were unable to express their aftonishment at the wife adminiftration of their young fovereign. Greater fagacity, and perfeverance of purfuit in every circumstance of government, could not be displayed. She would fee and understand every thing: regularly confulting her minifters, yet never fuffering her judgment to be influenced by their reputation or authority. She drew her own determination from their various fentiments, often ftriking out new lights from the subject in debate; fo that her decifions were regarded and respected as the oracles of reafon. The predominant inclination of a strong and active foul, improved by a laborious and manly education, gave her pre-eminence in the art of reigning. Dress occafioned very little interruption to her employments; fhe detefted the fight of a looking glass; and though defirous of appearing amiable, it must be in her own manner. She defpifed all amusements and occupations that have the marks of effeminacy. The study of ancient and modern languages, profound investigations of fcience, the cultivation of letters, and of the moft ufeful and agreeable arts, were her amufements; unwearied attention to every care of government, and fulfilling every duty of roy alty, were her occupations; to undertake long walks, long jour neys, and hunting-inatches; to fleep upon the dewy grafs when tired with fencing, or lie awake whole nights, when inclined to fleep, were her exercifes! Her perfeverance and activity were unparalleled; and fo fteady was her refolution, that, when an infant, fhe refrained from drinking several days, because the was not permitted to drink water alone and her averfion to wine and fpirituous liquors was infurmountable. She regarded the fufferance of hunger, cold, and heat, as sports. Christina has given us the outlines of her character, and it is only a repetition of her own words to fay, "fhe was diftruftful, fufpicious, ambitious to excess, paffionate, haughty, and impatient; contemptuous, and addicted to raillery; and fo little inclined to religious zeal as to appear rather incredulous; of a temperament ardent and impetuous; no enemy to love; but, if we have faith to believe her, was prevented from yielding to her natural difpofition through pride, and an invincible repugnance to fubmit to the authority of another. She totally neglected all the decorums of her fex, as thinking them below her attention." "I fhould act more in character, fays fhe, to difengage myself entirely from thefe reftraints! I was not born to be the flave of custom !" She paffionately wished to become illuftrious by great actions; little difturbed if the was likewife diftinguifhed by a whimfical fingularity in trifles. Her converfation was frequently interlarded with oaths: the laughed immoderately loud; and took long, hafty ftrides in walking:

in a word, neither her virtues nor defects, her graces or foibles, were feminine. The daughter of Guftavus appeared, in many refpects, of a fuperior nature to the reft of her fex; and according to the wish of Gustavus, this daughter was as intrin fically valuable as a fon. Her ruling paffion, the love of fame, often feduced her by deceitful appearances, and transported her beyond the bounds of moderation. Quitting a throne upon which her birth, talents, and difpofition ought to have fixed her, is the best-founded reproach that can be alledged against her conduct. Chriftina would have been ranked among the moft illuftrious monarchs, had the never defcended from her hereditary feat how glorious to Sweden was her adminiftration! As a fovereign, that fingularity of manners and character would only have fhed an additional luftre on her perfon. An exalted genius has always fome indelible marks which render it original, and give it an elevation above the vulgar; but it must be placed in a peculiar light: once removed from that advantageous point of view, the contraft becomes offenfive to ordinary minds, and they are apt to form falfe conclufions. Christina felt the fad experience of this obfervation. With a foul capable of the fublimest actions, she suffered an inordinate fondness for liberty and letters to transport her from her proper orb, where the fhone with unrivalled fplendor, and place her on the itage of common life, to act a ridiculous character in fociety! In vain did fhe preferve the grandeur of her former fentiments, purfuing the fhadow of fovereignty in negotiations and ceremonials, when her imperfections and qualifications, nay, her very virtues were infurmountable obstacles to her making a graceful appearance in the fituation caprice had thrown

her into.

Chriftina, in the leifure of retirement, compofed feveral works of genius: the thoughts are elegant and judicious, and are cloathed in a pure, yet ornamented diction: her extenfive correfpondence with princes and scholars in all parts of Europe occafioned her writing a prodigious number of letters, in variety of languages; and about the year 1681, he began a hiftory of her life, in French, dedicated to God. Only a fragment of this work is faved from oblivion, which extends no farther than the first part of her reign; nor is it known whether The continued her plan to a later period.

She alfo wrote remarks on two abridgments, digefted under her own inspection, to the time of her abdication, and entitled, Annals of her reign.

i

There is ftill extant too, A Collection of Miscellaneous Thoughts, divided into chapters. She likewife drew up a plan for a metallic hiftory; and compofed a Differtation on the Ori

gin and Arms of the royal House of Vasa; together with some Critical Reflections on the Life and Actions of Cæfar and Alexander the Great. This queen furnished Alexander Guidi with the first sketch of his paftoral, called Endymion, enriching this poem with several stanzas of her compofition; a fingular favour, as fhe feldom amused herself with writing verfes in any language but her own.'

Though we cannot agree with our author as to every part of this character, yet the reader muft acknowledge, that if the features are not ftriking, they are well painted. Mr. Lacombe has been particularly decent and delicate with regard to the amorous failings imputed to Chriftina by her contemporaries, poffibly without foundation. Upon the whole, the History of Chriftina is more amufing and instructive than that of her illuftrious kinfman Charles XII. Both of them were equally oddities; both of them performed the greateft, and were guilty of the meaneft actions.

VII. The Freedom of Speech and Writing upon Public Affairs confidered, Gr. 4to. Pr. 4s. Baker.

WE

E believe this to be a very well-meant treatise, tho' we can by no means fee the propriety of its publication at this juncture. The author, after a long encomium upon truth, in which he fagaciously discovers that truth is a very excellent thing; that she lies in the deep; that she is noble and useful; her enemies numberlefs, and her acquest difficult; proceeds to fhew, that the opinions of many English lawyers, and others, touching libels, were originally drawn from the Roman imperial laws; a fource in general unfavourable to liberty."

