fcience, infomuch, that in a few years, Calcutta has become a fink of iniquity, almost as infamous as London itfelf.

The reputed Nabobs have marks by which they may be known, as well as the Spurious; and as they have fpread themselves all over the kingdom, they may be diftinguished in the following manner. I would have their neighbours, both in town and country, before they determine on the character which they ought to bear amongst them, to fatisfy themselves in the following circumftances. Did their new neighbour go out in the East India Company's fervice at fixteen, or not more than eighteen years of age, either as a writer, cadet, affiftant furgeon, or midshipman for the Bombay marine fervice? Was he, full fifteen years in the fervice at one time? Was he in the courfe of that time ever fufpended, mul&ted in his rank, or difmiffed the fervice for corrupt practices? Did he come home during that time? no matter on what account, for London air corrupts Bengal manners fo abominably, that he will not do; but if not, and that all the other queries fhall be answered as they ought to be, then depend upon it, their new parishioner, or affociate, will turn out to be a dutiful child, generous and kind to all his relations and old friends, charitable to all mankind, and merciful even to animals; the very best and most confiderate of Landlords; a good paymafter, if a tenant; never in arrears to working or trades people; averfe above all. things to law fuits, or difputes of every kind; rather than enter into which, he would turn the other cheek; may be fwindled, but never fwindles; drinks the King's health, prays for him, his family, and the ftate; pays parish rates without grumbling; and does in all things as he would others fhould do unto him. Such are a great majority of the Afiatic gentlemen, whom I diftinguish by the appellation of reputed Nabobs. And I appeal to the experience of every candid man in this kingdom, who has had tranfactions of any kind with them, for the truth of what I fay. A defperate fpendthrift, or a wretched mifer, were characters fo very uncommon, that I declare moft folemnly, that in a refidence in India of more than twenty years, prior to 1774, I never knew above two or three of either, and they were fo univerfally neglected and defpifed, that their names were always mentioned with the utmoft degree of contempt. Hofpitality being always found where the due medium between those extremes prevails, the Afiatic gentlemen have been deemed hofpitable even to to a proverb.

It may appear that I exprefs myfelf fomewhat warmly on this part of my fubject, and I own that I feel fo. I spent the best part of my life in that agreeable fociety, and on my foul I declare, that I never knew a European character completely vicious, that did not come to that country turned of twenty-five years of age; and few of thofe who arrived amongst us when they were paft forty, that did not appear to us (who left England young) to be monders in meanness, avarice, or vice of one fort or other. The famous Mr. Boits was ruined by the earthquake at Lisbon, and came to Bengal a full grown mercantile monster, aged twenty-five. Major Baggs found his way to Calcutta nobody can tell how; and though a coufin of his (Mr. Philip Francis) held a very high and important itation in the Company's fervice at that Prefidency, fo averfe was every denomination

of

of men, from entering into any degree of intimaey with fuch bigh famed adventurers, that he marched back as he came, and has been abufing the Indians ever fince his return, which they confider as the highett panegyric from fuch a man.

6

I think that I can account for this fuperiority of character in a great majority of all thofe who have gone young to, and ftayed long in India. Every body knows, that what I have related with refpect to the felection of the young men from amongst creditable families, is true; and it is as true, that in general, boys of fixteen, fprung from fuch families, are well inftructed in the moral and religious duties. On their arrival in India, they are kindly and hofpitably received; nor is there any example of fordid or mean vice before their eyes to corrupt their morals.. Fashionable clothes, a good horfe to ride on, and a bed-maker, are, I am afraid, inevitable. To this the habit of fmoaking a Hooka may be added, and their fum total of vice is acknowledged. A drunken or gambling writer (if per chance fueh appeared), nobody of credit would afficiate with; and from neceffity, they foon quitted thofe degrading habits, which never fail to ruin thofe with whom they long fojourn."

