estholic colleges, and his taking a part in teem. He says himself that the concurrence of these circumstances first led him to the idea, that geometrical demonstration was no more than a series of duly connected syllogisms, such as he was in the habit of using to support his theses at the disputations. This one idea was the foundation of all his fame, and the origin of the method which he always pursued in his philosophical works-that of adopting the forms of geometrical reasoning to the subjects of moral philosophy. With some difficulty, and by pecuniary assistance from the magistrates of his native place, he succeeded in procuring the advantage of instruction at the university of Jena, and afterwards that of Leipzig. His first publication was a probationary dissertation to obtain the degree of master of arts. In this treatise he unfolded his system of applying mathematics to moral pholosophy; a system to which he adhered in all his subsequent voluminous writings. At Leipzig he became acquainted with Leibnitz, and adopted his theory, so much celebrated and so much ridiculed, of the pre-established harmony. In 1707, Wolff became professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Halle, where, by the superior splendor of his repu tation, and weight of influence, he excited the malevolence and envy of two professors, his colleagues, named Lange and Gundling. They attacked, and procured others to attack his writings; but finding themselves unsuccessful in that field, they tried another with happier effect. They had appealed to the king of Prussia, Frederick William I. father of the great Frederick, and protector of the university, stating the necessity of suppressing Wolff's doctrine of pre-established harmony, which they contended was tantamount to fatalism. The king, who knew as little about one as the other, and thought it only a dispute concerning hard words, favoured Wolff the most, as the most profitable professor, and prohibited all further attack against him. Lange and Gundling, however, by working with the logic of a sort of court buffoon, who was likewise president of the Academy of Sciences, upon the sagacity of two generals, at length succeeded in making the king comprehend, that pre-established harmony made man a mere machine, and of course made it perfectly a blameless action in a soldier to desert. To confirm this ingenious theory, the two generals complained, that since the promulgation of those pernicious doctrines, the desertion among the troops had actually increased to an alarming degree. There is no penetration so acute, no address so well applied, as that of dulness, inspired by malice and envy, and working for the ruin of genius. The rivals of Wolff had touched the true string to the king's heart. He was now sure that pre-established harmony meant atheism, or high treason, or both, and instantly dismissed Wolff from his professorship, with ANN. REV. VOL. IIJ.

pro

an order to withdraw from Halle within 24 hours, and from the Prussian territories within two days, upon pain of death. The banished philosopher found, however, a new patron in the king of Sweden, then landgrave of Hesse Cassel, who gave him fessorship at Marburg, with the same tights and distinctions he had enjoyed at Halle. The Prussian university was deserted by most of its students; and Frederick William began to doubt of the pernicious tendency of pre-establised harmony. At this stage of the business, in the true spirit of despotisin, hang first and then try, he ordered four ecclesiastics of Berlin to examine and make report upon the writings of Wolff. The report was altogether favourable; and the king, at two diflerent periods, in 1733 and 1739, made advances and proposals to draw back the professor to Halle, which he with proper spirit and dignity rejected. At the invitation of Frede rick II. however, upon his accession, and with the king of Sweden's consent, he returned, and was reinstated at Halle, with a handsome salary, the title of privy counsellor, and the liberty of lecturing as he should think proper, without limitation. He afterwards was appointed chancellor of the university, and, in 1745, was created a baron by the elector of Bavaria. His fame and his doctrines we e now triumphant in every part of the learne world; but found, before his death, more formidable enemies in Mauper u's and Voltai e than Lange and Gundling had been. He died in 1754. The credit of his philosophy began already to decline; and at this day thousands and thousands of readers, perfectly familiar with Voltaire's ridicule of preestablished harmony, know not that it was pointed more at Wolff than against Leibnitz.

"Christian Garve was born at Breslau in 1742, and educated at the universities of Halle and Leipzig, where he was for some time professor of moral philosophy. The latter part of his life he spent in his native city, where he died in the year 1709. His works are numerous, originals and translations; but almost wholly upon ethical subjects. His translation and comment upon Cicero's Offices, done at the request of Frederick II. is said to be such as if it had been dictated by the very genius of the Roman philosopher. His review of Mendelssohn's Phædon, and his remarks upon Ferguson Moral Philosophy, these writers declare they would rather have written than the book's themselves. Among his most celebrated productions is a Treatise upon the Agreement between Morals and Politics. The last work he published was Anecdotes of Frederick LI. and of his Conversations with him. Ile is certainly to be esteemed one of the first names in German literature."

