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profit arifing from the fale of the Bull of Cruzado. This, which is' published every two years, contains, an absolution from paft offences by the pope, and, among other immunities, a permiffion to eat feve ral kinds of prohibited food, during Lent, and on meagre days. The monks employed in difperfing those bulls, extol their virtues with all the fervour of interested eloquence; the people ignorant and credulous, liften with implicit affent; and every perfon in the Spamith colonies, of European, Creolian, or mixed race, purchases a bull, which is deemed effential to this falvation, at the rate fet upon it by government.

What may be the amount of those various funds, it is almost impoffible to determine with precifion. The extent of the Spanish dominions in America, the jealousy of government, which renders them inacceffible to foreigners, the mysterious filence which the Spaniards are accustomed to obferve with refpect to the interior state of their colonies, combine in covering this fubject with a veil which it is not easy to remove. But an account, apparently no lefs accurate, than it is curious, has lately been published of the royal revenue in New Spain, from which we may form fome idea with respect to what is collected in the other provinces. According to that account, the crown does not receive from all the departments of taxation in New Spain, above a million of our money, from which one half muct be deducted as the expence of the provincial eftablishment. Peru, it is probable, yields a fum not inferior to this, and if we fuppofe that all the other regions of America, including the islands, furnish a third fhare of equal value; we shall not perhaps be far wide from the truth, if we conclude, that the net public revenue of Spain, raised in America, does not exceed a million and a half tterling. This falls far fhort of the immense, fums, to which fuppofitions, founded upon conjecture, have raised the Spanish revenue in America. It is remarkable, however, upon one accouut. Spain and Portugal are the only European powers, who derive a direct revenue from their colonies, as their quota towards defraying the general expence of government. All the advantage that accrues to other nations, from their American dominions, arifes from the exclufive enjoyment of their trade; but befides this, Spain has brought her colonies to contribute to increase the power of the ftate; and in return for protection, to bear a proportional share of the common burden.

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Accordingly, what I have computed as the amount of the Spanish revenue from America, comprehends only the taxes collected there, and is far from being the whole of what accrues to the king from his dominions in the New World. The heavy duties impofed on the commodities exported from Spain to America, as well as what is paid by thofe which the fends home in return; the tax upon the negrcedaves, with which Africa fupplies the New World, together with feveral smaller branches of finance, bring large fums into the treasury, the precife extent of which I cannot pretend to afcertain.

But if the revenue which Spain draws from America be great, the expence of administration in her colonies bears proportion to it. In every department, even of her domeftic police and finances, Spain has adopted a fyftem more complex, and more encumbered with a variety of tribunals, and a multitude of officers, than that of any European nation, in which the fovereign poffeffes fuch extenfive power. From the jealous fpirit with which the watches over her American fettlements, and her endeavours to guard against fraud in provinces fo remote from inspection; boards and officers have been multiplied there with still more anxious attention. ́In a country where the ex

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pence of living is great, the falaries allotted to every perfon in public office must be high, and must load the revenue with an immense burden. The parade of government greatly augments the weight of it. The viceroys of Mexico, Peru, and the New Kingdom of Granada, as reprefentatives of the king's perfon, among people fond of oftentation, maintain all the state and diguity of royalty. Their courts are formed upon the model of that at Madrid, with horfe and foot guards, a household regularly established, numerous attendants, and enfigns of power, difplaying fuch pomp, as hardly retains the appearance of a delegated authority. All the expence incurred by fupporting the external and permanent order of government is defrayed by the crown. The viceroys have betides peculiar appointments fuited to their exalted station. The falaries fixed by law are indeed. extremely moderate, that of the viceroy of Peru is only thirty thou fand ducats; and that of the viceroy of Mexico, twenty thoufand ducats. Of late, they have been raised to forty thousand.