By what laws libels in general were governed, from the diffolution of the common-wealth to the time of Conftantine, I have not been able clearly to discover; but am much inclined to think that they fell chiefly, if not wholly, under the Cornelian law De Injuriis, made by Cornelius Sylla, after his overthrow of the Marian faction, the regulation of the annual prætorian edicts, which, according to Papinian, were introduced for the fake of affifting, fupplying, or correcting, the civil law for the public utility, or the perpetual edict, compiled by Salvius Julianus, an eminent lawyer, fome time prætor, who, while governor of Aquitain, by command of the emperor Adrian, reduced into one body what was most equitable in the edicts for a long time yearly iffued by the prætors; which being thus reduced, augmented, and ranged according to the order of the matters, was named the Perpetual Edict, because the emperor

would

would have it perpetually observed throughout the empire, inftead of the prætor's annual edi&s issued till that time. This edict being loft, we have little farther knowledge of it than what may be collected from the Digefts, which make part of the Juftinianean Body of the Civil Law, wherein are contained sundry parts of it, together with gloffes of the ancient lawyers, and among them the following.'

The author then points out many paffages concerning libels, which coincide in a great measure with the English star-chamber doctrines. All we can gather from Ulpian, the civilian, is, that a libel is a very pernicious thing. Julius Paulus fays, that they were punishable at the discretion of the prætor, who might even confine the authors to an ifland, ad relegationem infulæ ; but the remains of the Gregorian and Hermoginian codes, which were formed to collect the conftitutions of the emperors from Adrian to Dioclefian, a period which contained the two Antonini, make no mention of libels. Conftantine was severe against libels; but in the most cruel edicts published against them by him and other tyrants, we do not find any mention of that curious doctrine, that truth is fo far from juftifying a libel, that it aggravates the offence.

In Cod. lib. 9. tit. 36. De famofis libellis, the following edict is to be found:

1. Edict of the auguft emperors Valentinian and Valens. • If any perfon fhall unwittingly find a libel, either at home or abroad, or in any place, let him either destroy it before another fee it, or confefs the finding it to no perfon. But if he do not immediately destroy or burn the faid papers, but declare their contents, be it known to him that he shall be capitally punished, as if he were the author of fuch crime. Verily, if any perfon regard his own duty, and the public welfare, let him make known his name, and declare with his mouth those things which he hath thought fhould be profecuted by a libel,, fo that he may approach without any fear; knowing certainly, that if his affertions be worthy of credit, he will obtain the greatest praise and reward from our clemency; but if he do not prove fuch things to be true, he fhall be capitally punifhed. And a libel of this kind fhall not hurt the character of another. To the Prætorian prefect. February the 14th, Conftantino, le. The auguft Valentinian and Valens being confuls. [36;.]' We strongly fufpect, that the capitalis pana, which the author has tranflated,

nifhed,' does not fignify the lofs of life.

fententia, and capitalis by being capitally puThe caufa exiftimatio

nis, though all of them capital, were not attended with the lofs

of life, though the parties might have been convicted.

Cicero mentions many cafes in which the penalties were capital, but

but the punishment did not amount to death. Infamy and the lofs of reputation were capital among the Romans.

Juftinian's laws, through the revolutions which happened in the Roman empire, were for fome time loft to the world; but were recovered in 1130, under the emperor Lothair, who eftablished them in Germany and Italy; and they foon after got footing all over Europe. His laws, however well adapted they. might have been for an arbitrary monarchy, were the fources of tyranny and oppreffion; and it appears by what our author has quoted from Dr. Duck, that the parliament of England ne-. ver would admit them, though many attempts were made to introduce them: Nolumus (faid the members) leges Angliæ mutari, quæ buc ufque ufu funt approbata; "We will not fuffer the laws of England, hitherto approved by ufe, to be changed." He ob-, ferves, that the only courts in England which proceed by the civil law, are, firft, the military court under the constable and marshal of England: but we apprehend that court is now, in fact, abolished; and military trials, according to the act of mutiny, now rest upon parliamentary law. Secondly, the court of admiralty, We believe that this court likewise, so far as it relates to trials upon life and death, or matters of felony, proceed upon the principles of the common law of England, and tries by a jury, in the fame manner as other felonies. Thirdly, all the ecclefiaftical courts, under the archbishops, bishops, and archdeacons, which have all hitherto been in the hands of civilians. Our author obferves, that with refpect to libels, Glanvil, who is among the oldest of our English lawyers, makes no mention of libels; that Bracton takes all he fays about them from Juftinian's Inftitutes; and that Stamford, in his Pleas of the Crown, makes no mention of them. The Scotch law, which is governed by the civil, fometimes punished libels with death. ' And thus (fays Sir George Mackenzie) Fleming was hanged for faying, "that he wished the king would shoot to dead, and die of the falling-fickness, 17 May, 1615.”

The writer proceeds then to defcribe the nature of tortures, which in foreign countries are applied in cafes of libels, that we may have reafon from their example to encrease and preferve our regard for our mild and happy conftitution. Notwithstanding this plaufible apology for the many horrid barbarities mentioned in confequence of our author's plan, we can by no means approve of his rendering thofe ideas of tortures too familiar to English readers. A writer with the fame propriety may defcribe the happiness of our conftitution by travelling back to the Parisian maffacre, by attending the Spaniards through their conquefts of Peru and Mexico, or the natives of North-America in their anthropophagian feafts, and