310 
great Dante did not difdain to borrow a 
confiderable part of the vifions in his poem, 
cid not likewife borrow his from fome pre- 
vious vifioniit, of whom no trace now re- 
mains. —F.Lombard!,the above-mentioned 
editor of Dante, dicd at Rome about the 
beginning of the prefent year. 
a ge 
For the Moxthly Magazine. 
REVIEW of the PRESENT POLITICAL 
STATE of NATIONS. 
"HOHE refult of the deftruGtive conteft, 
JL which has, at length, happily termi- 
nated ina general peace, is the eftablifh- 
ment of a new order of things in En. 
rope. Mutual excefles have more forcibly 
fhewn the necefiity of conciliation ; and 
the politics, as weil as the limits, of nae 
tions have, as it were, by general confent, 
undergone, or are: undergoing, an almoft 
entire change. The reader will recollect, 
that a plan of univerfal reprefentation, and 
perpetual peace, was imputed to HenrylV., 
of France; and that this benevolent pro- 
jet was unhappily fruftrated by the hand 
of a fanatic afiaflin. Whether the fame 
idea, or fomething of a fimilar tendency, 
is now in egitation, we do not pretend with 
certainty to affirm. It appears, however, 
thar fome general fyfiem of pacific policy, 
has actually been agreed upon; for, we 
find, in a Proclamation by the Executive 
Council of the Helvetian Republic, dated 
July 20, 1802, the following remarkable 
words :——** Citizens of Helvetia, there 
exifis between the governments of Eu- 
rope a treaty for the maintenance of 
peace, order, and the confervative princi: 
ples of political fociety,” Sc. &e. 
What powers ef Europe, befide France, 
Roffia, Proffia, and Auftria, may have 
been admitted as parties to this.treaty, it 
would be ufele(s here to conjecture; but 
we may be allowed to indulge the hope, 
that, whatever be the nature or extent 
of the plan, it will be found capable ot 
eftablifhing a permanent, if not a perpe- 
tual, peace.* 
In attempting to give an idea of the 
a&tual ftate of the nations compofing the 
great focial commonwealth, we propole to 
begin with thofe of the north, and firft 
with 
Russia.— This immenfe empire, ac- 
cording as its councils have been guided 
by wildom or by telly, has, particularly 
_*® The Proje& of a perpetual Peace, by the 
Abbé de St. Pierre, contains, with fome vi- 
fionary fpeculations, a great deal of found 
benfe. 
Review of the prefent Political State of Nations. ~ [Nov. i; 
during the late conteft, alternately formed 
the tource of the hopes and of the fears of 
other nations. Actuated by the vacillat- 
ing notions of a capricious monarch, 
it feemed to retire from one war only te en- 
gage in another ; and the deftinies of Ruf- 
fia, as well as thofe in fome meafure of 
the reft of Europe, depended upon the 
will of a madman. The perverfenefs 
which charaéterifed his external policys 
~was no lefs confpicuous in all the mea- 
fures of his domeftic adminiftration, The 
cisculation of books was fuppreffed, com-~ 
merce tulpended, and civilization at a 
ftand. The extreme of external impolicy 
and internal defpotifm gave rife to a cons 
.{oiracy, which terminated in the death af 
Paul; and hope was reftored to the couns 
try, and to Europe, in the known character 
of his fucceffor. ay: 
in monarchies, the hiftery of the prince 
is the hiftory of the ftate. The firlt aéts 
of the reign of Alexander, confifting prin- 
cipally in the abolition of the moft odious 
decrees of Paul, are frefh in the recollec- 
tion of the reader. His meafures have hi- 
therto been characterifed by tolerance, 
benevolence, and wifdom. But our bufi- 
nefs here is to mark efpecially the fpirit of 
thofe regulations, which have come to our 
knowledge within the laft month. In re- 
{peét to what concerns religious toleration, 
this end cannot perhaps be better accom- 
plithed thaa by the following extract of 2 
letter from Teflis, the capital of Georgia, 
lately annexed to the Ruffian dominions. 
It is dated in April, 1802. 
‘¢ Conformably to a manifefto of his 
Imperial Majefty, of the 12th of Septem- 
ber, 2801, uniting Georgia (Ruffian Gru- 
finia) to his empire, Lieutenant-general 
Knorring, Supreme Chief of this Pro- 
vince, Civil and Military Governor of 
Aftracan, and Commander in Chief of 
the Troops in the Line of Mount Cauta- 
fus, accompanied by the Civil Governor 
of Grufinia, feveral Members of theChane 
cery, the firft Aid-de-camp of the In-. 
f{pestor, and two Affeflors of the College, 
fet off, on the ift of April, from the 
frontiers of Rufhia, to eftablifh the new 
government at Teflis, the capital of the 
province. Many principal members of 
the clergy attended the General from the 
frontiers of their country, and received 
with enthufiafm, and to the great joy of the 
people, the image of St. Niza; which the 
Czar Wachiang, who died at the com- 
mencement of this century, had left at 
Mofcow,and which was reftored to them on 
this occafion. Prince Antonius, patriarch of. 
the country, accompanied by all his cler- 
BY? 
=, SOON eal a eae 
