zers were attracted to Scotland by the cheapness of labour; no improvement was introduced into agriculture; on the contrary, commerce was still languid, and the rice and rents of estates inconsiderable. Every national exertion was discountenanced; and, during the interval between the two rebellions, the country was alternately disregarded, er treated like a conquered province, prone to revolt. The nation, notwithstanding the gradual increase of its linen manufacture, appeared to be nearly stationary, and was certainly for less progressive for half a century, than if no union had ever been contracted. The Ections of the preceding century were dissolved with the parliament that gave them birth; but it is observable, that factions are not less necessary in a free state, to preserve the spirit of freedom, than sects and controversial disputes in religion, without which the devout zeal and implicit faith of the votary would soon decay. The national spirit appeared to be sunk and extinguished with those fictions which the union dissolved. Patriotism, that ardent and exclusive attachment to our native country which the national independence of the Scots had excited, could neither be preserved entire, nor transferred to another object, when Scotland merged into the British empire; and, from the parrow basis of representation, the people at large, having lost their own constitution, acquired little interest or share in the government into which they were received. The Views of Queensberry and his friends in the union, to perpetuate their authority at home, and to establish a numerons party in the English parliament, were realized afterwards by the dukes of Argyle, two brothers to whom the whole country was long devoted; and the English mistook for the servility of the nation, the dependence of the few members whom Scotland returned.

"But the national spirit, thus apparently extinguished, burst forth in a new direction more beneficial to Scotland. When the contests of domestic faction had ceased, the turbulent fanaticism which distinguished the Seats, during the former century, was lost in the pursuits of industry, of literature, and the arts of peace. Some attempts had been made, before the last rebellion, to introduce better cultivation into the Lothians, which has since extended through the west and the north, to the richest provinces beyond the Tay. The gentry, among other efforts to promote manufactures, had begun to breed their sons to mechanical arts, in order to retain them at home. By the abrogation and Baft of hereditary jurisdictions, the poverty of the nobles was relieved, and the people were emancipated from their oppressive coercion. The country was gradually enriched by the Pops retained to prevent insurrection; and in the advanced price and consumption of tle in the English market, the farmers afcumulated their first stock for the improveWar of the soil. The situation of Scotland

attracted the peculiar attention of Pelham administration; and, ten years after the last rebellion, the benefits of the union began be universally felt. The forfeited estates, in stead of being sold as formerly, were appro priated to objects of national improvement, and industry was promoted by every encor➡ ragement which bounties can conter. The jacobites, soothed by indulgence, and re claimed by the gradual extinction of the r hopes, began to transfer their allegiance from the ill-fated Stuarts to the reigning family; and, under Chatham's administration, the Scots were employed in the army and ravy in greater numbers than ever were known in any former war. Notwithstanding the comm rcialjealousy and opposition of the English, the merchants of Glasgow had acquired a lar: e share in the tobacco trade; but their exports at first were supplied from England, till they adapted their own manufactures to the colo nial market; and from that period the prosperity of Scotland has properly commenced.

“When the nation was no longer agitated by domestic faction, literature was again cultivated and restored with unexampled success. During the last civil wars the classical learning for which the Scots were early distinguished, was absorbed and lost in the controversial vortex of religion and liberty; two names ever dear to mankind, with which the world has alternately been guided or deceived. From the restoration down to the union, the only author of eminence whom Scotland produced, was Burnet, the celebrated bishop of Sarum, who, when transplanted into England, was conspicuous as a political writer, an historian, and a divine. As an historian alone he descends to posterity; and his curious researches into facts, the unaffected ease and simplicity of his dramatic narrative, his bold and glowing delineation of characters, are far superior to every historical production of the period. After a long interval, the poetical genius of the Scots was revived in the tender and luxuriant Thomson; but the spurious poems of Ossian, a recent forgery, still continue to pollute their history and to corrupt their taste. For a time the mathematical sciences were diligently caltivated; and the medical schools established at Edinburgh acquired an high reputation, which is still preserved. But the Scots, when deprived of their own, contemplated the English constitution, in which their passions were less interested, and the affairs of mankind in general, from which they were estranged, with a more discerning, calm and unprejudiced eye; and in metaphysical, moral and political science, Hume and Smith appear without a competitor, as the first and most original philosophers of the age. history of England was investigated by Hume, not with the eyes of a patriot but a phil-opher; and from cash author whom he consulted, selecting alternately the choicest diction, he constracted an artful narrative. in which strength, precision, elegance, and a

