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Treaty of Peace concluded between the French Republic and the King of the Two Sicilies, Oct. 10, 1796, Treaty of Alliance offenfive and defenfive between the French Republic and the King of Spain, Aug. 19, 1796, Treaty between the King of Pruffia and the French Republic, respecting the Neutrality of the North of Germany, Aug. 5, 1796, (170) Anfwer of the Prefident of the United States of America, to the Refolution paffed by the Houfe of Reprefentatives, on the 24th of March 1796, which had for its Object to procure a Copy of the Inftructions granted to Mr. Jay relative to the Treaty with Great Britain, Refolutions paffed by the House of Reprefentatives of the United States, on the 7th of April, 1796,

Copy of a Circular Letter from the Duke of Portland to the Lieutenants of Counties on the Sea Coaft, dated Whitehall, November 5, 1796, (159) A Proclamation of his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland against illegal and treafonable Affociations, (160)

A Proclamation by the Lord Lieutenant and Council of Ireland, dec aring certain Parts of the County of Down in a State of Disturbance, (161) Treaty of Peace, concluded between the French Republic and the King of Sardinia, May 15, 1796,

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Addrefs of George Washington, Prefident, to the Citizens of the United States, on his intended Refignation,

(174) Note prefented to the American Secretary of State, by Citizen Adet, Dinifter Plenipotentiary from the French Republic, O. 17, 1796, (186) Extract from the Regifter of Refolutions of the Executive Directory of the 14th Mesfidor, 4th Year of the French Republic, one and indivifible, (188) Anfwer of the Executive Government of America to Citizen Adet's Note, inclafing the Decree of the Directory refpecting Neutral Veffels, (189) A Proclamation by George Washington, Prefident of the United States of America, (191) Speech of George Washington, Prefident of the United States of America, to beth Houfes of Congress, December 7, 1796, Addrefs of the Senate, prefented by their Prefident, John Adams, to the Prefident of the United States, in Anfier to the above Speech, December 12,

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Defcription of the Perfons, &c. of the Northern Indians,

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Genuine Account of the Nimiquas,

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Picture of the Houzouanas,

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Conjecture on the Ufe of the ancient terrassed Works,

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Expence of the Royal Henfebold in England, at different Periods,

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Short Account of feveral Gardens near London,

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Sketch of the Hiftory of Sugar in early Times,

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MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS,

Concluding Efay on the Science of Orcharding,

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Account of the Drainage of a Marjh near Marazion,

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Method of preparing Opium from Poppies grown in England,
On the Means of making Bread from Rice alone,

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POE

T R Y.

Ode for the New Year, by Henry James Pye, Efq.

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The Influence of poetical Perfonifications and Allegorics on Imitative Art and
Moral Happiness and the Effect of that frigid Sophiftry which abounds in
modern Philofophical and Didactic Poems,
Defcription of the Palace of Ambition, and of the Fiends who frequent it, [152]
Story of Thelamont and Ameria,

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Invocation to Fancy and Forgetfulness to chase away the Demon Memory, [156] Hoyle Lake, a Poem, written on that Coaft, and addressed to its Proprietor, Sir John Stanley,

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Ode on bis Majesty's Birth Day; by Henry James Pye, Efq.

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Ode to Bertie Greatheed, intended to counteract the Effect of the miftaken and querulous Picture of Human Nature, drawn by Mr. Gray in his Ode on a

diftant Profect of Eton College,

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Illuftration of the Influence of Local Attachment with respect to Home," [164]

Defcription of Hay-making,

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Repaft of Lucian and Swift in the Houfe of Ridicule,

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Situation of Shak, peare. in the Island of Fancy,

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Eulogium on Converfation,

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Elegy occafioned by the Lofs of the Author's Daughter,

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DOMESTIC LITERATURE of the Year 1796,

FOREIGN LITERATURE of the Year 1796, 3

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THE

THE

HISTORY

O F

KNOWLEDGE, LEARNING, AND TASTE,

IN GREAT BRITAIN,

During the Commonwealth and the Ufurpation of Cromwell.

