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• Let me next turn your attention to the actual flate of India, in order to prove my affertion that they were not once right, even by accident.

• In the month of May 1782, precifely at the moment Mr. Haftings's recal was recommended in the House of Commons, because he had forfeited the confidence of the native princes of India, and could not make peace, he actually made a peace with the Mahrattas; for which he has fince received the thanks of the board of control, and the unanimous thanks of the directors and proprietors.

In the month of February 1783, when the most impudent and falfe libels were published against Mr. Haftings, by a bookfeller in Piccadilly, under the title of "Reports of the Select Committee," the moft ftrenuous exertions were made in order to preserve India to Great Britain.

• In the month of November 1783, when Mr. Fox deferibed the internal and external government of the Company as difgraceful to the national honour, and oppreffive to the natives, our character, as a nation, in India flood higher than at any former period of time.

When Mr. Fox accufed Mr. Haftings of perfonally ill treating the Nabob Vizier of Oude, and when he ftruck off eight hundred thou fand pounds of the Company's property as irrecoverable from the Vizier, that prince repofed the most explicit confidence in the late governor-general, adopted the plans which he recommended, and has fince paid the debt due to the Company. When the party faid India was convulfed to the centre, we actually had not an enemy there; and it is also a fact of undoubted notoriety, that, while the party were defcribing the revenues of Bengal as declining, and its population de creased, it was fuller of inhabitants than at any former period, the revenues more productive, and private property perfectly fecure. I have therefore a right to repeat, that the party were not right, even by accident, in any one affertion they made relative to Mr. Haftings, or the fate of India.

The Englishman, in his thirteenth letter, confiders a maxim which has been often repeated, "That it would have been "better for this country if the trade between Great-Britain "and Indoftan had been carried on in the fame manner as 66 we now carry on our trade with China." Our author enters, with great ability, upon the difcuffion of this important point; and fhews the abfurdity of the opinion held on this fubject by Lord John Cavendish and others. From the year 1657 to 1764, when we traded with Indoftan without having any empire there, this nation was drained of immenfe fums of money in order to fupport its Eaft-India commerce, probably not lefs than thirty millions fterling. Still, however, the public deemed the trade advantageous upon the whole, and continued it. But, in confequence of our having acquired an empire in India, that is, from the year 1764, we have not only faved the bullion that we had.

been

been accustomed to export annually from England, but the nation has gained, in circulating fpecie, not less than ten millions fterling.

Our Indian acquifitions, fays our author, ought to be confidered in another point of view. The nation expended vaft sums of money in the colonization of America. Our commerce with Europe was fettered, while that with Ame rica was encouraged by bounties and drawbacks. We rafhly involved ourselves in two expenfive wars, and contracted a debt of two hundred millions in American fpeculations; and in the end America was fevered from Great-Britain for

ever.

But what treasures has this nation expended in attaining a rich empire in India? None. It was acquired by a trading company; a circumftance which pofterity will hardly credit. The acquifition has been followed by a vast increase of our export trade; by an addition of feven hundred thou fand pounds annually to our customs and excife; and an accumulation of national wealth.

In the laft letter our author fums up his pamphlet in a fe ries of refolutions, founded on undeniable truths, and expreffed in fo pointed a manner as to leave the strongest conviction on the mind of the reader. They exhibit a picture of the violence, abfurdity, and folly of party fpirit, that has fhocked the prefent age, and that will icarcely be credited by pofterity.

Upon the whole, the "Letters of an Englishman" are the productions of an ingenious and acute author. Ferfectly acquainted with his fubject, and ftrong in the eloquence of truth, he has adduced a variety of facts that are convincing and unanfwerable. He lays the axe of reafon to the root of the tree of rhetoric; and performs the fame office to fome modern orators that Phocion did to Demofthenes, who, from that circumitance, called him the "pruner of his periods.'

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ART. X. Obfervations on the Nature, Kinds, Causes, and Prevention, of Infanity, Lunacy, or Madness. By Thomas Arnold, M.D. Vol. I. Containing Obfervations on the Nature and various Kinds of Infanity. 8vo. 2 vols. 1os. boards. Leicester printed. London, Robinsons. 1782.

THE fecond volume of this work is properly the object of

our attention; but it is neceflary that we fhould give fome account of the firft volume, which was published in

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1782. The author there profecuted the fubject at great length, and, indeed, with a minuteness that favoured more of ideal refinement than of pofitive and useful inquiry. He frittered the difeafe into fuch a number of fpecies and fubdivifions, that it multiplied aftonishingly; and, according to his theory, the unfortunate person who was vexed with the demon of infanity, might truly be faid to be poffeffed with a legion. The diftinctions, for the most part, feemed not only unimportant, but erroneous; and, by universally establifhing a difcrimination in cafes which we cannot fuppofe to be wholly unmixed, he gave to every fpecies of the diforder a degree of confiftency, to fay the leaft, not very fuitable to the conceptions usually entertained of a state of madness.

The fecond volume of the work is conducted in a manner much more fatisfactory. Dr. Arnold begins with detailing the appearances on diffection, extracted from the copious collections of Bonetus and Morgagni; on both which he makes judicious remarks, and fubjoins observations on the fame subject from Haller's Elementa Phyfiologiæ.