The

lar and fanatical arts. Grace and zeal were invariably preferred to moderation and learn, ing, but the clergy recommended to the notice of the patrons by more laudable arts, acquired more liberal and enlightened ideas. The austere and morose enthusiasm of their order has been gradually refined; but it may be questioned whether the revival of patronage has contributed much to their influence, or to the stability of their church. Their dependence on the patron is slight, or of short duration; and when their former connexion with the proprietors was dissolved, a pernicious emulation was naturally excited, productive of litigious and endless disputes. The adherents of patronage, in opposition to the popular or wild presbyterians, a ranged themselves on the side of the court; but within a few years the intolerance even of those moderate presbyterians, occasioned a wide and memorable secession, which undermines and threatens, at some future period, to overturn their establishment. Whatever fanaticism remains in Scotland is preserved by the Scceders, who adhere to the covenants and austere morals of the old presbyterians; and though divided among themselves, have continued rapidly to increase, while episcopacy, destitute of enthusiasm for its basis, has almost disappeared.

copious simplicity are infinitely diversified, a narrative interpersed throughout with the most profound reflections; and, though partial, perhaps, to a particular system or party, enriched with the most philosophical views of the arguments and peculiar opinions of the times. Less acute, argumentative, and profound, but more correct, inventive, and uniformly elegant, Robertson aspired to the native graces of the English language, and added the rare praise of laborious fidelity to the palm of history which Buchanan originally conferred on Scotland. Their steps were followed by others with unequal success, but a few original authors communicate their taste and literature, if not a portion of their divine spirit, to their age or nation; and, in stead of that classical crudition which adorns England, but which is apt, perhaps, to degenerate into verbal or at least grammatical disquisition, philosophy, moral and political, is cultivated in Scotland, whose authors are still distinguished by their science, and by an original freedom of thought and discussion. The administration of justice was improved by the union. When hereditary jurisdictions were abolished, each country was relieved from the most vexatious oppression, and thirty sheriff'ships at the disposal of government, soon reconciled the disaffected bar. The supreme judges, whom the government had no interest to bias, ceased to participate in "But the beneficial effects of the union domestic faction, but the court of session were peculiarly reserved for the present reign was indebted to Forbes for its present purity, The progress of industry and trade was im which succeeding presidents were anxious to mense; new manufactures, particularly of the Scots preserve. Perhaps the least violent, and the silk, were introduced with success; most salutary improvement in the administra- employed in the seven years war, returned tion of justice, is to open the courts of justi- from abroad with the means or spirit to inciary and exchequer, under able judges, to the prove their estates; and the rapid cultivatin same causes which are competent to the ses of their country has redoubled the produc sion; that when the subjects are admitted, in and the value of the soil. Before the coucivil questions, to the cheap and expeditious mencement of the American war, the m alternative of a jury trial, the mutual emula- chants of Glasgow had engrossed the chil tion of the three courts may introduce the trade in tobacco for exportation. The inte sane simplicity and dispatch into the forms Tuption of trade during that disastrous war, of judicial procedure. The presbyterian directed their capital and the national indus church, so conspicuous in the history of the try, the improvement of domestic arts; and former century, has excited little attention from the perfection of modern machinery during the present. The rights of parentage the cotton manufacture, a recent acquisition were restored in the last years of queen Anne. in all its branches so prodigiously increase A public toleration was granted to episcopal already rivals and supplants the production ministers, using the liturgy, and accepting the of the ancient looms of Indostan. Doulle ouths to government, which were artfully im- much is 'to be ascribed to the spirit and pr posed on the presbyterian clergy, with an impli-gressive state of the nation; but without ed acknowledgment, to which it was difficult to submit, that the successor to the crown must profess the same communion with the church of England. The obvious design of the tories in these acts, was to supplant the presbyterians in ecclesiastical government; but the last act has disarmed the intolerance of the clergy, while the first has introduced a mild and more liberal spirit into the established church. While the choice of a pastor was lodged with the parish, the clergy were reduced to the necessity of low adulation; and, to preserve their influence over the people, they were obliged to cultivate the most popu