When they turn their eyes on the natives around them, the practice of the moral and domeftic virtues, in the highest degree of perfection, frikes on their fancy. A people fo mild, fo docile, fo obliging, and fo complaifant, both warm and charm a young and well-trained mind. The more they know of them, the more they like them. The manners of a people must be alluring, who are known to venerate their parents almost to idolatry; who never beat, and hardly ever chide, a child, male or female; who regard all animals as having been formed like themfelves, by the finger of God, whofe life they have no more right to take away, or to put it to cor poral pain wantonly, than that of a brother or fifter. A young man, well inftructed in the principles of the Chriflian religion, before he leaves England, and paling his time from fixteen to thirty, or perhaps forty years of age, in continual intercourfe with a people fo famed for the practice of the great and small morals, may, by chance, be a bad member of fociety; but I fhould not go amongst a people fo trained, to look for him. Bold affertions go for nothing on either fide. Our enemies fay, that we Indians are a proud, infolent, and rapacious people; that we have, by our avarice, driven to diftrefs, ruin, and death itfelf, millions of unhappy Indians. To fuch daring, vague, and indefinite charges and affertions, I oppofe the general tenor of conduct of the India gentlemen, who have returned to this -kingdom within the last twenty years: if that will juftify fuch charges, any thing that I can fay to the contrary, will not acquit them. But if, on an honest and fair fcrutiny, men of candour hall own, that the India gentlemen in general, are generous, humane, and charitable, good fubjects, dutiful children, fond hufbands, indulgent fathers, kind masters, and hofpitable neighbours, I would then afk this fimple question, Is it likely that men, who went abroad fo properly instructed, and who, after their return to England, have acted the - part of fuch excellent citizens for the remainder of their lives, could poffibly, when abroad, have been guilty of cruelties, fo infamous and diabolical, as have in general terms been laid to their charge? To

the

the answer that every man's heart fhall give to the above question, I leave the cause of my friends.

I have observed, that fince the year 1774, things have taken a wide turn; and that there have been another race of Nabobs sprung up, whom I have called mushroom Nabobs. It may be right to explain myself, and defcribe them.

It is a very old obfervation, that vice in great empires, is most prevalent in the capital, and that it decreases in proportion to the diftance you move from it. Would to heaven that this obfervation had not fo lately been verified with refpect to England. The mother country was too depraved to hold the colonies longer in fubjection. Governors fent from hence, were by much too corrupt to govern a new, a virtuous, and growing people. Nor fhall we hold our poffeffions in the Eaft long, after the prefent mode of training up young men (from writers and cadets, to counsellors, and from the best of them, making our governors, and commanders in chief of the army,) fhall be changed into that of fending governors, counsellors, and commanders of the army, from hence. The experiment has already been tried in more inftances than one, and, ftands a proof of what I fay. But our empire is on the decline. We are a vicious, corrupt, and debafed people. Intereft and party govern every thing. Experience is of no use; and the best admonition or advice, is but thrown away. Rome, in the latter days of the Republic, was convulfed almost to civil war, on the annual appointment of the executive officers; and they, when that year of tumult was out, were indulged in another, to ranfack the provinces, in order to reimburse themselves their election expences. What did not the poor people fuffer from the rapacity of confuls, pro-confuls, their fecretaries, fab-fecretaries, and all their train of greedy officers, who, knowing their time was short, fpared nothing! Our Ministry have fent one precious batch of full grown and hungry statesmen already to India; and nothing but the fquabble amongst themfelves for the home made bread and butter, has hitherto prevented their fending another. Annual fets, as at Rome, they can never send; but triennial will do the bufinefs full as well. An hungry Lord, or a hungry Baronet, like a Scotch creeper, bite fore.'

The Author renews the compliments he paid in his former publication to General Smith and Mr. Burke; and reprobates the idea of forming British Acts of Parliament, to regulate the interior government of our Eastern settlements.

ART. X.

Differtations Moral and Critical. By James Beattie, LL. D. Profeffor of Moral Philofophy and Logic in the Marifchal College and Univerfity of Aberdeen, and Member of the Zealand Society of Arts and Sciences, 4to. 11. Is. bound. Cadell, London; Creech, Edinburgh. 1783.

PHILOSOPHERS and men of genius have, in the prefent age, fhewn a peculiar fondness for the fcience of Criticifm; yet fo far is it from having advanced in proportion to the labour and attention that have been beftowed upon it, that

every new attempt to improve it is generally ushered in with lamenting its imperfections.

