- offend that vain-glorious prince. 
460 
fand in queftion is improved or impove- 
rifhed by the courfe of cropping which 
eccafjons this refult ; but fuppofing it re- 
quires a fupply of 35 tons of matter, 
<equal in value, 2s manure, with the pro- 
duce catried off), to keep it at par, the 
quantity derived from the atmofphere 
will be equal to 3 ewt. per acre-of the 
above produce. N. B. 
Zo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
7 has been a reproach againft court ec- 
clefiaftics of every age and fe&t of Chrif- 
tianity, that they have rarely ventured to 
bring home to their royal auditors or peni- 
tents the enormity of their conduét in in- 
volving mankind in war for the purpotes 
of their glory and ambition, and the abfo- 
tute incompatibility of fuch fchemes with 
the precepts of the religion they profefs- 
ed. Iwill not determine how far this 
charge is juft; though it is certain thata 
great number of the moft pious monarchs 
tn the world have been the moft warlike, 
and that compunétion for the mifchiefs 
they have occafioned never feems to have 
difturbed their laft moments, when fpent 
in the arms of prieflts and confeffors. 
There are fome inftances, however, in 
which the teachers of religion have more 
faithfully performed their duty in this 
refpect, and I mean to make one of thefe 
“the fubject of the prefent letter. That 
moft amiable and virtuous prelate, Fene- 
fon, archbithop of Cambray, is well known 
to have teftified his difapprobation of the 
unjuit and- ruinous wars of Louis XIV. 
wr fo marked a manner, as durably to 
His 
Telemachus is generally fuppoted to have 
been the work in which he principally in- 
finuated the unwelcome cenfure ; and on 
that account, Louts could never endure 
it. From the academical doges of d’ Alem- 
bert, however, it appears, that Fenelon, 
when yet only an abbé, took a much 
more dire&t method of giving the king a 
falutary leffon ; and a /eter to his majeity 
on this fubjeét was found among the pre- 
late’s papers after his death, in his own 
hand-wniting, and correéted in various 
places by himfelf. It wouid be difficult 
to produce a bolder and more impreiiive 
admonition to an abfolute monarch than 
‘this eloquent epifile, from which J jhall 
extract fome of the more ftriking pafiages. 
After an introduction, by which it 
would feem that the letter was intended 
to be fecret and anonymous, the writer 
thas begins his addrefs: 
“ You were born, Sire, with a heart 
. 2 

Fenelon’s Letterto Lewis XIV. 
[Od 
difpofed to rectitude and equity; but your 
infiruftors have given you no other prin- 
ciple of the art of government, than dif- 
truft, jealoufy, fepugnance to virtue, 
fear of all diftinguifhed merit, a tafte for 
men of fupple and fervile’ manners, 
haughtinefs, and ex¢lufive regard to 
your own intereft. For about 30 years 
your chief minifters have fhaken and 
overturned all the ancient maxims of the 
flate, with a view to the exaltation ef 
your authority; which has become their 
own, -as being adminiftered by their 
hands. No mestion has been made of 
the ftate and its laws, all has been funk 
in the king and his goed pleafure. Your 
revenues and your expences have been 
augmented without limit. You have 
cen extolled to the fkies for having ef- 
faced, as they fay, the grandeur of all 
your predeceffors togethier ; that is, fer. 
having impoverifhed all France, in or- 
der to introduce into your court a mon- 
ftrous and incurable luxury. They have 
defired to raife you on the ruins of all or - 
ders in the ftate, as if you could be truly 
great by deprefling your fubjeéts, on 
whom your greatnefs is founded. It is 
true that you have been jealous of your 
authority, perhaps too much fo in exter- 
nals; but fundamentally every minifter 
has been the mafter in the circuit of his 
adminiftration. You have imagined your- 
felf to govern, becaufe you have fixed the 
bounds between thofe who governed. 
The public has but too well felt their au- 
thority. They have been unfeeling, 
haughty, injuft, violent, void of faith. 
They have known no other rule; either 
in the internal adminiftration of the ftate, 
or in foreign negotiations, than to menace, 
to crufh, to annihilate all that oppofed 
them. They have uféd their influence 
with you only to remove out of their 
way all merit that might give them um- 
brage. They heve accuftomed you in- 
ceflantly to receive exaggerated praifes, 
carried even toidolatry, which, for your 
own honour, you ought to have rejeéted 
with indignation. They have rendered 
your nagne odious, and the whole French 
nation intolerable to all your neighbours. 
They have prefervedno ally, becaufe they 
would have none but flaves; and they 
have caufed above twenty years of bloody 
3> 
Wars. 
The letter-writer goes'on to a parti- 
cular centure of the Dutch war of 1672; 
which was the foundation of allithe reft. 
Kfe fhows the injuftice of its origin, and — 
the coniequent injuttice of retaining any — 
of the conquefts which have refulted 
from 