union, its unavailing efforts would have s been discountenanced by the commercial lousy, and depressed by the influence of English government. The recent benefi ticles, wch are too numerous, and on so the union are truly inestimable; and if its occasions preclusive of improvement, ever been infringed from inadvertence, a tish parliament can have few temptations depart from them by design. National mosities are at length obliterated; and the still regarded as scarcely naturalized, the S assimilate so fast to the language, the mang and taste of the English, that the two mak

erase to be distinguished in the subsequenthistory of the British empire.” ̧

As an appendix to this volume, is given a long and satisfactory dissertation on the supposed authenticity of Ossian's Poems. The author considers, 1. Macpherson's Roman history of Britain; 2. bis traditions; 3. the manners imputed to his heroes; 4. the real origin of the poems; 5. the contained imitations of ancient and modern poets; 6. the pretended originals, and Macpherson's own admission of imposture.

Perhaps the most novel and curious of these chapters is that which indicates the Highlander, an epic poem published and avowed by Macpherson in 1758, as the basis of Fingal. The fable and innumerable passages are shown to have been borrowed, or transplanted.

"When the Highlander is examined, its lot exhibits the very outlines of Fingal. wein, king of Norway, invading Scotand with a large fleet and a numerous army, posed by Indulph, its seventy-fifth king. , a young chieftain, from Lochaber, was the Scottish army, explores the Norwecamp by night; engages in single com, and exchanges shields with Haco; and battle is decided next day by his prowess address; the Norwegian fleet is burnt, nd the invading army destroyed. Haco, verpowered with his band, on retreating to wood, is generously permitted to depart by pa, whom Indulph discovers to be his ners, the son of Malcolm I. preserved in his ancy from the murderers of his father; and his marriage with Culena, the king's bughter, Duffus, by the accidental death of **ingle, succeeds to the throne. It is ob

that Swein is converted into Swaran in Tingal; with this difference only in the plot,

the scene of invasio. is transferred from and to Ireland, and the time from the o the tenth century."

That the Highlander is inferior to Finfords no presumption whatsoever that The latter is authentic. The author was then wenty-one; his native language was Earse; latite was not yet formed; he had not atended Dr. Blair's lectures, nor acquired the Jacs of style, or a sufficient command of Le English language. But the poem dis

"talks on its way: steel speaks on steel, and cuts its brazen journey through the aim, "across the silver errors of the Tay: groans, speak on the pinions of the southern gale: "the kindling virgin flames along the tale: "and send the palace flaming to the skies ;" how ridiculous soever, are derived from the same source with Ossian's style; a close imi-' tation of Gray's alliteration, and of Mason's bombast. But the following passages, to be recognized as Ossian's, require only to be translated into heroic prose:

"Norwegian firs, oft brought them o'er the

"Now veils its head; now rushes on the sight,

"And shoots a livid horror thro' the night.

"The winds come down on the woods; "the torrents rush from the rocks; rain ga"thers round the head of Cromla; the red "stars tremble between the flying clouds Ossian, i. 255.

"Athwart the gloom the streaming meteor sails,-

"Kindles a livid circle as it flies."

"The clouds divided fly over the sky, and "shew the burning stars. The meteor,"token of death, flies sparkling through the gloom: it rests on the hill." Id. 134, edit. 1773.

"The Scots, a stream, would sweep the
Danes away;

"The Danes, a rock, repel the Scots' array."
“The ranks of Sweno stand in firm array,
"As hoary rocks repel the raging sea."

"As roll a thousand waves to a rock, so "Swaran's host came on. As meets a rock "a thousand waves, so Erin met Swaran "of Spears."-"Frothal came forth with the "stream of his people; but they met a rock. "Fingal stood unmoved; broken they rolled

back from his side." 1d. 65, 235. "On either side they stretched the manly line,

es much of the same imagery and inciCents with Fingal: green meteors, clouds, and mountains; maids in armour, ghosts, storms. The same ambitious phraseology, training after the sublime, which is so apt ta degenerate into bombast in Ossian, befos quite ludicrous in the Highlander, from the untutored taste of the author. Such "Thus, when two winds descend upon the expressions as these, which repeatedly recur: He fixed his vain eyes on the ground: feree Denmark belches numbers on our "land: the gleaming journey of the sword;

"With darting gleain the steel-clad ridges
shine:

"On either side the gloomy lines incede;
"Foot rose with foot, and head advanced
with head.--

main,

"To fight their battles on the wat'ry plain; "In two black lines the equal waters crowd; "On either side the white-top'd ridges nod;

"Behold the battle of the chiefs! It is the "storm of the ocean when two spirits meet "far distant, and contend for the rolling of

the waves.