'These falaries, however, conflitute but a small part of their revenue. The exercise of an abfolute authority extending to every department of government, and the power of difpofing of many lucra tive offices, affords to them innumerable opportunities of accumulating wealth. To thefe, which may be confidered as legal and allowed emoluments, vast sums are often added by exactions, which in countries fo far removed from the feat of government, it is not easy to discover, and impoffible to reftrain. By monopolizing fome branches of commerce, by a lucrative concern in others, by conniving at the frauds of merchants, a viceroy may raise fuch an annual revenue, as no fubject of any European monarch enjoys. From the single article of prefents made to him on the anniversary of his name-day (which is always obferved as an high festival), I am informed that a viceroy has been known to receive fixty thousand pefos. According to a Spanish faying, the legal revenues of a viceroy are known, his real profits depend upon his opportunities and his confcience. Confcious of this, the kings of Spain, as I have formerly observed, grant a commiffion to their viceroy only for a few years. This circumftance, however, renders them often more rapacious, and adds to the ingenuity and ardour wherewith they labour to improve every moment of power which they know is hastening faft to a period; and fhort as its duration is, it usually affords fufficient time for repairing a Battered fortune, or creating a new one. But even in fituations.fo trying to human frailty, there are inftances of virtue that remain unfeduced. In the year 1772, the Marquis de Croix finished the term of his vice-royalty in New Spain with unfufpected integrity; and instead of bringing home exorbitant wealth, returned with the admiration and applaufe of a grateful people, whom his government had rendered happy.

From the analyfis contained in this and the two preceding articles, our readers will be enabled to form fome conception of the entertainment they have to expect from the History of America. We must acknowledge, that we recollect few hif torical produ&ions, either ancient or modern, in which the reader is prefented with an equal variety of great, interefting, and inftru&ive objects. But the art and ability of the author are fcarcely lefs confpicuous than the dignity and importance of his fubject, The ftriking light in which he has delineated

his capital figures, and the glowing colours with which he has adorned them, do great honour to the vigour of his imägination; while the dexterous arrangement of his materials, equally difplay his difcernment and his tafte.

After expreffing approbation in fuch ftrong terms, impartiality demands that we point out what we reckon faulty or erroneous in the publication before us. It is more neceffary to remark the imperfections of capital writers, because their example is most likely to prove infectious. The compositions, befides, of fuch writers only are fufceptible of minute criticism, or merit that diftinction. Even their errors are inftructive, or are at least very venial, as they are generally the miftakes or overfights of minds attentive to matters of greater importance.

The character of the American favages, though drawn by a masterly hand, appears fometimes to approach to contradiction. The principal feature it contains is that total want of forefight which prevents fome of these favages from taking the moft fimple and neceffary precautions for the fupport even of life itself. They provide little defence against the inclemencies of winter. They collect no provifions against that season when the common bounty of nature ceases to fupply them. Yet thefe men, thus careless about their own fafety, are attentive and provident in the highest degree about the fafety of their tribe. In their wars they difplay a degree of attention, merely to fave the lives of their warriors, which they can fo hardly fpare, according to the author, that would do honour to experienced leaders in a much more advanced ftate of fociety. This inconfiftency induces us to fufpect that the hiftorian has perhaps erred, in affigning the cause of the address and ftratagem fo apparent in the encounters of the American tribes, and that it ought to be derived from some other fource.1

The herd of hiftorians content themfelves with a bare narration of facts, and very feldom indulge in reafoning or fpeculation concerning thefe facts. They furnifh out a body without a foul, and amafs a collection of incidents which have no other connection than the order of time in which they happened. Their events appear to originate from no cause, and feem to generate no effect. The Hiftory of America, on the contrary, is all alive, and animated with theory. No action appears without its caufe, and never fails to produce fome effect. The author feems even to exceed in this commendable quality. Every circumftance, however fimple and obvious, is adorned with fpeculation; and as Butler rendered his Hudibras tedious through a fuperabundance of wit, fo the author fome

times retards the progrefs of his reader, and lengthens his nar rative by too much fyftem.

