurt the refemblance, and which, indeed, was to have been expected on this occafion, as Knox is fo capital a figure in a reformation piece, that he has a juft title to be placed in the foreground, and to be drawn at full length.

Dr. S. difcovers a happy talent for relating political tranfactions and debates; of which we have a ftriking example in his account of the project of the Queen Regent, for introducing a standing army into Scotland.

In another improvement, which the Queen Regent attempted by the advice of her French council, the, manners and genius of the nation were not fufficiently confulted. There are precautions and inftitutions of great utility in themfelves, which do not fuit particular conditions of fociety, and which politicians and ftatesmen cannot establish with propriety or fuccefs, til! circumstances and time have pointed out and illuftrated their expediency. Though a ftanding army had been long familiar to the French, there could be nothing fo impracticable as its introduction at this time into Scotland, which was governed by the free and peculiar maxims of the feudal law. Yet the Queen Regent was induced to venture the experiment. It was propofed that the poffeflions of every proprietor of land in the kingdom should be valued and entered into regifters; and that a proportional payment should be made by each. The application of this fund was to maintain a regular and ftanding body of foldiers. This guard or army, it was urged, being at all times in readiness to march against an enemy, would protect effectually the frontiers; and there would no longer be any neceffity for the nobles to be continually in motion on every rumour of hoftility or incurfion from English invaders. No art, however, or argument, could recommend these measures. A perpetual tax and a ftanding army were conceived to be the genuine characteristics of defpotifm. All ranks of men confidered themselves to be infulted and abused; and three hundred tenants of the crown affembling at Edinburgh, and giving way to their indignation, fent their remonftrances to the Queen Re gent in a ftrong and expreffive language.. • They

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They informed her, that their ancestors had been able not only to protect Scotland, but to acquire renown by carrying their arms into England. They were not degenerated from their ancestors; and England was now lefs powerful. No neceffity exifled for a humiliating taxation, and for bands of mercenaries. The lives and eftates of all the landed proprietors of the nation were at its call. Soldiers, allured with pay, had no fentiment of honour. It was a wild infatuation to confide in them in preference to men who fought for every thing that was moft dear to them, their country, their reputation, their families, their fortunes. Money was a feeble tie of duty, and the fervice it bought was cold and languid. And, if mercenaries, when they atchieved their beft, were ineffectual and without zeal as a defence and a barrier, it ought to be remembered that this defence or this barrier, weak as it was, could not be relied upon as certain and fecure. A higher bribe could compass its treachery; and the kings of England knew how to apply their treafures. In confenting to the elevation of the Queen Regent, they had expreffed the good opinion they entertained of her; but whatever confidence they might repofe in the rectitude of her intentions, they were not fure that this tax, and this army, for which she was fo anxious, would not be abused by their own princes. From fuch innovations the most dettructive calamities might proceed. They refpected their conftitution as facred; and in its flability they acknowledged a decifive proof of the wifdom with which it had been framed. They could not, therefore, fubmit to any mockery of its forms, and were not difpofed to furrender any of their natural or political rights. If the fundamental principles of their compact and union were invaded, they would yield to the duties which they owed to themfelves and to polterity; and, drawing their fwords, would employ them to uphold that venerable fabric, which had been built and cemented by the valour and the blood of their ancestors.'

We fhall not attempt to give any fummary of the transactions which, in the courfe of about thirty years, led to the final settlement of the Prefbyterian form of worship in Scotland; an event which happened in the beginning of the year fifteen hundred and fixty-one. There is a rapidity in Dr. Stuart's narra tion which makes it agreeable to read, but renders it difficult to abridge his work. We fhall therefore conclude this Article with the fenfible, manly, and fpirited reflections which we find at the end of this inftructive and entertaining hiftory.

I have thus endeavoured to defcribe the rife, progrefs, and eftablishment of the Reformation in Scotland; employing a narrative which aims at fimplicity, and which is ambitious to record the truth. From the order and the laws of our nature it perpetually happens that advantages are mixed with misfortune. The conflicts which led to a purer religion, while they excite, under one afpect, the liveliest tranfports of joy, create, in another, a mournful fentiment of fympathy and compaflion. Amidst the felicities which were obtained, and the trophies which were won, we deplore the melancholy ravages of the pallions, and weep over the ruins of ancient magnificence. But while the contentions and the ferments of men, even in the road

to improvements and excellence, are ever defined to be polluted with mifchief and blood, a tribute of the higheft panegyric and praife is yet juftly to be paid to the actors in the Reformation. They gave way to the movements of a liberal and a refolute fpirit. They taught the rulers of nations, that the obedience of the fubject is the child of juftice, and that men must be governed by their opinions and their reafon. Their magnanimity is illuftrated by great and confpicuous exploits; which at the fame time that they awaken admiration, are an example to fupport and animate virtue in the hour of trial and peril. The existence of civil liberty was deeply connected with the doctrines for which they contended and fought. While they treated with scorn an abject and a cruel fuperftition, and lifted and fublimed the dignity of man, by calling his attention to a fimpler and a wifer theology, they were ftrenuous to give a permanent fecurity to the political conftitution of their state. The happielt and the best interefts of fociety were the objects for which they buckled on their armour; and to wish and to act for their duration and flability are perhaps the most important employments of patriotism and public affection. The Reformation may fuffer fluctuations in its forms; but, for the good and the profperity of mankind, it is to be hoped that it is never to yield and to fubmit to the errors and the fuperftitions which it overwhelmed; that it is to guard with anxiety against their advances, to be fcrupulously jealous, and to take an early alarm. In this enlightened age of philofophy and reflexion, it is difficult indeed to be conceived that any ferious attempts to establish them shall be made; yet, if by fome fatality in human affairs, fuch endeavours should actually be tried, and fhould fucceed, it may be concluded, without the poffibility of a doubt, that all the boated freedom which the Reformation has foftered would then perish for ever. The fentiment of liberty, and the fire of heaven which our fathers tranfmitted to their pofterity, would expire and be extinguished. Men would know the debafement of fervility, and forget the honours of their kind. They would renounce their natural, their religious, and their political rights; and be contented to creep upon the earth, to lick its duft, and to adore the caprices and the power of a tyrant.'

