Retrofpect of French Literature.— Hiffory: 
longer preferved, by the wife laws of So- 
lon, from the delirium ‘of ambition:— 
Their city became famous for its com- 
merce and manufactures ; the port of the 
Pirzum was in Europe what Carthage had 
formerly been in Africa; the fyftem of 
defenfive wars was purfued for a while, 
but the moment that her colonies and fac- 
tories were muitiplied in Afia, onthe bor- 
ders of the Hellefpont, and in Italy, the 
Athenian artizans wifhed to make a trial 
of their power with kings, and extend 
their dominion over the other ftates of 
Greece. After being unjuft towards the 
Corinthians, the Samians, and the people 
of Megara, they. were induced by their 
avidity to mingle ion the affaiis of Ionia, 
and thus provoke the pride and the refent- 
ment of the great king; and although 
they terminated the war with the Perfians 
glorioufly, yet the epoch of their greatett 
profperity was alfo the commencement of 
their corruption and their decadence. 
*¢ Next come the Romans, who are ge- 
nerally, but erroneoufly, fuppofed net to 
have been navigators until after the firit 
Punic war; but Pol;bius informs us, 
that anterior to the expulfion of their 
kings, they were occupied in maritime 
affairs; for he refers to atreaty with the 
Carthaginians, by which they engaged 
that neither them{elves nor allies fhould 
navigate beyond a certain promontcry to 
the north of Carthage. After this, when 
their trade had increafed, and more e{pe- 
cially fubfequent to the deftru&ion of 
Carthage, they adopted all the combina- 
tions of maritime tyranny and monopoly, 
to which the Greeks, the Phoenicians, 
and the Tyrians had laid claim; like 
them, too, they reaped the deftruction of 
their liberty, for republics can never en- 
rich themfelves, or extend their power be- 
yond certain beunds.” ; 
We have thus quoted what is here faid 
of the commerce and maritime efforts of 
anc.ent times, and we now arrive at the 
period when the weft fell under the domi- 
nion of the barbarians. Chariemagne 
foon after this appears on the flage, and 
we are told ** of the {plendid reign of this 
prince, the wifdom cf his laws, and the 
extent of his power. He alfo poffeffed 
the empire of the feas, for the mouths of 
all.the rivers from the Elbe to the Tiber 
were guarded by his fhips: ail thefe ad 
vantages, however, were unable to tri- 
umph over the ignorance of his age, and 
the incapacity of his fucceffors.” 
After the irruption of the Huns, the 
663" 
Vandals, and the Goths, who fhook Afiag 
Africa, and Europe, the Saracens made 
their appearance with a formidable ma- 
rine; the fieet with which they attacked 
Conftantinople, in 716, is here {aid to 
have confifted of 1200 veflels, but they 
fuffered greatly from the Greek fire; and. 
had this new and formidable implement 
of deftruétion been employed to advan- 
tage, they never would have been feen 
again on the fhores of the Bofphorus. 
To thefe fucceeded the Arabs, the Tur- 
comans, and the Mufcovites ; the lat of 
which attempted, during the tenth cen- 
tury, to feize on the city alluded to above 
with an army of 10,000 barbarians, and 
a navy far inferior to that which they 
could now fitout. Wenext hear of Ve- 
nice and of Genoa, and the marriage 
of the fea, by means of the formula of - 
<* Defponfamus, te, mare, in fignum vere 
& perpetut Dominit;’ which was firft 
pronounced in 1177, by Sebaftian Ziani, | 
Doge of the former of thefe cities, when - 
Pope Alexander III. prefented his ring, 
and conferred his bleffing on the nuptials? 
Thefe two ftates were fuccezded by the 
Portuguefe, the Spaniards, the Dutch, the 
French, and the Englifh, who, in their 
turn, became commercial, and difputed 
for the empire of the fea in every quarter 
of the globe. 
The author, who manifeftly takes a 
partial and prejudiced view of human 
events, in con{equence of which he boldly 
prognofticates the downfall of England, © 
concludes thus :—** The empire of the 
fea, as will appear from ancient as well as 
rocdern hiftory, is a chimera to the full as 
fatal as univerfal monarchy. Both, how- 
€ver, were realized by the Romans, at a 
period when barbarous as well as civi- 
lized nations could only oppole raw fol- 
diers to generals and to armies who boaft- 
ed of the viétories of fix centuries. . But 
what did all this good fortune produce to 
the Romans? the annihilation of their 
republic, the fubjugation of all, the defpo- 
tilm of one, The Pheenicians, the Greeks, 
the Carthaginians, wita the fame preten- 
fions, experienced the fame fate; they 
elevated themfelves by commerce and na- 
vization to the attainment of an extraor- 
dinary degree of {plendour; bur the moa 
ment that a blind ambition had changed 
their commercial relations into projects of 
fubjugation and oppreffion, the multiplied 
wars which they fuftained in confequence 
of this, at length terminated in their own 
deftruéiiea. Venice and Genoa, under 
more 
