:vX. ON ASIATIC HISTORY, 



of most Asiatic nations, ancient and 

 in Europe who are blest with lpappier govern 

 would see the Arabs rising to glory, while they ad- 

 here.! to the free maxims of their bold ancestors, and 

 sinking to misery from the moment when those max- 

 s were abandoned. On the other hand, he would 

 observe with regret, that such republican governments 

 as rend to produce virtue and happiness, cannot in their 

 nature be permanent, but are generally succeeded by 

 ejues, v .o good man would wish to be dur- 



alic. He would then, like the king of I/ydia, re- 

 member Solon, the wisest, bravest, and most accomp- 

 lished of men, who asserts in four nervous lines, that 

 " as hail and show, which mar the labours of husband- 

 " men, proceed fratn elevated clouds ;,• gnd 9 as the de- 

 <l structtvc ihundfrhqlt fallows the brilliant flash, thus 

 " ' exalted in power and 



ci splendid in weakh, while the people, from gross igno- 

 <c ranee, chuse rather to become the slaves of one tyrant, 

 i( that they may escape from the domination of many, 

 <4 than to preserve themselves from tyranny of any kind 

 " by their union and their virtues." Since, therefore, 

 no unmixed form of government could both deserve 

 permanence and enjoy it, and since changes, even from 

 the worst to the best, are always attended with much 

 temporary mischief, he would fix on our British con- 

 stitution (I mean our public lazv, not the actual state 

 of things in any given period) as the best form ever 

 established, though we can only make distant approach- 

 es to its theoretical perfection. In these Indian terri- 

 tories, 



