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gacity with which he feized upon the true ftatement of a question, and disentangled the point in difpute from the mass of fophifticated argument in which it was frequently involved. His great delight was to fimplify an intricate queftion, and to reduce a perplexed and elaborate fyftem of argument to a few plain problems of common sense. Though an expert dialectician himfelf, and ready enough to acknowledge the merit of any ingenious paradox that he had occafion to expofe, he had but little indulgence for thofe more diffufe and impofing pieces of false reasoning that reft on the prejudices of mankind, or are produced by the weakness and wavering of the author's own underftanding. As there was no man, indeed, that ever made lefs parade of his own intellectual achievements, there have been few lefs difpofed to tolerate the learned vanity of others. To form a found judgment upon all points of fubftantial importance, appeared to him to require little more than the free and independent ufe of that vulgar fenfe on which no man is entitled to value himself; and he was apt to look with sufficient contempt upon the elaborate and ingenious errors into which philofophers are fo liable to reafon themselves. To bring down the dignity of fuch false science, and to expofe the emptinefs of oftentatious and pedantic reafoners, was therefore one of his favourite employments. He had, indeed, no prejudices of veneration in his nature; and was apt to regard thofe minute inquiries in which many great fcholars have confumed their days, as a fpecies of most unprofitable trifling. Mere learning did not appear to him to deserve any extraordinary refpect; and his veneration was referved for those who had either made difcoveries of practical utility, or combined into a system the fcattered truths of fpecu

lation.

To fome of our readers, perhaps, it may afford a clearer conception of his intellectual character, to fay, that it correfponded pretty nearly with the abftract idea that the learned of England entertain of a Scotifs philofopher; a perfonage, that is, with little or no deference to the authority of great names, and not very apt to be startled at conclufions that feem to run counter to received opinions or exifting inftitutions; acute, fagacious, and fyftematical; irreverent towards claffical literature; rather indefatigable in argument, than patient in inveftigation; vigilant in the obfervation of facts, but not fo ftrong in their number, as fkilful in their application.

There is one attribute of a philofopher, however, which Mr Millar must have been allowed in all countries to poflefs in great perfection. He wondered at nothing; and has done more to reprefs the ignorant admiration of others than most of his contem

poraries.

poraries. It was the leading principle, indeed, of all his fpeculations on law, morality, government, language, the arts, fciences, and manners-that there was nothing produced by arbitrary or accidental causes; that no great change, inftitution, custom, or occurrence, could be afcribed to the character or exertions of an individual, to the temperament or difpofition of a nation, to occafional policy, or peculiar wifdom or folly: every thing, on the contrary, he held, arofe fpontaneously from the fituation of the fociety, and was fuggefted or impofed irrefiftibly by the opportunities or neceffities of their condition. Instead of gazing, therefore, with ftupid amazement, on the fingular and diverfified appearances of human manners and inftitutions, Mr Millar taught his pupils to refer them all to one fimple principle, and to confider them as necessary links in the great chain which connects civilized with barbarous fociety. By the ufe of this mafter principle, he reconciled many of the paradoxes of hiftory and tradition, explained much of what appeared to be unaccountable, and connected events and circumftances that feemed to be incapable of combination. While the antiquary pored with childish curiofity over the confufed and fantaftic ruins that cover the fcenes of early story, he produced the plan and elevation of the original fabric, and enabled us to trace the connexions of the scattered fragments, and to determine the primitive form and denomination of all the disfigured maffes that lay before us.

But though it is impoffible not to be delighted with the ingenuity and happiness of the combinations by which these explanations are made out, and though it would be abfurd, after what has been done, to call in queftion the foundnefs of the philofophy in which the principle is founded; it must not be diffembled, that Mr Millar's confidence in its infallibility was greater than could always be juftified. As his object was to obtain great clearness and fimplicity in his theory, he was apt, when fatisfied, upon the whole, of its truth, to pafs fomewhat haftily over all that could not be easily reconciled to it. His greatest admirers must admit, that he has fometimes cut the knot which he could not untie, and difregarded difficulties which he was not prepared to overcome; that he has afferted, where he ought to have proved; advanced a conjecture for a certainty; and given the fignal of triumph, when the victory might be confidered as doubtful.

As his habits and difpofitions led him chiefly to the exertion of his intellectual and argumentative faculties, he had made no great proficiency in the finer or more elegant departments of literature. His imagination, though extremely active and vigorous in the coinage of illuftrations and topics of perfuafion, was not very easily excited by the more exquifite and delicate beauties

of

them may therefore be allowed to form no improper introduction to an account of that publication, we should scarcely have indulged ourselves in fo full a defcription of them, if it had not been to fupply a defect that occurred to us, on firft taking up the volumes in queftion. Though this work is now publifhed by Mr Millar's reprefentatives at a confiderable interval after his death, it contains no biographical account of the author, nor any attempt to delineate the general character of his genius or publi cations. To the greater part of writers, it would certainly be doing no fort of injury to withhold from the public every thing but what they had themfelves laid before it: but wherever the living character is really fuperior to the writings that remain to illuftrate it, we cannot help feeling it as a fort of duty to erect fome memorial, however frail, to its merits; and to endeavour, at leaft, to fupply fome of the deficiencies that may be found in that picture of himfelf, which every author exhibits in his works. -We now proceed to make a few obfervations on the volumes before us.

