was obliged, in fpite of myfelf, to crofs the defert.

"Although my army is as innumerable as the fands of the fea, full of courage, inured to war in the highest degree, and victorious; although it is completely provided with every thing of which it can ftand in need; though I have caftles and fortreffes of prodigious ftrength, and though the centre, and extremities of the defert are fortified by batteries of cannon; although I have no fear nor apprehenfion of any kind; though I have no precautions to take, and that it is impoffible for me to be overcome: nevertheless, out of commiferation for the human race, refpect for thofe honourable ways of proceeding which are refpected by all nations, and, above all, out of a defire to be re-united with the first and trueft of our allies, his most glorious majefty fultan Selim, I now make manifeft my difpofition for peace. It is certain that the fublime Porte can never realize its withes by force of arms, and that its happinefs can be effected only by a pacific conduct. Whatever armies may march against Cairo, I can repulfe them all. And yet I will facilitate, as much as poffible, every propofition which fhall be made to me tending to peace. The inftant the fublime Porte fhall have detached itself from our enemies, the Ruffians and English, there cannot be a doubt but that the French republic will renew and re-eftablith, in the completeft manner, the balis of peace and friendship with the fublime Porte.

"If you wish to have Egypt

tell me fo. France has never entertained an idea of taking it out of the hands of the fublime Porte, and fwallowing it up. Give authority to your minifter, who is at Paris, or fend fome one to Egypt, with full and unlimited powers, and all fall be arranged without animofity and to your with."

Buonaparte, in the private inftructions he left behind him to his fucceffor in the command of the atmy, general Kleber, directed him to continue the negociation which he had begun, and to conclude a treaty of peace with the Turks, if neceflary, but, at the fame time, to endeavour to evade its execution. General Kleber was completely fatisfied, as his officers alfo were, from the reduced state of the French army, that a pacification with the Turks was neceffary. Conforming his conduct exactly to the .inftructions of Buonaparte, he addreffed a letter to the grand vizier, dated the fixteenth of Rebeul-Akhir, 1214, [fourth September, 1799] re-echoing the fentiments expreffed in Buonaparte's letter to that minifter, wishing for a termination of hoftilities by a negociation for peace, and foutly maintaining that the French government never had the leaft idea of taking Egypt from the grand fignior.-A convention was figned, on the twenty-fourth of January, 1800, near El Arif, by the French and Turkish plenipotentiaries, providing for the complete evacuation of Egypt, and the unmolefted return of Kleber and his troops to France.

When it was known in England, that propoials had been made by the

French

of the invaders, the British miniftry, apprehenfive, not without reafon, of danger, from the return of such an army, while a war between France and the allies was carried on in Italy and Germany, fent an order to lord Keith, commanding the British fleet, in the Mediterranean, not to ratify any convention that might be entered into for that purpose. A difpute arofe, on this point, between general Kleber and lord Keith, who declared that he would not fuffer the French to pafs unmolested. The grand vizier, having taken poffeffion of many pofts which the French had evacuated, demanded the immediate furrender of Cairo. General Kleber, urging that the English were hoftile to the convention, refufed to deprive his endangered army of fo important a station, and announced his intention of renewing the war. On the eighteenth of March, he attacked a body of Turks, and routed them. He then engaged the grand army, and obtained a complete victory.

As foon as it appeared that the convention between the Turks and French had been fanctioned by fir Sidney Smith, the British court, though not pleased at his conduct, in protecting an enemy whom, in their judgement, he might have crufhed, and that by exceeding his powers inftructions, fent orders for a ra

juftly punished with death. The obfequies of general Kleber were celebrated with due folemnity-and he was fucceded in the command of the army by general Menou.

The Weft India iflands, during the greater part of 1799, had been in a state of tranquillity. But in 1800, they were ravaged by a furious war, arifing from a conteft between the two chiefs, Rigaud and Touflaint Louverture. Many acts of cruelty were committed on both fides, more especially by the black inhabitants of that island.

In the East Indies, the reduction of Seringapatam was not immediately followed by the fubmiffion of all the fubjects of Myfore. The commandants of certain forts refufed, for fome time, to yield to the British arms; but they were at length compelled to furrender. Jemaulabad, the laft fortrefs that stood out, was taken in October, 1799.

Towards the end of 1800, the revenge of Paul I. provoked by a refufal of the ile of Malta, of which he was the chief knight, or grandmafter, railed a form on the fhores of the Baltic; which lowered for fome time over the English with a frowning and formidable afpect, but which was foon difperfed, by the promptitude and vigour of the Britifh navy; as will be related in the Hiftory of Europe, for 1801.

XVIIITH CENTURY.

