feffed by the nobles, and to the cuftom of not being diftinguifh ed by family names, which prevented all thofe cabals that arise from a family fpirit, and which are fo dangerous to a republic.

The Athenians were the greatest manufacturers and traders of Greece; but their commerce would have been more profitable, if they had not been neceffitated to fupply Athens with grain from foreign markets, which carried vaft fums of money out of their country. As merchants, bonefty does not appear to have been any part of their character; for all the arts and frauds which are known among the modern commercial speculators, were practifed by the ancient Greeks; whofe ingenuity was fo fertile in evil, as well as in good, that they rendered it impoffible for pofterity to invent either new vices, or new virtues. The merchants, who frequented Athens and the Pyreum, understood the art of diffeminating false reports, in order to raise the price of grain. They imported their corn chiefly from the Taurica Cherfonefus, or what is now called the Crimea; and the firft idea of bills of exchange is supposed to have been occafioned by the danger of the feas which they were obliged to navigate, and the depredations of the pirates who frequented them. Ifocrates, in his oration intitled TpaTxos, informs us, that a stranger having brought a cargo of corn to Athens, gave a merchant there, whofe name was Stratocles, a bill of exchange on fome place on the coaft of the Euxine fea, where money was due to him. But, as the Greeks placed no great reliance on each other's honefty, Stratocles fecured himself by means of a banker in Athens, who was to reimburse him, if the perfon on whom the bill was drawn fhould refuse to pay it. It is uncertain whether the infurance of ships, and their cargoes, against the dangers of the fea, was ever practifed among the Athenians; but, from an oration of Demofthenes against Ženothemis, it appears that baratry was not unknown to them; that owners of fhips borrowed large fums of the bankers, under pretence of purchafing cargoes, and then fraudulently loading their veffels with ftones and fand, found means to fink them at fea.

One of the caufes of the flourishing ftate of commerce in Athens, was, that trade was perfectly free; that the ftate conftantly refused to grant any exclufive privileges, or to favour any individuals by conceffions contrary to the political equality of all. Here M. DE PAUW takes occafion to make fome obfervations on the Eaft Indian companies of England and Holland, the juftice of which we fhall not difpute; but we fear that the evil is too deeply rooted, and too univerfally extended, to be ever redreffed, at leaft while the dictates of natural equity, and of political expediency, are fo widely different.

Among the Greeks, the principal banks were held by the priests of Jupiter, Apollo, and Diana, in the temples at Olym

pus,

pus, Delphos, and Ephefus. In Rome, the temples of Saturn, of Juno, and of Caftor and Pollux, were used for a fimilar purpofe. On the ruins of thefe, M. DE PAUW obferves, are now founded the Datery's Office, the Apoftolical Chamber, the Bank of the Holy Ghoft, and whatever the wit of man can invent to enrich individuals at the expence of the community.

On the conftitution of Athens the Inquirer beftows the higheft encomiums; but he is not blind either to its inherent vices, or to its incidental inconveniences. He juftly diftinguishes between the democracy, as established by the laws, and that turbulent laocracy into which it too often degenerated; a diftinction much neglected by the partizans of governors, whether monarchical or ariftocratical. To urge the confusion and mifery of a laocracy, as an argument against the poffibility or expediency of a democracy, is as unfair, as to confound the monarchy of Great Britain with that of Turkey, or the political conftitution of the United Provinces with the oppreffive ariftocracy of Venice.

From M. DE PAUW's obfervations on diftributive juftice, especially in criminal cafes, we apprehend that he is unacquainted with this part of the English conftitution; which, though not without fome incidental inconveniences, is perhaps as near perfection as any human inftitution can be; and much more fo than those which he so highly praises: at least we cannot help thinking that juries, under the regulation of our laws, conftitute a very competent tribunal, infinitely better adapted to a regular and equitable adminiftration of juftice, than the court of fifteen hundred judges by which Demofthenes was tried.

