lO^ STUDIES OF NATURE. 



in their attempts to reform Sparta, it was becanlc 

 the wretched Helots obferved with indifference a 

 fyflem of happinefs which extended not to them. 

 If China has been conquered by the Tartars, it 

 was becaufe the difcontented Chinefe were groan- 

 ing under the tyranny of their Mandarins, while 

 the Sovereign knew nothing of the matter. If 

 Poland has, in our own days, been parcelled out 

 by her neighbours, it was becaufe her enflaved 

 peafantry, and her reduced gentry, did not fland up 

 in her defence. If fo many efforts toward reform, 

 on the fubjeâ: of the clergy, of the army, of 

 finance, of our courts of juflice, of commerce, of 

 concubinage, have proved abortive with us, it is 

 becaufe the mifery of the people is continually re- 

 producing the fame abufes. 



I have not feen, in the whole courfe of my tra- 

 vels, a country more flourifhing than Holland. 

 The capital is computed to contain, at lead, a 

 hundred and four-fcore thoufand inhabitants. Aft 

 immenfe commerce prefents, in that city, a thou- 

 fand objeds of temptation, yet you never hear of 

 a robbery committed. They do not even employ 

 foldiers for mounting guard. I was there in 1762, 

 and for eleven years previous to that period, no 

 perfon had been punifhed capitally. The Laws, 

 however, are very fevere in that Country ; but the 

 people, who polTefs the means of eafily earning a 



livelihood. 