It is to the imperfect ftate, however, of this fcience, that the avidity with which critical works are generally perufed, ought in a great measure to be afcribed. The fubject of tafte is in it, felf no doubt highly interefting. But if Criticifm had been as fuccefsfully cultivated as the phyfical, or even the other moral fciences, the field for ingenious fpeculations, on the prin ciples of the fine arts, would have been contracted, and readers would no longer have felt that curiofity to examine critical productions, which the hopes of novelty never fail to excite.But in the prefent ftate of this fcience, there is abundant scope for new and ingenious fpeculation; and every critical writer, even of moderate abilities, may be fecure of attention, whether his object be to rife to the fublimity of fyftem, or merely to eftablifh detached principles, and apply them in illuftrating patticular examples.

If even the productions of ordinary writers on the fubject of Criticifm, are calculated to attract the public attention, a new work on this fubject, by the Author of the ESSAY ON TRUTH, muft undoubtedly excite curiofity, and raife high expectations. Dr. Beattie has already obtained a refpectable rank among the critical writers of the prefent age, and the work before us will do no injury to his reputation. It is the production of a highly cultivated mind, and of a well-informed understanding; of a man, who to taste and genius unites probity and benevolence; who poffeffes the happy talent of blending moral with philofophical instruction, and while he feems only to have in view the improvement of the understanding, takes every opportunity of addreffing the heart. Thofe practical rules for the conduct of life which he mingles with his fpeculations, may appear to fome readers tedious and uninterefting; but we look upon them as a valuable part of the work, and heartily with that the inftructors of youth, instead of refting contented with forming mere scholars and philofophers, would imitate Dr. Beattie in teaching their pupils to act as well as to fpeculate, and to conduc themselves with honour, probity, and refolution, in the diffe rent departments of life.

This work confifts of detached and unconnected effays on moral and critical fubjects, forming a part of a course of lectures read by Dr. Beattie in his public character of Profeffor, Those who expect from them a great difplay of subtlety and acuteness will be difappointed; the Author's object being to inure young minds to habits of attentive obfervation; to guard them against the influence of bad principles; and to fet before them fuch views of nature, and fuch plain and practical truths,

as

as may at once improve the heart and the understanding, and amufe and elevate the fancy.'

The firft differtation is divided into two parts, the former treating of Memory, and the latter of Imagination. The Author begins with marking the difference between these two faculties, and with confuting the well-known theory of Mr. Hume, in which our livelier ideas are referred to memory, and our fainter to imagination. This theory is no doubt abfurd; but it has been fo often expofed by the antagonists of the great philofopher who broached it, that a formal confutation of it does not appear to have been neceffary.

Having pointed out the difference between these two powers, Dr. Beattie next explains fome of the phænomena and laws of memory; he confiders likewife the different kinds of artificial memory, and the different degrees in which this faculty is poffeffed. He then propofes fome methods for improving this power-attention, recollection, writing, converfation;-and offers fome obfervations on the expediency of pronouncing fermons from memory. He concludes the effay on this fubject with remarks on the memory of brutes, from which he draws fome inferences in favour of the dignity of human nature. Thefe inferences contain a warm attack on feme firange conceits f modern philofophy, and are expreffed in the manner of the Effay on Truth; a manner which has been confidered by one party as petulant and indecent, while it has been regarded by another only as the natural expreffion of that honeft indignation, which fophiftry and fcepticifm ought to excite in every virtuous and feeling mind.

The Effay on Imagination, although diffufe, affords a very respectable proof of the Author's abilities. He firft explains the nature of imagination, and then lays down, and illuftrates feparately, the principles of affociation, which are commonly referred to that faculty-refemblance, contrariety, nearness of fituation, caufe and effect, and cuftom, or habit.

The doctrine of the affociation of ideas has furnished matter for many ingenious fpeculations, and ferved as the bafis of many modern theories. It is but juftice to the memory of a great philofopher and very original thinker of the laft age to observe, that this doctrine, which is commonly confidered as having been first propofed by Mr. Locke, is to be found illuftrated with great ingenuity in the philofophical writings of Hobbes. Dr. Beattie having obferved that cuftom has a powerful influence in determining our notions of beauty, introduces a very ingenious digreffion on beauty, which will give great fatisfaction to Readers of tafte. His object is to prove, that from affociations founded in habit, many, or perhaps most of thofe pleafing