He expofes, with great judgment, the defects of the Amphictyonic council, and concludes his account of it with the following fenfible obfervation: To a want of power in this affembly to enforce its decifions, and to the conclufion of treaties by different ftates, without its knowlege or fanction, may the ruin of Greece be afcribed; but to this ruin no nation of Greece contributed fo largely as the Lacedemonians, who were continually in rebellion, ever in arms, and always overbearing. At laft the Greeks expelled them from this affembly; but this exclufion ought to have taken place feveral centuries before, from the moment that the Lacedemonians, contrary to every principle of equity and juftice, prefumed to make war on the Meffenians, who were a confederate ftate.

Warlike nations,' fays M. DE PAUW, are generally the objects of the most extravagant admiration; and hiftorians, who are feldom philofophers, difcern nothing in antiquity fo grand, as the pretended exploits of the Lacedemonians; who, nevertheless, ought? to be ranked among the barbarous nations, as they cultivated neither arts nor sciences, and had no knowlege, except that of forging arms to pillage those who were lefs powerful than themselves; till

they

they rendered the city of Sparta what Plato calls the Lion's den, în which all the treasures of Greece were amaffed. It was easy to trace the paths by which this immenfe wealth was conveyed thither, but it was impoffible to discover any marks of its return.'

M. DE PAUW mentions, with great contempt, M. DE GOURCY's differtation on the Lacedemonians, which, he fays, was crowned by the Academy of Inferiptions, much in the fame manner as the tragedies of Dionyfius were crowned at Athens. It is difficult, he adds, to find words fufficiently ftrong, to expose the folly of his enthufiafm concerning Lycurgus, which betrays a total ignorance of ancient hiftory, in which no person was less known than this fuppofed lawgiver: nor is this aftonishing, as his pretended Inftitutions were never committed to writing; nor have we one of them extant, the authenticity of which is confirmed by fuch evidence as will stand the test of found criticism.

Hellanicus, the moft ancient Greek hiftorian, as quoted by Strabo, denies that Lycurgus was the legiflator of Sparta. Long before his birth, Lacedemon had been fubject to a dyarchy, and the five annual Ephori were not created till 130 years after his death. The Dorians, before they conquered Laconia, had a fenate of old men, an inftitution common to all favage nations, and which, in a state of nature, feems to be pointed out by instinct. The most probable story is, that Lycurgus, baving been in Crete, introduced among his countrymen, fome of the military cuftoms and exercifes that he had obferved in that island, which was inhabited by a number of independent tribes, who were always engaged in war among themselves. Thefe inftitutions were well adapted to the circumftances of the Spartans, who were few in number, and lived in a country which they held in fubjection, by reducing its ancient inhabitants to a state of flavery; fo that they were as much in dread of their flaves, as the Cretan ftates were of each other. Their treatment of the poor Helotes was too notorious to be mentioned here, and too inhuman not to be detested.

M. DE PAUW fhews that the pretended equality of poffeffions, which has been afcribed to the inftitutions of Lycurgus, never did, and never could exift. According to him, all that M. DE MABLY has advanced concerning the Spartans, is deftitute even of probability; and he obferves that this mode of writing on fubjects, of which little can be determined, with certainty, intead of contributing to the progrefs of literature and knowlege, is an obftacle to both; as it tends to fubftitute chimeras for reality, and conjecture for fact. We ought, he fays, to judge of the nature of political inftitutions, from the effects they produce in the country where they are established. Wherever we behold ities fucceffively falling into poverty and ruin, we may conclude

that

that the government is oppreffive and unjuft; becaufe, inftead of creating, it deftroys; and inceffantly paffes from one ftate of devaftation, to another, worfe than the preceding. Of this, the defcription of Laconia affords a ftriking inftance. This country, after having long been under the dominion of the Spartans, inftead of flourishing, as when under the ancient Achæans, bore the appearance of a wretched land, depopulated, ftained with blood, and covered with the ruins of its cities. Such will ever be the fate of governments purely military; they rife to fudden greatnefs by making conquefts, and fall as fuddenly by lofing them. All this happened to Lacedæmon, in confequence of a series of events; an attention to which is fufficient to detect the delufions of both ancients and moderns, on this head.