To characterize a book executed with propriety (the 259th page ought however to have been struck out at the prinx

E

ing office) is less easy, than where the features are marked, or the manner original. Not considering the author as one whose right it is, uncensured, to be dull; we do not wish to be so civil as to prove unjust. We have derived some amuse

ment if not delight from his narrative, and some information if not instruction from his facts and in general we have noticed his style with content, his materials with satisfaction, and his reflexions with acquiesence.

FEW literary travellers have of late years visited our colonial possessions, either in the east or in the west. The spirit of enterprise which supplies them with new adventurers is rarely connected with the love of letters, and for curiosity they are too distant, the climate too hazardous, and the objects themselves not sufficiently inviting. This is more particularly true of the West than of the East Indies: the original islanders have long since been extirpated, their language has perished with them, and they were in too rude a state of society to have left any monuments of art or power. Having extirpated these unhappy and unoffending people by cruelties that will for ever remain the foul reproach of their history, the Europeans continue to supply their place and keep up a forced and scanty population by means as atrocious as the first depopulation. Man there fore presents nothing to tempt the traveller, for to the philosopher these islands offer nothing but what is humiliating and melancholy, either in their past history, their present state, or their future prospects. The beauties of nature are indeed unequalled there, but that inducement is more than counteracted by the dreadful pestilence, which seems destined to root out a race that has for so many generations so wantonly and wickedly abused its power, and defied the judgment of Almighty

God.

We feel therefore obliged to Mr. McKinnen for the volume now before us : he who communicates information to the public is entitled to their gratitude, and from such writers we are willing and glad to learn.

This gentleman left England in the summer of 1802. During the passage, though the air in the lower regions ge nerally came from the east, he observed an upper stratum of thin clouds continually moving from the westward. A remarkable instance of the exhilarating effects of climate is mentioned; a young

Its streets

"The present appearance of the town I must confess disappointed and displeased me very much on landing. As few nations can be put in the least competition with the English for cleanliness, and all the external signs of comfort about their habitations, I was sensibly struck with the disagreeable aspect of a place of so much consequence in the West Indies as Bridge Town. in a great measure unpaved; the decayed and warped figure of the wooden houses; the dirty and unfinished fronts of the brick dwellings, with smutty timbers and staggering piazzas, excite at first an idea that the national character was totally vitiated or lost in this torrid climate. But a little reflection satisfied me that it might be ascribed altogether to the influence of causes which do not in the least

derogate from the colonial taste for cleanliness and comfort. The perpetual heat, interrupted only by occasional showers of heavy rain, succeeded by an immediate blaze of sunshine, cannot fail to penetrate and consume any substance constantly exposed to the weather. Hence the crumbling and dilapidated appearance of all the buildings,-particularly about their roofs and basements, which are

more severely affected by the heat and damps. The strong exhalations also and mingled odours of the streets, which immediately follow the rain, are not a little disagreeable to a new-comer; for an intelligent nose may analyze the essences of rum, sugar, and me lasses, blending with the fragrance of fruits and vegetables, and the fetid effluvia of mud and negro population. It is further to be considered, that most of the principal inhabitants of the towns intend their dwellings merely as places of temporary residence, till

pean eye.

"Along the shore to the north of Bridge Town I found the road extremely picturesque. It leads through a long avenue of shady cocoa-nut trees, over-arched by their palmated and spacious leaves, and fenced on each side by prickly pears, or the blades of aloes. In occasional openings, or through the stems of the trees, you behold the mas ter's dwelling-houses with the negro-huts adjoining; and over a rich vale, abounding with cotton-shrubs and maize, the hills at a small distance spotted with wind-mills, sugarworks, and a few lofty cabbage trees, or cocoa-nuts. At times the road approaches the sea and leads along the beach, frequently overspread by cedars or manchineel. It then winds into the plantations, where the cultivated parterres of cotton and tropical plants are often relieved by groups of cocoa-nuts and plaintains, the leaves of which in the form of squares or quadrangular figures, have a singular effect in the landscape.

"It is not an unusual thing to see a team of as many as sixteen or even twenty diminutive oxen labouring with a small load, and three or four lusty negroes occupied in a work that one man with a single horse and cart could perform with ease in England. The same debility pervades all ranks. You meet in the roads and avenues of the town riders in loose linen dresses and broad-brimmed umbrella hats, their horses gently ambling or pacing a black running footman perhaps with his hand twisted in the horse's tail, following; and a distance of twelve or fourteen miles is a journey of no inconsiderable exertion for the day."

When Grainger wrote his poem of the Sugar-Cane, he celebrated Barbadoes as its favourite soil. The soil must then have been more fertile than at present; for this and some other of the Carib bean islands are supposed to be sensibly on the decline. The fact is, the new set

tlements offer a new soil, whereas in the old ones the planters have to manure an exhausted one.

