1902 } 
tions has produced.a philofophical fpirit, 
which is likewife the fpirit of liberty ; and 
fill further, the moft friendly to order 
and the moft averfe to licentioufnefs, It 
may be ignorant—it oftens deems it glo- 
rious to doubt—-but it never wanders out 
of the right-way, without ceafing to be it- 
felf. | 
One of the moft honourable funétions 
of the Man of Letters is to celebrate 
the memory of deceafed men of merit, fo 
as to exciie an emulation to imitate their 
talents and virtues. Citizen DEeLIsLE 
DE SaxEs has difcharged his duty, in 
reading to the Clafs the Life of the late 
Veron Forbeunais, an Affociate Member, 
and the Literary Life of General Montalem- 
bert, two men truly citizens, who devoted 
their whole lives to what they confidered 
advantageous to their country. 
Forbonnais was one of the firft men 
who called the attention of the French to 
the different fubjeéts of political econo- 
my. He wrote on the Finances, becaufe 
he faw, with a virtuous grief, riches de- 
figned to reproduce riches {natched from 
the hands of the labourer, and the poor 
man, already fuccumbing under the weight 
of his burthen, obliged to bear likewife 
the fardle of the weaithy man. He withed 
to fimplify the impofts, to render them 
fef{$ vexatious ; he wanted even to reduce 
them to unity; a fpecious project, but 
- which would caufe the impoft to fall too 
heavily on fome, whilit others would but 
flightly feel it, and which would more- 
over fail to attain the objeét of the au- 
thor, who eftablifhed it as a principle, 
thatthe ftrength of an empire confifts in 
taxing only fuperfluities. 
poflible by one fingle method to!come at 
the fuperfluity of fo many perfons who 
pofefs much, and whofe felfith f{pirit is 
ever devifing arguments to perfuade them- 
felves that they have not even neceffaries ? 
Forbonnais wrote on commerce, on the 
marine, on money, on agriculture, on 
legiflation, and on diplomacy. He em- 
braced in his mind the whole fphere of 
public utility. He everywhere difcovers 
a fagacious intellect, a fpirit animated 
with the defire of doing good. His chef- 
adauvres are his Elements of Commerce, 
apd his Difertation an the French Finances. 
He has left a great number of manufcript 
pieces. When he had a part in the pub- 
lic Adminiftration, he was juft, fevere 
and incorruptible ; in private life, he was 
prudent, humane and beneficent. 
Citizen de Sales in his Lije of Monta- 
_ lembert conneéts with fome anecdotes but 
bittle known relative to the life of that 
x 
Proceedings of Learned Sccicties. 529 
And how is it. 
~ 
general, the hiftory of his inceffant con- 
troverfy with the Corps of Engineers re- 
{petting his fy%em of the defenfive art, 
as likewife an analytical fynoplis of the 
eleven volumes, in quarto, of his Perpens 
dicular Fortification. , 
Some nations among the antients have 
had, at certain periods, very formidable 
navies, and were then called by metaphor 
fovereigns of the fca; but without ever 
extending the idea fo f.y as to fuppole 
that the vaft extent of the ocean could be 
the particular domain of one nation. 
This was referved for the moderns ; it 
appears to have been firft adopted by the 
Portuguefe, who wanted to expel the 
Dutch from the Indies, and has been ince 
feized with avidity by the Enghth, It 
produced adifpute near two centuries ago, 
of which Citizen CuamPacne has col- 
le&ted the details, in his Avalyfis and Ex- 
pyftion of the Treatife of Grotius, intitled, 
Mare Liberum, or the Freedom of the Seas ; 
and of the Treatife of Selden, intitled, 
Mare Claufum, or the Dominion of the Seas, 
in Reply to that of Grotius. ‘Thefe writers 
both employed their pens to defend the 
caule of their refpeétive countries; but 
the pen was too teeble an inftiument to 
terminate fuch a controverfy.. Grctius, 
in {pite of numbertefs quotations, which 
injure the force of his arguments, proves 
the liberty of the feas by the laws of na-- 
ture, and by the right which every nation 
has of carrying on commerce with ano. 
ther, without being obliged to fubmit ta 
the arbitrary laws of a third, which can 
only make fuch for itfelf. Grotius, who 
was a Hollander, generoufly defended the 
rights of his country. Selden, an En. 
glifhman, entercd into the lifts with Gro-, 
tius, by order of the Cabinet of London, 
and to ferve the ambition of that Govern- 
ment; a government then atrocious in its 
mode of vindication, which employed the 
intrigues of its Minifter at the Hague, to 
endanger the life of Grotius, and to in- 
volve that refpectable man in the calami- 
tous affair of Barnevelt. Grotius did not 
happily defend even a good caufe, as he. 
employed his vat erudition in fupporting 
himfelf by authorities, when he fhould _ 
only have acknowledged that of reafon, 
Selden defended a bad caufe ill, precifely 
becaufe it was bad, and that he could on- 
ly refort to means of defence more or lefs 
ridiculous. He afferts that the fea may 
as well become a property as vacant 
lands, coafts, rivers and mountains; he 
feems to forget that all ‘theie may be in- 
cluded within the limits of a dominion, 
and that the ocean, far from being fhut up, 
com 
Se 