It in

has frequently been remarked, that, in periods of

energies of the human mind are often called forth to action; and if we have to witness much calamity, vice, and horror, the profpect is fomewhat cheered by examples of virtue uncontaminated by intereft, and of genius unfettered by timidity. Yet the fhort space of time which elapfed from the depofition of the firft Charles to the acceflion of his fon, prefents us with not many names of eminence in literature, which were unnoticed in the preceding period. There was certainly a large mafs of learning depofited at this time in various hands; but that learning was obfcured by pedantry; and the fcience, as well as the morals of the age, was perverted by fanati cifm. It was an age of projects, but thofe projects partook of all the wildness of anarchy; and history and politics were debafed, as they too commonly are, by a devo tion to party.

The

The rapid tranfition of the human mind from torpid ignorance to reftlefs fpeculation, from ftupidity to error, was, perhaps, never more ftrongly inftanced than in thofe ages which immediately fucceeded the reformation. A blind devotion to the papal decrees, an averfion to inquiry, an indifference to knowledge and to tafte, characterized fucceffive ages and generations, of which fcarcely a monument remains, except upon the tables of chronology. An accidental discovery, the invention of printing, feems to have awakened the European world from its mental lethargy; and no fooner was religious liberty reftored, and the fcriptures refcued from the ftrong and fterile grafp of the papal hierarchy, than a fcene of confufion enfued, every man heard them in his own tongue; or, more properly, he forced them to fpeak a language congenial to the caprices of his own imagination.

The ardour for theological fpeculation was fomewhat repreffed, as we have already feen, by the arbitrary interference of government during the reigns of Elizabeth and her immediate fucceffor. But thefe impediments were no fooner removed by the downfall of Charles, and the fevere, though not wholly unmerited, punishment of Laud, than the utmost latitude was given to the excur fions of the imagination; and there was fcarcely a doctrine or text of fcripture which could be perverted, that did not ferve as the foundation on which fome clafs of enthusiasts erected a new form of religion. The difciples of Calvin were divided into various parties; many of them embraced with avidity the tenets of the anabaptifts, and a still larger party of the old puritans difcovered that even the prefbyterian church was not fufficiently democratical; that the church of Corinth had a complete independent jurifdiction within itfelf; and they determined, in confequence, that every particular and diftinct congregation of chriftians must have a full power to regulate all its own concerns without the aid of either bishops or fynods, and independent of all connexion with other churches. This party, from their particular tenets,

tenets, were termed Independents; and with this party it was, that the artful and ambitious Cromwell thought proper to connect himfelf. Where there exifts no regular principle of affociation, where there is no connected government or fubordination in any fociety, that fociety, whether civil or religious, will more readily be reduced under the yoke of flavery. The prefbyterian party under Cromwell, therefore, loft all its weight and importance in the ftate; fome of its members were fubjected to the feverity of perfecution; the independents, of all the greater fects, were alone admitted to the favour of the protector, while fome of the weaker and leaft numerous of the other fects enjoyed perfect toleration, if not protection, from the

court.

It is difficult to ftop the progrefs of innovation, and it is moft difficult in religious fpeculation. The independents themselves divided, after fome time, into a number of fubordinate fects; and fome of them, by interpreting the obfcure parts of fcripture in a literal fenfe, embraced and propagated the wildeft doctrines, and the most abfurd delutions. The Ranters received their name from the violence of their extemporaneous harangues, and from their ridiculous and unnatural gefticulation. The Antinomians, not content with rejecting entirely the Jewith difpenfation, and cancelling even the moral precepts of the law, extended the doctrine of juftification by the death of Chrift to an unwarrantable extreme, and afferted that juftification precedes the birth of the individual, and that it is impoffible that by any part of his conduct he can become obnoxious to future punishment. The Fifthmonarchy-men, exulting in the overthrow of temporal fovereignty, applied the prophecies which relate to the advent of Chrift in their literal sense; they afferted that this was the feafon indicated by the prophets, in which Christ was to reign with his elect upon earth; some of them even affumed the prophetic character, proclaimed themfelves the precurfors of the Lord, and pronounced politively the fpeedy downfall of all other principalities and powers.

Among

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