It is only the latter half of this publication, as we have already remarked, that is new; but, in order to judge of its execution, we must state very fhortly the fcheme and order of the whole work. It was Mr Millar's defign to exhibit an historical view of the English government from the earliest periods of its independent existence, down to the present times. This fubject he has divided into three parts. The firit, comprehends the hiftory of the form of government that prevailed, from the establishment of the Saxons, down to the time of the Norman conqueft. During this period, the scattered tribes and families of barbarians feem to have gradually arranged themfelves under the protection of a few great leaders; and the government came gradually to be administered by a great feudal ariflocracy. The fecond period extends from the conqueft to the acceffion of the houfe of Stuart, and is diftinguished by the ftruggles that took place between the Nobles and the Sovereign, and the gradual predominancy of the latter, in confequence of the divifions that took place among the aristocracy, and the authority that was acquired by a common leader, after the nation began to engage in more extenfive enterprifes. In this period, therefore, Mr Millar confiders the government to have attained the condition of a feudal monarchy. About the period of the acceffion of James the First, a ftill more important change had begun to take place in the conftitution of fociety; the introduction of arts and manufactures had made the internal aspect of the country pacific, and had not only engaged the retainers of the great. lands in new employments, but had appropriated to other purpofes the revenues from which they were originally maintained.

At

At the beginning of the third period, therefore, the lower orders had rifen into confequence, while the increafing expence of the government rendered it more neceffary that they fhould contribute to the fupport of it. This gave rife to a feries of eventful ftruggles between the Commons and the Prerogative, which fortunately terminated in what Mr Millar has called the commercial government. This third form was established by the revolution in 1688; and, by the fubfequent increafe of expence and of public. revenue, has contributed to enlarge the influence of the Crown upon one hand, while it has promoted the caufe of freedom on the other, by the general increafe of riches and knowledge, and the gradual diffufion of political information among the people.

Of this plan, we have already fpecified how much Mr Millar published in his lifetime, and how much was left unexecuted at his death. In eftimating the merit of the part that is now given to the public, it is most natural to compare it with that which went before and here we cannot help thinking that there is a manifect fuperiority on the fide of the first publication. It is not natural, we will allow, to expect that refearches into the dark and barbarous æras which were treated of in that performance, thould excite an equal intereft, or afford the fame fcope for difcuffion, with thofe inquiries that belong to a period with which we are fo much more nearly connected; and, a priori, it certainly could not have been prefumed, that our attention fhould have been more powerfully attracted to the inftitutions of the Saxons, than to the errors and misfortunes of the Stuarts. Perhaps there is fomething in the verry barrenness and unpromifing aspect of the former fpeculations, that lead us to relith more highly whatever can be faid with ingenuity or probability on the fubject; while the notorie ty of the later occurrences, and the facility with which accurate information may be obtained with regard to them, leaves but little fcope for difcovery, and circumfcribes the limits of difcuffion. The chief caufe, however, of this unexpected difference will be found, we believe, in the nature of Mr Millar's plan, and the peculiarity of the talents which he has devoted to its execution. It was his view to illuftrate what was obfcure or uncertain in the history of the English government. In the remote periods with which he was occupied in the former part of the work, he found obfcurity and uncertainty enough; and the greater part of the lights he ftruck out, were kindled in the midit of utter darknefs. In the fubfequent part of his talk, however, the facts were pretty well afcertained; and all that remained to be determined, was the merit or demerit of the actors. Initead of an hiftorical inquiry, therefore, we are engaged in a political difcuffion, and taken away from the pleafant explanation of extraordinary occurrences, to listen to the controverfial wranglings of party politicians.

VOL. III. NO. 5.

L

But

But when we recollect that Mr Millar's chief excellence lay in tracing the connexion of thofe fteps by which men advance from a barbarous to a civilized ftate of fociety, and in pointing out the circumftances that originally fuggefted or compelled the adoption of particular inftitutions, we fhall fee ftill more clearly, how it has come to pass, that he appears with the greatest advantage in difcuffing the early periods of our hiftory. At the establishment of the Saxons in England, they were very nearly in the condition that is common to all barbarous communities, and their hiftory might fafely be taken as an example of what would generally happen in that ftate of fociety. The fpeculations that arife from the confideration of their proceedings, are connected, therefore, with a very wide and interesting field of difcuffion. They include, in reality, the general history of the species, and are fufceptible of illustration from a great variety of remote and unexpected fources. The combination of these analogous views, and the elucidation that refults from the comparison of unconnected truths, affords as captivating a difplay of ingenuity, and as pleafing an exercife to the understanding, as is to be met with, perhaps, in the whole range of human fpeculation. When we draw to the end of that progrefs, however, the intereft of the inquiry is diminifhed along with its difficulty; and the genius that had fucceeded in explaining obfcure ufages, may fail to tie down our at tention to the adjustment of familiar difputes. There is fomething lefs magnificent, and more perplexing, in these modern difcuffions; and the talents that astonished us with the first rude ketch of the edifice, may not always be able to engage us with the merits of the finer finishing.

In endeavouring, indeed, to recollect the impreffions that remain on the mind from perufing the first part of this performance, we shall find that we have been delighted chiefly with the general differtations that it contains; and that it is not the hiftory of Alfred or Edward that enchanted us, but the hiftory of human fociety. The fpeculations on the origin of the feudal fyftem of property; on the inftitutions of tithings, hundreds and boroughs; on the nature of the national council, and on the original functions, and gradual elevation, of the great officers of the Crown-apply to all the European communities, and are even illustrated by references to the ufage of remoter nations. In the portion of the work that is now before us, the interest is much less extenfive; and the talents that are required for the execution of it, are quite of a different nature. The events that took place after the acceffion of the house of Stuart, are, fortunately for us, of a nature altogether different from thofe that are to be found in the annals of any neighbouring nation. The principles that are to guide us in our judgement

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