The moral character of the Lacedæmonians is here reprefented in a very unfavourable light, and even their valour is degraded below that of the other nations of Greece. It appears, fays the inquirer, that, without reckoning thofe cafes in which their armies were panic-ftruck, and routed even by women, they loft full as many decifive battles as they won, and, of these, many were gained by corrupting the generals of the enemy. They were what the Greeks called Thrafydeiloi, bold in ftratagems and ambufcades; but cowardly in the open field; and were formidable, rather from their ferocity and perfidy, than from any military virtue. They were fo corrupt, that, in whatever cafes it was difgraceful to give or to receive money, they gave and received it. Paufanias afferts that they were the first among the Greeks, who rendered victory venal. It was by corrupting Ariftocrates king of Arcadia, that they conquered the Meffenians, and by corruption they terminated the Peloponnefian war. Ariftotle, diftinguifhing the Ephori by the appellation of "NIOI, or venal, fays, they were deftitute of every fenfe of honour, and in Greece, the Spartans were generally termed Aponspdeis, or, greedy of difhoneft gain.

Plato obferves, that even the best politicians could not define the government of Lacedæmon: for this, M. DE PAUW accounts, by remarking that it was unequal, and varied with regard to the feveral claffles of men who were subject to it. With respect to the Helotes, it must be confidered as entirely defpotic; they were the moft wretched of flaves; for, befide being forced to till the foil, and ferve in the army, they might be murdered with impunity: and with refpect to the tributary inhabitants of Laconia, who had no vote in the national affembly, nor any fhare in the civil government; the conftitution of Sparta was an oligarchy, that is, a few oppreffed the many, as the nobles of Venice opprefs the citizens, and the inhabitants of the continent; but, when con fidered with regard to the Spartans of the Doric race, who were the predominant nation, the conftitution was an imperfect democracy, fettered by the authority of two hereditary generals, under APP. Rev. Vol. LXXIX.

T

the

the title of kings. That the government was conftitutionally democratic is evident, because the people alone had the right of giving a fanction to the laws, of making war or peace, of creating fenators, and of electing the Ephori. The confufion and mifery which refulted from a form of government thus wretchedly conftituted, are well illuftrated by a short recapitulation of some of the principal events of their hiftory.

We have been, on the whole, agreeably entertained by the perufal of thefe volumes; as we have been by the former productions of this lively, wild, and fanciful, yet diligent investigator.

For our account of M. DE PAUW's Recherches Philofophiques fur les Americains, &c. fee Rev. vol. xlii. p. 515.

ART. XII.

Flora Roffica, feu Stirpium Imperii Roffici per Europam et Afiam indigenarum Defcriptiones et Icones. Jufu & Aufpiciis CATHARINE II. AUGUSTA edidit P. S. Pallas. Tomi I. Pars I. Royal Folio. Petersburgh*.

FLORA is literally the goddess of flowers; but by modern botanifts her name is used to fignify a book containing descriptions of those plants that are indigenous or natives of certain countries or diftricts. It cannot therefore be tranflated but by a periphrafis, although univerfally received and understood by botanifts.

The variety of climate, fituation, and foil, in the vast extent of the Ruffian empire muft neceffarily afford a variety of vegetable productions. The northern provinces contain few plants that are not to be found in other northern parts of Europe; but the fouthern provinces, which ftretch out toward the Caspian and Euxine feas, and are parched by the fun, produce plants that are not only common to Germany and Hungary, but many, especially in the dry and falt deferts, that are natives of Spain, Alia Minor, and even of Arabia. Toward the eaft, Siberia, occupying the whole of the northern part of Afia, furnishes plants that are peculiar to it; and in warm fituations, fuch as are common to Tibet and China, and Kamtfchatka, the eastern boundary of the empire, contains many vegetables well known in America. Hence the great extent of the vegetable kingdom in the Ruffian dominions is fufficiently apparent, as is also the magnitude of the work which M. PALLAS hath undertaken.

The abilities of this indefatigable naturalift are so well known in Europe, that his name alone ftamps a value on any work to which it may be prefixed. The merit, however, of the fuperb publication now before us, is intrinfic: and the character of the Author and the value of the book may be faid mutually to fupport each other.

* Imported by Mr. Sewell, London.

The