éomprehends and includes. every. thing. 
He calls Great Britain the Ifand. of the 
Ocean, and pretends that reciprocally, the 
fea is the Ocean of the Vand, He plunges 
his readers and himfelf in the night of 
pait ages, and, holding theny there in dark- 
nefs, fhews that Great Britain has exer- 
cifed, at all times, ber empire over the 
feur feas which make part of ber domain, 
by the fame title as fhe holds her terri: 
tory. He fixes the limits of the Britih 
feas, advancing them on thencrth no fur- 
ther than Greenland, and without ri- 
goroufly bounding them on the fide of 
America. He has s sIfo the condefcenfion 
to leave to the nations, whofe coafts are 
oppofite to thofe of Great Britain, the pro- 
erty of their harbours and of their ports, 
and ftill further that of their rivers as far 
as to their embouchures. 
The work of Grotius is uf& felefs, becaufe 
it proves what has no need of proof. That 
of Selden is abfurd.. The ocean wtil be 
always free, by right 5 but, by a too long 
lethargy of the maritime powers, right 
may, at length, give way to force; and 
we may fee the ocean became, at leat 
for a time, the ufurped domain of an 
ifland which is hardly to be diicovered 
on its vait extent. 
Citizen Levesque has read a third 
Memoir on the Conjir uction of the Republic of 
Athens. This Memoir rela‘es to the Tridz- 
nalsof that Republic. T henumber ot judges 
at Athens was fix thoufGnd, and that of the 
citizens never furpafled twenty one thou- 
fand. It fhould feem that. this exceflive 
number of judges, who ETE chofen cut 
of the indigent claifs, mut? frequently 
prove injurious to juitice; that a tribunal 
of a thouland or of fifteen hundred judges 
refembles too much the ailembly of the 
people, of which hifiory bas handed down 
to us many unjuft judgments, and tlrat 
it muft be, hke the people, fufceptible of 
credulity, of pafli on, of blind ignorance, 
of prejudice, 4s difiruft, of ficklenefs and 
of taciliry of letting i:felf be carried along 
by the infidious elogu ence of the orators. 
The author further indicates other vices 
which he thinks he has difcovered in thofe 
tribunals. The refult of his three Me- 
moirs is, that if the Republic of Athens 
fhone with the createft luftre in letters and 
in arts, we muti not thence conclude that 
every thing elfe was perfe&t, the conftitu- 
tion, legiflation and the judicial forms. 
He dares to think, that in all thefe re- 
fpeéts we have the afcendant over hep, 
and over all the Republics of Greece. 
‘The reaion is, that in theft points we can 
Proceedings of Learned Societies: 
[Jan. 1, 
only approach to perfeStion by a long ex= 
perience, But the Republics of Greece 
would not ‘acquire any, becaufe a fort of 
fuperftition kept them {crupuloufly ake 
tached to the firft effays of their infancy. 
We have. in one affemblage both their 
experience and that of the Romans, and 
that of the long ages which have preceded 
us. Timie produces every thing, but by 
a flow procefs, good conftituticns, good 
laws and good judiciary forms ; it ma- 
tures human reaion which perfects every 
thing, but this it effeéts flowly, as it does 
all the reft, and wiil never perhaps termi- 
nate this great works 
Works compofed by Members of ihe Clafs, 
printed aud depofited in the Library, dur- 
ing the laf? Quarterly Sitting. 
An Abridgment of Univerfal Hiftory, 
during the Fié Ten Ages of the Vulgar 
fEra, by Citizen MENTELLE. 
Obfervations on the prefent Sytem of 
Public Inftru€tion, by Citizen Destuir 
Tracy, an affociate-member. 
The Hi ftory of France, fince the Revo- | 
lution of 1789, Volume I. in quarto, ‘by 
Citizen TTOULONGEON. ‘i 
The Ruins of Port Royal, by Citizen 
Grecoire. 
BRANDENBURG ECONOMICAL SOCIETY 
gt POTSDAM. 
This Society had offered a prize of 20 
rix-doliars for the invention of a cheap 
and fimple oil-prefs for the ule of farmers » 
Five models of fuch machines were fent 
in, and the prize was adjudged to that 
invented by Mr. May, referendary to the 
Board of Trade and Manufaétures in Ber- 
lin.—In the meeting of the 7th of May 
M. von Rochow, canon of the cathedral ” 
church, propofed a prize of five Frederics- 
d‘sr to the rural economift,. who fhall 
make known to the Society a certain 
remecy againft the hunger-flower (Draba 
verna L.).—QOn the 7th of May the So- 
cicty held their general meeting; M. von 
Voss being Prefident. The following 
papers were read. 1. A treatile by M. 
von Rochow on the indifpenfability of 
arithmetic in rural economy.—2. On the 
degenerating of potatoes ; by Paitor Stock- 
mar of South Profi os On the improv= | 
ing of potatces, by raifing plants from the 
feed ; by Dr. Krylelitz of Plefs.—4. On 
the beft method of employing fuel in heat- 
ing ovens; with drawings and a model ; 
by Profeffor Klaproth.—s. On the hind- 
rances to the abolition of commons; by 
an unknown Correfpondent.—6. On a 
propels for {ypplying the want for hop-- 
poles 3. 
4 
& 