THE never-ceafing lapfe of time has, in all ages, been divided into different periods, not only of day and night, the moft fimple and ohvious, but other divifions. Thefe divifions cortelpond in generai, and almoft without exception, to certain

motions

motions and appearances in the heavenly bodies but the grand ara of a century appears to be derived from a different origin.-The measurement of time by centuries is made ufe of by our most ancient hiftorian, Mofes. The grand jubilee of the jewish nation was a period of one hundred years, though it was reduced by the catholic church to fifty years, and afterwards to twenty. It was of courfe in ufe before the time of Mofes: for if the idea of a century had not been used formerly, and familiar to his cotemporaries, but a new mode of reckoning time, he would have announced and explained the reason for adopting that, rather than any other number. It was no doubt in ufe among the patriarchs. It is not to be prefumed that the good patriarchs adopted the centenary number from any aftronomical calculations, but from the moft fimple and natural indications, fuggefted by the most familiar of all objects. In fhort, the pariarchs were induced to adopt the centenary number in the computation of large spaces of time, just as, we find the Africans and Indians of America have been, from counting their ten fingers. The number ten multiplied ten times makes a century. These obfervations on the prevalence of decimal numbers are not indeed any new difcovery; the general ufe of the decimal and decu ple number, and the origin of that general use, have been noticed by

Ovid,* by Vitruvius,† and by Plutarch.

There is a queftion, not a little agitated, whether the century was completed at the beginning, or not till the end, of the year 1800: that is, whether, in reckoning time from the birth of Chrift, a year of the century is fuppofed to have paffed at the nativity, or only to have begun.-We are among thofe who incline to the laft opinion. But the decifion of that question is of no manner of importance on the prefent fubject: we leave it wholly to the priests and the poet-laureats, on whom it is no doubt incumbent to fix, with as much precifion as poffible, the true period of the jubilee, and the carmen feculare.

It is natural, on the expiration of any period of time, to paule, and look back upon its most prominent features, or events:-thofe that recur ofteneft to the mind, on the fur-` vey, ftand forward on the canvas, and throw other occurrences in the back ground. The jufteft and most complete reprefentation of any period of time, would no doubt be a juft and complete enumeration of all its viciffitudes and events. But this is the bufinefs of continuous narration and defcription:-it will readily be understood, that the character of an age is to be taken from as many of the leading events, as may be arranged in fuch a picture as may be contemplated at one view, without diffraction, without diffi

OVID. Fafti, Lib. III.

VITRUV. Lib. I. Cap. I.

culty,

to mention telegraphs, balloons, and flying artillery.

With regard to the third clafs, in that divifion of the fciences which we have followed, mind, the true method of philofophifing, has of late begun to be applied to this as well as to phyfical fubjects, with a degree of fuccefs, not indeed very great and brilliant, yet of fufficient certainty, as well as importance, to encourage the experimental pneu matologiit to go on with his obfervations, experiments (for fuch experiments as well as thofe in natural philofophy may certainly be made, and that too at lefs trouble and expenfe), and records. Certain laws, according to which ideas, emotions, and pations, fucceed or pafs into one another, in the human mind, have been univerfally recognized, and feem to be as certain and undoubted as thofe of attraction and gravitation.*

Agreeably to the fpeculative and enterprifing genius of the age in other concerns, great boldness was used in the application of the moral nature of man to the fcience of politics. To philofophers in different countries, particularly in France and Germany, there appeared to be a wide and almost unbounded fcope for difcovery and invention, in the conduct of education, the framing of laws, and the establishment of various inflitutions. They not only inculcated political rights, but taught how to form political powers. The modem difcovery in politics, of political reprefentation, though not peculiar to the eighteenth century, was then a fubject of more ferious attention than it ever had been.

The conteft, between Great Britain and her colonies, illuftrated the natural and juft connection between reprefentation and taxation; and, the dependence on the power and confequence of the feattered multitude, on their afföciation and union, emancipated North America. Affociation and union emancipated Ireland. Affociation and union, a coincidence of opinions, and a concert of wills, were alfo the engines that fubvered the ancient order of affairs in France, in the Netherlands, and which, alfo opened a pallage for the introduction of the great inftruments of revolution into other countries. Clubs or affociations, ramifying, multiplying, and extending themfelves, by affiliation, over countries, kingdoms, and even diftant empires, like the brotherhood of free-mafons, formed a mighty engine of political power, which, when it draws along with it public opinion, becontes wholly irrefiftible. Great and illuftrious names, our great Frederics and Catharines, feem to control the times in which they live: but, on an examination of the fpirit by which they are actuated, the objects they aim at, and the measures they purfue, we fall find that there is a tide in the affairs of nations as well as of men; a tide which the greatest fovereign princes cannot command, but on which they, with others, are irrefiftibly borne. And it is the progrefs or viciffitudes of public opinion, and public fpirit arifing out of public opinion, that lays the trains which fooner or later breaks forth in grand revolutionary explofions: of which, there is to be ge

nerally