The hunter hears the noise

"from his hill; he sees the high billows advancing to Ardven's shore." Ossian, i. 302. "The kings were like two spirits of heaven, standing each on his gloomy cloud; when they pour abroad the winds, and lift the "roaring seas. The blue tumbling of waves "is before them, marked with the paths of "whales." ii. 63. "As meet two troubled "seas, with the rolling of all their waves, when they feel the wings of contending

"winds, on the rock-sided frith of Lumon; along the echoing hills is the dim course of "ghosts; from the blast fall the torn groves "on the deep, amidst the foamy path of whales. So mixed the hosts." Id. 167. No doubt can remain, after reading this disquisition, that the poems of Ossian are,

in the main, inventions of Macpherson: but it seems that certain rimed poems, perhaps of the fourteenth century, such as Ossian's religious dispute with St. Pa trick, Fingal's battle with Magnus, the death of Oscar, and others, were plun dered by Macpherson of a few celebrated passages, which had the effect of betraying the hearer into an opinion, that he recollected the poem then presented to him for the first time. This accounts for all the testimony to their authen ticity, which has occasionally been ob tained.

A great service is rendered to history by this detection, as some injudi cious antiquaries have built on the evidence of Ossian's poems.

These volumes are an honour and an ornament to British literature: a something of diffuseness and protraction may be forgiven, for information so complete and instruction so sound.

ART. VI. Notes relative to the late Transactions in the Mahratta Empire. Fort Willi December 15, 1803. With an Appendix of official Documents; and also six Engraving illustrative of the several Battles, from Drawings taken on the Spot. 4to. pp. 290.

THE Mahratta empire was founded, about the middle of the seventeenth century, by Sevajee, the lineal descendant of a bastard son of Rana Bheem, one of the rajahs of Chittore, who are of the most ancient princes of Hindostan. Sevajee's father had been minister to the king of Beejapoor, against whom Sevajee revolted, with success: he acquired an independent sovereignty stretching along the coast, nearly from Surat to Goa.

Probably Aurungzebe secretly assisted the revolt of Sevajee; for he was engaged in war with the king of Beejapoor at the time; but finding the usurper, who had great talents, as ungovernable as the king, he caused the son and successor of Sevajee to be murdered, and promoted his grandson to the crown, under the control of a peishwah.

By degrees the authority of the peishwah almost disappeared, the state crumbled into independent chieftaincies, and an incoherent feudal aristocracy domineered locally: it continued, however, nominally to acknowledge the rajah of Sattarah, as peishwah; whose arrangements with foreign powers were presumed to be binding throughout the Mahratta state. The rajah of Berar, also a descendant of Sevajee, claimed

an hereditary right to the office of peis wah, and was partially acknowledg in that capacity, but not by the Briti government.

At the conclusion of the war, in 1792 the peishwah was a party to the treat of peace at Seringapatam, and obtain a considerable accession of territory to his hereditary dominions.

During the period which elapsed be tween the peace of Seringapatam an the arrival of lord Wellesley in May 1798, a Mahratta chief, Dowlut Ra Scindia, acquired great ascendancy his country, at the expence of the peis wah's authority.

Dowlut Rao Scindia holds the an

pointment of deputy to the vaquel mutuluk, which is an office, similar t that of viceroy, under the great mogu In the name of this deposed, blinded u fortunate emperor, Shah Aulum, Sc. dia raised troops, and formed co nections with the French; and began hope for the European assistance, re site to make head against the Brit power.

His attachment to the French was herited from his uncle, Madajee Sor About the year 1784, a Frenchm named De Boigne, who had been

See Historical Fragments of the Mogul Empire, p. 127-133

7