We have only to add that, annexed to this Hiftory, we have a judicious felection of the moft valuable papers and records respecting the establifhment of the reformed religion in Scotland. -For our general opinion of the Author's ftyle, fee our remark at the end of our account of his View of Society in Europe, in the Review for March, 1778, p. 207; and a farther ftricture at the close of the critique on his Obfervations concerning the Law and Conftitution of Scotland, Rev. April 1779, p. 280.

ART. II. A Grammar of the Bengal Languag?. By Natha. iel Braf fey Halhed. Printed at Hoogly, in Bengal. Small 4to. 1 1. Is. 1778. Sold by Elmsley in London *.

TH

HE wisdom of the British parliament having, within these few years, taken a decifive part in the internal policy and civil adminiftration of its Afiatic territories, and having, by a formal act of authority, in the establishment of a fupreme court of juftice, incorporated the kingdom of Bengal with the British empire, it is the duty of a good citizen to put in execution every measure in his power that may tend to complete the great work which has been fo happily begun. No measure appears more proper for this purpofe than the cultivation of a right understanding, and of a general medium of intercourse between the Government and its fubjects; between the natives of Europe, who are to rule, and the inhabitants of India, who are to obey.'

In order to contribute his fhare toward the public fervice, the Author has attempted the prefent grammatical explanation of the vernacular language of Bengal, a language extremely different from that idiom, which, under the name of Moors, has been supposed to prevail over all India.

The native language of Bengal is intimately connected with the Shanferit, the grand fource of Indian literature, and the parent of almost every dialect, from the Perfian gulph to the Chinese feas. The Shanfcrit tongue, which was of the greatest extent, and of the moft venerable and unfathomable antiquity, is at present shut up in the libraries of Bramins, and appropri ated to the records of their religion. Traces of its general prevalence may be found in the Perfian and Arabic; and the Hindoftanic or Indian language has exactly the fame connexion with it as the modern dialects of France and Italy have with pure Latin; the groundwork being the fame, the inflexions and arrangement different. But of all Oriental languages, the Bengalefe is the nearest to the Shanfcrit in expreffion, conftruction, and character.

This circumftance will doubtlefs recommend the prefent performance to the curious, especially if we may credit an affertion which the Author gives on the authority of the Raja of Kishenagur, the moft learned and able antiquary that Bengal has produced within this century. The Raja fays that he has, in his own poffeffion, Shanferit books which give an account of a communication formerly fubfifting between India

• Though printed, in the Eaft Indies, in 1778, this Grammar was not published in London till the year 1780.

and

and Egypt; wherein the Egyptians are conftantly defcribed as difciples, not as inftructors; and as feeking that liberal education and those fciences in Hindoftan, which none of their own countrymen had fufficient knowledge to impart. The few paffages of Greek authors refpecting the Brachmans feem to confirm this obfervation, which, if admitted, will deprive Egypt of its long boafted claim to originality in language, in policy, and in religion.

The connexion between the Bengalefe and the Shanfcrit renders the prefent work very interefting to the learned; and the purposes to which the former is applied in the kingdom of Bengal equally recommends it to the bufy and commercial part of his Majefty's fubjects in the East. The Bengalefe is the fole channel of perfonal and epiftolary communication among the Hindoos, of every occupation and tribe. All their business is tranfacted, and all their accounts are kept in it; and, as their fyftem of education is, in general, very confined, there are few among them that can write or read any other idiom; the uneducated, or eight parts in ten of the whole nation, are neces farily confined to the ufage of their mother tongue.

The Board of Commerce at Calcutta, and the several chiefs of the fubordinate factories, cannot properly conduct the India Company's mercantile correfpondence and negociations, without the intermediate agency of Bengal interpreters; for the whole fyftem of the investment, in every ftage of its preparation and provifion, is managed in the language of the country.'

Important as this language mult confequently appear in a commercial line, its adoption would be no lefs beneficial to the revenue department: For although the contracts, leafes, and other obligations executed between government and its immediate dependants, continue to be drawn out in the Perfian dialect, yet the under-leafes and engagements, which these in their turn grant to the peafants and cultivators of the ground, and all thofe copyhold tenures called Pottahs, are conftantly written in Bengalefe. The internal policy of the kingdom demands. an equal fhare of attention; and the many impofitions to which the poorer fort are expofed, in a country ftill fluctuating between the relics of former defpotic dominion and the liberal fpirit of its prefent legiflature, have long cried out for a remedy. This has lately been propofed in the appointment of gentlemen of mature experience in the manners and customs of the natives of Bengal, to act as jufticiary arbitrators between the head farmer and his under-tenants: with whom the indigent villager might find immediate and effectual redrefs from the exactions of an imperious landlord or grafping collector, freed from the delays of an ordinary court of juftice, and the expence and inconvenience of a regular fuit. Such a measure,