The remote caufes of infanity Dr. Arnold very properly divides into two claffes, namely, bodily and mental. "The "bodily causes," fays he,

• Are either fuch internal ones as are immediately feated in the brain, its veffels, and membranes; or fuch external ones as operate mechanically upon that organ; or fuch caufes as, while they affect the fyftem in general, at the fame time produce infanity, either by acting directly and immediately upon the brain, or by effecting fuch a gradual change in the body as difpofes to infanity by diminishing the healthful tones, occafioning debility, inducing morbid irritability and fenfibility, and exciting uneafy and painful fenfations; or fuch as, being feated in, or primarily affecting, fome particular parts, give rife to infanity, either by speedily, and fometimes almoft inftantaneously, difordering the brain, as by fympathy or translation; or by operating flowly, and introducing, like the third fort of caufes, fuch a gradual change in the conftitution as difpofes to, and readily terminates in, infanity,

The mental caufes all confift either in the immediate and intense action of the mind itself; or in such a conftitution of mind, either natural or acquired, as difpofes it to be eafily put into a ftate of intenfe action. In the former cafe, it is earnestly fixed on one, or a few, or bufily ranging through a variety of objects; in the latter, it is in a ftate of imbecility, which renders it incapable of withdrawing its attention from any train of thinking in which it has engaged, difpofes it to be readily carried away by the impulfe of the paffions, or deluded by the hafty and fuperficial combinations of imagination; and is fubverfive of felf-command, rational conduct, and found judgment.'

In order to ascertain the manner in which infanity is excited by fuch bodily caufes as do not act immediately upon

the

the brain, our author takes a view of the mutual influence of the mind and body in the production of sensation and motion; in the generation of the appetites; and in the excitement and operation of the paffions; all which he very clearly illuftrates, though with a degree of prolixity, and, in some instances, upon principles which, in our opinion, are either erroneous or doubtful. We fhall only fpecify his opinion relative to the caufe of fleep, as it tends to lay a foundation for unadvifeable practice. His idea is, that fleep derives its origin from a waste of the nervous power, joined to an accumulation of blood in the veffels of the brain. We cannot help thinking that a waste of the nervous power is far too partial a caufe to be generally productive of fleep; and the accumulation of the blood is neither countenanced by the fymptoms accompanying the invasion of fleep, nor by the powers which induce or difpel it.

We shall lay before our readers the author's most practical injunctions with regard to the prevention of infanity.

• To defend ourselves, as much as may be, from the attacks of an enemy fo hoftile to our comfort, and fo fubverfive of the dignity of the human character, it is fit that every man fhould be rationally and diligently, but not anxiously, attentive to the ftrict obfervance of whatever may tend to preserve or regain the health, and to contribute to the perfection of his whole nature, bodily and mental. This opens to our profpect a large field of speculation and practice. I fhall confine myself to the following views :

1. Temperance in food, drink, fleep, and the indulgence of the venereal appetite.

2. Exercife,

3. The due regulation of the paffions,

4. Attention to the operations of the imagination; and care to

check its propenfity to too great activity.

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5. An affiduous diligence in the improvement of the reasoning faculties of the mind; and a watchful avoidance of the various caufes of imbecility.

6. The careful avoidance of too long-continued, too intense, and too uniform, thinking: and of exceffive watching.

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7. The avoidance of the other occafional causes of infanity, fo far as they may, by our care and diligence, be avoided.

8. Rational views of God and religion; free from fuperftition, enthufiafm, or defpondency; and a confcientious and chearful performance of the duties which religion prescribes.

1. The best rule of temperance in food is, that it be taken in fuch quantity as to leave little or no fulness after eating; as that the body hall feel refreshed and not oppreffed, and the mind lively and chearful, and fit for the performance of all its operations, if requifite, with ease and alacrity; that dinner be the principal meal; and that Tupper either be taken very early, or be very light.

⚫ With

• With regard to drink, temperance is neceffary in small liquors, as well as in ftrong; for, though the former cannot injure by inebriation, they are capable, when ufed immoderately or injudiciously, to do much mischief by their quantity, and by their other fenfible qualities. Small cold liquors fhould never be drank but with the greatest caution when we are warm with exercife; and not at all when we are very hot; and large draughts fhould always be avoided. If drank by perfons who are very hot, they frequently bring on inflammatory, and other violent diseases, which often either end in death, or leave behind them complaints which remain for life; and may prepare the way for infanity, as well more immediately by giving occafion to the delirium of a fever, or by otherwife violently difordering the brain, as more remotely, by fuch permanent injuries of the brain, of other kinds, as proceed from the violence of thefe original diforders.

• How warm diluting liquors may lay the foundation of infanity, and how wine, and other fermented or fpirituous liquors, may produce the fame effect, has already been explained in treating of the remote causes.

Warm diluting liquors fhould never be drank in large quantities, unlefs with fome particular views, and under fuch particular circum #tances, as may render copious dilufion with small, warm fluids, proper in the cure of a difeafe; and fhould never be drank warmer than new milk, or the human blood while yet flowing in the course of circulation.

• Wine fhould either be avoided altogether, or, when that is not very practicable, or not very prudent, fhould always be taken in fuch moderation as not to produce intoxication, nor flushing in the face, nor drowfinefs, nor great fpirits on the one hand, nor dulnefs and depreffion on the other; two or three glaffes, twice a day, should rarely be exceeded, even by fuch as have not the smallest reason to be apprehenfive of infanity; and one glass will, in moft cafes, where no great exercife is made ufe of, be quite fufficient. But I would advife fuch as have any particular reafon for guarding against infanity, unless in cafes of debility, in which a small quantity of wine is found useful as a medicine, to abftain from vinous and fpirituous liquors entirely; or, at moft, to drink nothing ftronger than fmall beer.

Though we must be of opinion that this work abounds with hypothetical and fuperfluous diftinctions, we think Dr. Arnold has exerted laudable induftry, as well as much judgment, in investigating the caules of the disease; and it would afford us great pleasure to see him extend his refearches, with equal attention, to the cure of this deplorable malady.

ART.

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