231 
1811.] Origm of Aiiihergris. 
and in their political habits and parlia- 
raentary conduct, they were dissimilar to 
khe human race. 
“ In ibreign ports and havens, in the 
Haltic sea, and in the harbour ol Canton, 
their poorest seamen assumed a portly 
dignity, and intimated a sense of supe¬ 
riority over other nations, which con¬ 
trasted ridiculously with liie dirty garb, 
and unpolished mien of a private sailor, 
and v.hich equally affronted tiie iiaughty 
Dane, the good-humoured Russian, and 
the polished Chinese. To France, their 
self-importance, clashing with the pro¬ 
verbial vanity of their own people, was 
an intolerable and disgusting quality. 
In Spain, the generosity of the British 
warriors, and the liberal credit, or con¬ 
fidence, of the British merchants, recon¬ 
ciled English pride to Castilian haughti¬ 
ness. 
“ One of their own poets describes 
tiiem in these lofty terms: 
PriJe in their port, defiance in their eye, 
I see the lords of human kind pass by. 
In the political or parliamentary 
affairs, foreign rations understood not 
the numerous contradictions which ap¬ 
peared in the conduct of Britons. At 
the close of each six sessions, a general 
choice of nmmbers was conteniiously 
made in each province, and in some of 
the principal or free towns, and in many 
villages. The violence of the two par¬ 
ties, who supported or opposed the ex¬ 
isting ministry, appeared to foreigners so 
excessive, as to threaten a civil war, and 
to create internal riots. The elections, 
however, closed in peace, and the only 
contest continued in the angry pamphlets, 
or the wordy wars of the eloquent mem¬ 
bers. 
“ When the monarch changed his mi¬ 
nisters, and party triumphed over party in 
the House, patriotism, during the entire 
eighteenth century, prevailed in ail the 
successive and fleeting administrations; 
the relations to foreign states were still 
conducted with a cautious reference to 
the local interests of Britain; the treaties 
of commerce or of alliance, peace, w ar, 
or negociation, were ever managed with 
mercantile views of British profit. The 
grand and preponderating object of Eng- 
iaird was the humiliation, or the check, 
of French pre-eminence, the accumu¬ 
lation of new islands, new colonies, ne^v 
rivers, and new coasts, to British tratfic 
and power. Rome, in the boasted age 
of the Fabiuses, did not display liiglier 
instances of patriotic zeal than did tlieir 
nobles and commoners deliver to future 
Monthly Mag, No, 
ages in tlieir parliamentary records; they 
sacrificed their private to the natinv l 
interests; and many expended thousands 
of pounds in promoting the interests of 
astriculture, of the fisheries, of American 
trade, of regularity and order m India, 
of new plnntationsin Canada. Cliatham, 
like the Crassusin the ‘‘illustriousOrators 
of Rome,” died from the consequences of 
his speaking in tl<e House, or from thg 
gout, which iiad been aggravated by his 
ministerial labours. Many of them 
nobly discarded, as ministers, the erro¬ 
neous principles of government, into 
which they had fallen in the heat of op¬ 
position, and paid ;the fine of popular 
odium, because from honest conviction 
they had relinquished the system of a 
deluded populace! Demosthenes ar.fi 
Phocion acted a similar, but not a more 
honourable, part. Human nature caa 
reach no higher excellence. 
“ It is delightful to the candid and the 
virtuous mind to read in the Universal 
Ancient History, the w'onderful instances 
of love to their country, v\'hich were ex¬ 
hibited by the brave Chinese in their se¬ 
vere, though unsuccessl’ul, struggle with 
the Mogul invaders, or the Mancheu 
conquerors. We admire, and we sym¬ 
pathise. The noble efforts of Grecian 
freedom against the aggressions of Persia 
are delineated in a style the most capti¬ 
vating, in Herodotus and Plutarch : th« 
anecdotes of Aristides the just ; of Mil- 
tiades the daring ; of Leonidas, the forlorn 
hope ; and of Themisiocles, the last naval 
resource of Greece; are numerous and 
animating. The Russian Anecdotes in 
tlie reign of Peter the Great, and the 
Memoirs of Frederic of Prussia, writ¬ 
ten by Stehelin, by Dr. Johnson, by 
Thiebault, and tiie German annalists, 
relates a crowd of patriotic actions 
honourable to tiie race of man. Yet to 
these remarkable periods of history, 
British worthies in the long and imoor- 
tant reign of George the third, can Jie 
safely opposed, and actions as bold and 
sublime, enterprises as full of public spi¬ 
rit, in that epoch, may be amply col¬ 
lected.” 
To the Uditor of the Monthly Magazine^ 
SIB, 
N your Magazine for June last, (page 
448) an enquiry is made respecung 
the nature of ambergris, and whether it is 
not spermaceti, mixed with some aro¬ 
matic? That an enquiry should be made 
respecting a substance rendered inter¬ 
esting, not so much on account of its in¬ 
trinsic value; as of the uncertainty which 
2 Q c.Tvelopts, 
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