for the necessary defence of the realme, therin contynew, it is not knowen how long,) hath, for the mayntaynaunce thereof, requyred lately a contribution, by waye ofbe nevolence ofhis highnes' loving sub. jects; and began th' execution therof, first, with us of his grac's counsaile, whoome his matie, according unto or moost bounden dewties, founde in such conformitie, as, we trust, was to his grac's contentacon; and from us proceding unto the citezens of London, found them also, upon such declaracon as was made unto them of the necessitie of the thyng, as honestly enclyned, to th' uttermost of their powers, as they saw the request to be grownded upon some reasonable cawses; onely oon ther was, named Richard Reed, an aldreman of London, the said citie, who (notwithstanding bothesuch necessarye pswasions and declaracons, as for the purpose at great lengthe were shewed unto him; and the consent, allso, and the conformitie therunto, of all his companye) stode aloon in the refusall of the same; not onnly himself, upon a disobedient stomache, uttrelye denying to grow therin to the accomplishment of his dutye in that pte, butt thereby also giving example, as much as in oon man might Îye, to breed a lyke difformitie in a great many of the rest. And forasmuch as for the defence of the realme, and him self, and for the contynu aunce of his quyett lief, he cowld not fynde in his harte to disburse a litle quantitye of his substaunce, his matie hath thought it much reason to cawse him to do soom srvice for his countrey with his bodye, wherbye he might somewhat be instructed of the difference between the sitting quyetlye in his howse, and the

travaile and daunger which others daily do sustain, wherby he hath been hetherto mayntayned in the same; and for this purpose his grace hath thought good to send him unto yo' skoole, as yow shall pceyve by such les as he shall delyver unto yow, there to serve as a souldyor, and yet both he and his men at his own chardge; requiryng you, not oonly as yow shall have occasion to send forthe to any place for the doing ofany enterprise uppon the ennemyes, to cawse him to ryde forthe to the same, and to do in all things as other souldyors are appointed to do, wth out respecte, but allso to bestowe him in such a place in garryson, as he may fele what payns other poure souldyors abyde,abrode in the king's srvice, and know the smart of his folly and sturdy disobedience. Finally, you must use him in all things after the sharpe disciplyn militar of the northern And thus, &c.

warres.

To o very good lord the erle of Shrewsburye, the king's highnes' lieutenant in the north ptes."

We find afterwards, that this stubborn citizen was taken prisoner. On the 18th of March, 1544, in a letter, from the lords of the council, it is said. "Fynally, wher it appereth thatt amongs other prisonars, Read,' the alderman of London, is prisonar in Scotland, his highnes pleasure is, thatt if ther may be any good mean devised for his redeeming, thatt yo lordship shall also tak such good order for getting hym agayn as yow shall think most convenient."

Lord Herbert who slightly mentions this curious circumstance, informs us, with great sang froid, that

the

social life are so few, and so simple, that each man is sufficiently master of them all, to gratify every demand of his own limited desires. A savage can form his bow, point his arrows, rear his hut, and hollow his canoe, without calling in the aid of any hand more skilful than his own.* But when time has augmented the wants of men, the productions of art become so complicated in their structure, or so curious in their fabric, that a particular course of education is requisite towards forming the artist to ingenuity in contrivance and expertness in execution. In proportion as refinement spreads, the distinction of professions increases, and they branch out into more numerous and minute subdivisions. Prior to the records of authentic history, and even before the most remote æra to which their own traditions pretend to reach, this separation of professions had not only taken place among the natives of India, but the perpetuity of it was secured by an institution which must be considered. as the fundamental article in the system of their policy. The whole body of the people was divided into four orders or casts. The members of the first, deemed the most sacred, had it for their province, to study the principles of religion; to perform its functions; and to cultivate the sciences. They were the priests, the instructors, and philosophers, of the nation. The members of the second order were entrusted with the government and defence of the state. In peace they were its rulers and magistrates, in war they were the soldiers who fought its battles. The third was

Hist. of Amer. vol. iii. 165.

composed of husbandmen and merchants; and the fourth of artisans, labourers, and servants. None of these can ever quit his own cast, or be admitted into another.t The station of every individual is unalterably fixed; his destiny is irrevocable; and the walk of life is marked out, from which he must never deviate. This line of separation is not only established by civil authority, but confirmed and sanctioned by religion; and each order or cast is said to have proceeded from the Divinity in such a different manner, that to mingle and confound them would be deemed an act of most daring impiety. Nor is it between the four different tribes alone that such insuperable barriers are fixed; the members of each cast adhere invariably to the profession of their forefathers. From generation to generation, the same families have followed, and will always continue to follow, one uniform line of life.

Such arbitrary arrangements of the various members which compose a community, seems, at first view, to be adverse to improvement either in science or in arts; and by forming around the different orders of men artificial barriers, which it would be impious to pass, tends to circumscribe the operations of the human mind within a narrower sphere than nature has allotted to them. When every man is at full liberty to direct his efforts towards those objects, and that end which the impulse of his own mind prompts him to prefer, he may be expected to attain that high degree of eminence to which the uncontrolled exertion of genius and industry

have supposed the Caspian Sea to be connected with the Euxine. Quintus Curtius, whose ignorance of geography is notorious, has adopted this error, lib. vii. c. 7. edit. 3. Arrian, though a much more judicious writer, and who, by residing for some time in the Roman province of Cappadocia, of which he was governor, might have obtained more accurate information, declares, in one place, the origin of the Caspian Sea to be still unknown, and is doubtful whether it was connected with the Euxine, or with the great eastern ocean, which surrounds India; lib. vii. c. 16. In another place, he asserts, that there was a communication between the Caspian and the Eastern ocean, lib. v. c. 26. These errors appear more extraordinary, as a just description had been given of the Caspian by Herodotus, near five hundred years before the age of Strabo. "The Caspian," says he," is a sea by itself, unconnected with any other. Its length is as much as a vessel with oars can sail in fifteen days; its greatest breadth as much as it can sail in eight days;" lib. i. c. 203. Aristotle describes it in the same manner, and, with his usual precision, contends, that it ought to be called a greatlake, not a sea; Meteorolog. lib. ii. Diodorus Siculus concurs with them in opinion, vol. ii. lib. xviii. p. 261. None of those authors determine whether the greatest length of the Caspian was from north to south, or from east to west. In the ancient maps, which illustrate the geography of Ptolemy, it is delineated, as if its greatest length extended from east to west. In modern times, the first information, concerning the true form of the Caspian, which the people of Europe

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received, was given by Anthony Jenkinson, an English merchant, who, with a caravan from Russia, travelled along a considerable part of its coast in the year 1558; Hakluyt Collect. vol. i. p. 334. The accuracy of Jenkinson's description was confirmed by an actual survey of that sea, made by order of Peter the Great, A. D. 1718, and it is now ascertained not only that the Caspian is unconnected with any other sea, but that its length from north to south is considerably more than its greatest breadth from east to west. From this detail, however, we learn how the ill-founded ideas concerning it, which were generally adopted, gave rise to various wild schemes of conveying Indian commodities to Europe by means of its supposed communication with the Euxine sea, or with the northern ocean. It is an additional proof of the attention of Alexander the Great, to every thing conducive to the improvement of commerce, that a short time before his death, he gave directions to fit out a squadron in the Caspian, in order to survey that sea, and to discover whether it was connected either with the Euxine or Indian ocean; Arrian. lib. vii. c. 16.

ROM the most ancient accounts

of India we learn, that the distinction of ranks and separation of professions were completely etablished there. This is one of the most undoubted proofs of a society considerably advanced in its progress. Arts in the early stages of