"The most agreeable situations in the country are certainly those to windward (which is a term universally used in the West Indies to denote the east, from whence the wind generally blows); and the spots commonly chosen for building are those which are highest and most exposed to the draught of air. Some of the country houses are well contrived for all the purposes of comfort and coolness. But the mode of building generally practised might be greatly improved upon; nor should I apprehend one need go further for a perfect example than that of the native Indians in the cona model of a house with all their domestic struction of their dwellings. I was shown conveniences imported from South America. boo canes, and the roof a tight thatch, I beThe sides represented a wicker work of bamlieve of pulmeto leaves; thus admitting the breeze horizontally in every direction, and excluding the rain at top. Their beds were a loose elastic net-work, like the hammocks of the Charaibs, who made them of cotton, and of a texture remarkably neat and durable. The only objection I found to the model of the house was, that it did not provide against an admission of rain, or the sun's rays, in an done by substituting the moveable latticeoblique direction (which might easily be work resembling Venetian blinds, now particularly in use); nor of the damps affecting always the lower parts of the West India houses, and which ought necessarily to be constructed of more solid materials. No doubt the aborigines, advancing towards cihad become studious of those comforts and vilization, as these beginnings evidently show, conveniences which soften the rigour of the tropical sun, and which their experience would have gradually discovered much more effectually than the knowledge of the Europeans, whose inveterate habits and ideas can not easily assimilate with the climate."

The plough, it is observed, is certainly a great relief to negroes where it has been introduced; yet all its operations are necessarily slothful and expensive. Mr. M Kinnen speaks of these unhappy peo. ple like a man whose natural good sense and good feelings are continually coun teracted by a recollection of the personal civilities which he himself has experienced from the planters. He witnessed the arrival of a Guinea ship: the slaves crowded to look through the port-holes, and hailed the sight of land with a chorus of wild and joyful music, which, he says, was singularly affecting to persons who know how to sympathize with them

in their emotions! A gang of sixty negroes whom he saw at work appeared to be in good spirits, while the black drivers, with whips in their hands, stood over them directing and stimulating the work; and he takes care to inform us, that the drivers found no occasion to exercise their whips. He does not mention that when, in 1801, lord Seaforth recommended to the assembly of this island, that the murder of a slave should be made felony, the present punishment being only a fine of eleven pounds four shillings sterling, that christian assembly, at the motion of Robert James Haynes, esquire, returned for answer, that they understood their interests, and knew how to repel insult and assert their rights. Mr. M'Kinnen doubtless conceived that it would be making an ill return for that generous hospitality which he experienced, to have noticed this memorable answer, which stands upon record in our parliamentary reports. But Mr. Robert James Haynes and his worthy majority, who think proper to assert the right of murdering negroes at a fine of eleven pounds four shillings cach, may be assured that their good dinners will not be allowed as a set off when their accounts come to be examined in the courts below.

I have tried, says an Englishman of inquiring mind and truly English feelings, in a letter which lies before us; I have tried to enter into conversation with the negroes, in the hope of obtaining information respecting their own country, but always without success. If I ask, how long have you been in this country, the answer is always, long enough-Have you left any family or 'friends behind you? yes, or no, and don't boder! has been all I could get. Unless I were to remain some time among them, could gain their good will, and conquer that habitual feeling of anger and dislike which I believe they feel for all white people, I despair of learning any thing Perhaps anger and dislike may be improper words; but they seem to think you cannot ask them questions from any kind motive. If it were not for constantly meeting these slaves, ro dressed and so marked that you cannot help seeing and knowing they are such, I know no climate or spot in the world which I should prefer to the mountains close to us. Good God! if these islands

were but peopled, as England is, by free and happy beings!-What a contrast to the tame and blunted feelings of Mr. M Kinnen!

From Barbadoes Mr. M'Kinnen proceeded, by St. Vincent's, St. Lucia and Martinique, to Dominica; he notices the small coffee plantations in this latter island, enclosed with high fences to protect the shrubs from the wind, and situated on the acclivities, and sometimes even on the mountain tops; they ap peared, he says, to great advantage from the sea. Had he approached nearer, he would have found the effect more singu lar than picturesque; for as the coffee is always planted either at right angles or diagonally, the sides and summits of mountains, apparently inaccessible, seem covered with a net work of dark green.

"The English in Dominica are confined to the coast, there being few or none who cultivate ten miles inland. Almost all the coffee from one to ten negroes; you see their houses is raised by the French, small planters with among the mountains appearing as if on the brows of the precipices; they never go to the town (Roseau) but to sell their produce, and then twenty or thirty join together, with as many negroes as they can muster among them, and bring it down upon their heads. The English planters there say, "We could not live in the way they do!" so much simpler and wiser is their way of life. Their climate is delightful, says a sailor, then suffering himself under a tropical summer; it is so cold that they are obliged to sleep in blankets."