But the capital charge we have to prefer against this performance, is the ambiguity which frequently prevails in the language, from an improper or carelefs ufe of the relatives. In the fame fentence the fame pronouns often refer to different antecedents, and the reader is obliged to relinquish the expreffion, and to have recourfe to the fenfe before he can comprehend the meaning. The hiftorical ftyle is moft liable to this imperfection; and purity of diction in this respect is among the laft refinements of a polished language. If we examine the hiftory of our own language, we may discover feveral ftrongly marked stages of its progress toward perfection with regard to this article, which it has not yet altogether attained even in the hands of our beft writers. All the authors of the end of the laft century have disfigured their compofitions with this impropriety; and the writings of Milton and Clarendon, in particular, are rendered by it fometimes abfolutely unintelligible. The writers of the age of queen Anne are much more correct in the use of the relatives; and though every page of their productions furnishes inftances of the error we reprehend, yet the fenfe, on the leaft recollection, never fails to extricate the reader. The beft authors of the prefent age are still more unexceptionable than their predeceffors, but continue to truft too much to the fame refource. They fatisfy themselves with the measure of perfpicuity, which makes them understood, instead of feeking that degree of it which Quintilian* demands, and of which a polished language is tufceptible, namely, which removes the poffibility of being mif understood. To amufe our readers, and justify these remarks, we fhall fubjoin, in a note †, fome examples of the fault we

Non ut intelligere poffit, fed ne omnino poffet non intelligere. curandum. Inft. lib. viii. cap. 2.

+ Whenever any people have experienced the advantages which men enjoy, by their dominion over the inferior animals, they can neither fubfift without the nourishment which they afford, nor carry on their operations independent of their miniftry." Vol. i. P. 271. line 22.

The moft lucrative preferments in Mexico and Peru are in the hands of regulars; and to them chiefly the Americans are indebted for any portion of science that is cultivated among them.' Vol. ii. P. 381. 1. 8.

These fentiments they (the Indians) tranfmitted to their pofterity into whofe minds they (the fentiments) funk fo deep, that the Spanish ecclefiaftics, with all their industry have not been able to eradicate them.' Vol. ii. p. 385. line 5.

The numerous ceremonies of the popish worship, as they (the ceremonies) catch the eye, please and intereft them, but when their inftructors attempt to explain the articles of faith, though they VOL. XLIV. August, 1777.

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have prefumed to cenfure. We have only to add, in respect of thefe ftrictures, and others which might perhaps be offered, that we adopt with entire fatisfaction, the fentiments of the elegant critic of antiquity, equally replete with taste and good fenfe, and applicable to every fpecies of compofition as well as to poetry.

Ubi plura nitent in carmine non ego paucis
Offendor maculis, quas aut incuria fudit
Aut humana parum cavet natura.

HOR.

Thefe examples illuftrate the nature of the impropriety at which we point. Had the work been of inferior merit, or had not the style in other refpe&ts deferved the highest praife, we fhould have reckoned fuch trifling blemishes unworthy of our notice, and they will efcape the attention of the greater part of readers. But an anxiety to fee a book which poffeffes fo many eminent beauties, and which muft certainly descend to pofterity, rendered unexceptionable even with regard to this diminutive branch of the execution, has induced us to offer the remark, and we would recommend that a little attention fhould be paid to it in a future edition. It is the more neceffary, because our language is chiefly expofed to this error on account of the very few pronouns of the third perfon we poffefs, and the unfortunate want of gender under which they labour.

(the Indians) liften with patience they little comprehend what they hear. Ibid. line 21.

They (the Spaniards) did not form compact fettlements, where industry circumfcribed within limits, both in its views and operations, is conducted with that fober perfevering fpirit which gradually converts whatever is in its poffeffion to its proper ufe, and derives from it the greatest advantage.' Page 387. line 13.

Even the value of the islands funk fo much in their estimation when the mines which they (the Spaniards) had opened there were exhausted, that they (the islands) were deferted by many of the planters. Page 388. line 14.

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But though mines are the chief object of attention to the Spaniards, and the precious metals which they (the mines) yield, from the principal article in their commerce, the fertile countries which they (the Spaniards) poffefs fupply them with other commodities.' Page 393. line 1.

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By the aid which foreign trade and domeftic industry give reciprocally to each other in their progrefs, the augmentation of both must have been rapid and extenfive, and Spain might have received the fame acceffion of opulence and vigour from her acquifitions in the New World that other powers have derived from their colonies there. Page 395. line 21.

It is with nations as with individuals, when wealth flows in gradually, it feeds and nourishes that activity which is friendly to commerce, and calls it forth into vigorous and well conducted evertions; but when it pours in fuddenly, it overturns all plans of fober industry.' Page 396. line 1.

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