234 political pi'ogrefi- of Britain. ^pril i%. 



a correspondence with another. Of our mercantile in- 

 tercourse with Spanifli America, we have, in my 

 last letter,-, seen a sufficient specimen. Of our mili- 

 tary progrefs in^ the same country, a very candid 

 summary has been sketched by the late Dr Samuel 

 Johnson, in his pamphlet respecting Falkland's Islands. . 

 This publication has been more than once recommend- 

 ed in my hearing by the late Dr Adam Smith, -as the 

 best and most valuable portion of all Johnson's 

 works. A few extracts from it will interest every 

 reader. " Against the Spanifh dominions" says Dr 

 Johnson, " we have never hitherto been able to 



do much They are defended, not by walls 



mounted with cannons, which by cannons may 

 be battered, but by the storms of the deep, and 

 the vapours of the land ; — by the flames of calen- 

 ture, and blasts of pestilence. He7-e Cavendifh 



periflied after all his hazards ; and here Drake 

 and Hawkins, great as they were in knowledge 

 and in fame, sunk, by desperation and misery, 



in dishonourable graves. Here, and only here, 



the fortune of Cromwell made a pause. 



The attack on Carthageiia is yet remembered, 

 where the Spaniards from the ramparts saw their in- 

 vaders destroyed by the hostility of the elements ; 

 poisoned by the air, and crippled by the dews ; 

 where every hour swept away battalions ; and in 

 the three days that pafsed between the descent and 

 re-embarkation, half ait artny perijljecl." 

 In this country there is no military project more 

 popular than an invasion of Spanifli America. These' 

 remarks m^iy tend to calm the impatience of piratical 