Antigua, the next place which Mr. M'Kinnen visited, is the seat of government for the Leeward Islands. On this occasion the author makes the following remarks.

"It has been asked, indeed, Why may not the government of all our windward pos sessions, partaking so essentially of the same in the same individual legislative and execu laws, customs, and manners, be consolidated tire bodies? It must be confessed that a chain of islands of as great an extent in the British empire in the West Indies, is at present in that predicament, (viz. the Bahamas). There is also a British colony (Jamaica), in

which the attendance of the remote members at the seat of legislature is more inconvenient by land, than their attendance at a central spot might be found in these colonies by sea. On the one hand, it might be supposed that such a legislative body, in the ratio of the extent or country it embraced, would be

more respectable, liberal, and enlightened; that the administration of one would be less expensive than of several governments; while the colonial establishments would derive that superiority of energy and power which a whole would possess over the aggregate of its parts taken individually. To this, however, it might fairly be objected, that, setting aside considerations of personal inconvenience in the attendance of the members, there would be a deficiency of local knowledge; and that many delays and inconvepiences would result from distant communications, which are not felt in this species of domestic legislation, No doubt, if such a project were conceived, the vanity of those persons who figure in the present epitomes of parliamentary government, would be inclined to oppose a scheme to exclude them selves from any part of the drama. But the experience of the present age has too fatally proved the fallacy of speculations indulged by cabinet politicians; and demonstrated that practice differs as much from theory in matters of political science, as in agriculture, or objects of speculative experiment in the Common pursuits of life. It may be alledged, that this is a sort of franchise which the inhabitants of these little islands have enioycd, by charter, from their first settlerent, and in which they have as much right to protection by law, as any of the corporations of Great Britain in their municipal privileges. But above all, the delicate and heterogeneous structure of society in these communities renders it extremely dangerous and impolitic, upon the most plausible specalations, to hazard the fallible experiment of a change.-Paries ubi proximas ardet."

To these reasons may be added, the possible danger of uniting these islands by a general congress, particularly when the disposition of their late assemblies be considered.

We must mention to the honour of the Antigua planters, that they have afforded the first example of a relaxation of their code in favour of the slaves, by extending to them the trial by jury in criminal cases. The Moravian missionaries Live also been greatly encouraged here. This island, since Mr. M Kinnen's account was written, has suffered severely from the yellow fever. Qur sailors, with their characteristic humour, in the midst of its ravages, have given the burying ground a name from the negro who attends there, and call it Pompey's Parlour! It is a circumstance peculiarly unfavourable both to health and comfort, that the principal towns in the West Indies are situated on the leeward coasts, for the convenience of the shipping. Our English towns indeed are greatly

inferior to those which the French have built; for the French colonists generally consider themselves as settled for life, and wisely provide for their habitual comforts accordingly.

Of Jamaica little is said. Mr. McKinnen's visit was too short to admit of any thing more than a superficial glance at some few interesting scenes, and he, therefore, with a commendable forbearance, abstains from offering any general remarks. The effect of heat there on our northern animals is remarkable. He saw a black horse in a friend's stable, which, in the course of a few months, has become perfectly brown; and many of the imported sheep, in the same gentleman's pen, were half stript of their wool, which becomes gradually converted into hair. The Turkey buzzard, or carrion crow of Jamaica, is esteemed of so much consequence in cleansing the country from putrifying animal substances, that its life is protected by a law of the island.

The greater and more novel part of this volume relates to the Bahamas, islands which, from the intricacy of the navigation between them, and the unproductive nature of the soil, have attracted, perhaps, less notice than any other parts of the British empire. The greater islands, or rather groupes of islands, may be esteemed fourteen in number; the smaller, it has been computed, amount to at least seven hundred.

"These small oblong bodies of land, bounding the Atlantic Ocean, on the northeast of the large island of Cuba, and reaching over an extent of ocean commensurate with its length, rise almost perpendicularly from an immense depth of water, and seem to have been formed, if external appearances shells, or small calcareous grains of sand, may be trusted, from an accumulation of The land generally seems low, and its surface and figure throughout the islands is very nearly the same. At the utmost depths to which the inhabitants have penetrated, nothing has been found but calcareous rock, and sometimes an intermixture of shells. At a small distance from the shores, a reef of rocks in many of the islands is observed

to follow the direction of the land, and form rampart the ocean is often immediately unthe boundary of the soundings: without this fathomable; within it, the bottom is either of a beautiful white sand, or chequered with heads (as they are termed) of rocks covered with sea-weed."

Turks Islands, the first in the groupe,