and ornaments of every fort, were all taken out and immerged in the bafon of water in the court; and the walls were then befmeared with ordure. The Prince with his family was driven from his homeall his eftates confiscated--and, from a condition of splendour, he saw himfelf reduced in a moment to a state of complete poverty. He was ob liged during two years to fubfift only on the bounty of his friends. Such were the effects of Imperial jealoufy. It was not till the death of the Emprefs, that he with many others were re-inftated in their rightful poffeffions. p. 259, 260.

That the Polish nobles, who retain the greatest, and, indeed, the beft founded diflike of the partition in a political view, fhould represent that event as having occafioned a diminution of the national profperity, and efpecially as having diminished the popula tion, is extremely natural. No one, however, who reflects a moment on the fubject, can doubt about the falfehood of all such theories. The feizure of Dantzic for feveral years gave a great shock to its trade; but for the laft feven or eight years, it has exceeded the amount before the partition; while the trade of Konigsberg has, during the fame period, been rapidly increasing, that of Memel and Elbing almost created, and new channels of communication opened with the fouth of Europe. But we need not go any further in this argument, than merely to afk, Whether the police of the Auftrian and Pruffian diftricts, for example, and. the ceffation of those conftant scenes of turbulence and civil war which prevailed during the times of the republic, must not have promoted in every direction the efforts of induftry, and enabled Poland to fupply that increased demand for her produce, which the improvement of other nations, efpecially of England, her beft cuftomer, has, in the mean time, occafioned. The author of the work now before us ftates exactly what we should have expected on this topic. The nobles, he fays, and every one about them, at first and in public, feemed to complain grievously as often as the partition was mentioned; but he foon difcovered that fuch expreffions were rather the remains of romantic poetical sentiment than the feelings of real life. The perfons of high rank and great weight in the country muft no doubt deeply regret the lofs of political power; but the nobles, as a body, and ftill more the bulk of the people, have well exchanged their nominal independence for greater fecurity and tranquillity.

The question, Whether France will find many fupporters, should fhe prefs the measure of restoring Poland ? naturally attracts our notice in this part of the fubject. Without entering at length into a difcuffion for which Mr Burnett has furnished no materials, we may fafely affert, that any change which fhall reftore the influence of the Polish nobles, and revive, as it were, the name and

feparate

feparate existence of the country, will be exceedingly acceptable to all ranks of the inhabitants; and that, certainly, no refiftance to fuch a change can be expected in favour of the present rulers of the territory. But we can as little expect to fee any vigorous ex ertion made to promote this revolution, when we recollect how much the influence of the Polish nobles over their vaffals has been diminished, at least in the Auftrian and Ruffian divisions; and how greatly the general averfion to the former fcenes of confufion, and civil diffenfions, muft have increased during the more tranquil period which fucceeded the final difmemberment. The restoration of the whole, or, what is now more likely, a portion of Poland to its rank as a feparate monarchy or principality, would probably be received as a boon by the inhabitants, if attended with no exertion or violence; but it is a boon for which they would fcarcely pay that, or any other price. In this state of things, the fortunes of the country will be decided by a battle or a treaty like thofe of any other dif tricts on the Continent, where the wishes and the interests of the people go for nothing. France has already failed completely in her attempts to obtain the affiftance of the Poles; and, as the has fucceeded in her own views without any movement on their part, we may be fure fhe will only confult their inclinations in the ufe which the makes of her victory, as far as fuch a compliance may render the confequences of that victory more beneficial to herfelf. If we might hazard a fpeculation refpecting this fubject, we fhould conjecture, that France, having completely humbled Pruffia, will now endeavour to improve her relations with Ruffia, a power so far distant from her, and fo little liable to be attacked by her, that the cannot be viewed as her natural enemy. In the profecution of this object, France will probably leave the greater part of the Ruffian divifion of Poland in its prefent ftate, granting indemnities in the South for whatever fhe takes of it. By this means, the may expect to prevent the chief danger to which the new Polish principality will in future be exposed, namely, a new league of partition among the neighbouring ftates; and we can fcarcely doubt, that she will still further provide for the stability of this arrangement, by introducing a military organization for which fhe will find many facilities in that country. So long as the prefent order of things remains entire in France, nothing can prevent the confolidation of power in this new state; and the parent country will thus poffefs an advanced poft, or rather an important branch of her own force, in the midst of the only enemies whom fhe can ever expect to refift her. The other powers of Europe, during the life of her prefent ruler, will have no chance of fafety but by yielding, temporizing, doing every thing to keep peace with him. In the event of his death, they will probably have.

fome

fome choice; and, if they are wife-if they liften to their own best interests, and are refolved not to raise up another conqueror, they will be fatisfied with leaving things as they fhall then find them, and allowing each of the new ftates which may at that time be in existence under the protection of France, to retain its rank and independence, as if it had from the beginning formed parts of the European commonwealth,-fatisfied with the termination of its dependence upon the parent ftate. The counfels which England will at that juncture be ready to give, against her own beft interefts and those of her allies, will be liftened to or rejected, in proportion as the refults of her past operations fhall have failed or fucceeded in teaching the Continent wisdom.

ART. XII. On the Hindoo Systems of Astronomy, and their Connexion with History in Ancient and Modern Times. By J. Bentley, Esq. From the 8th Volume of the Asiatic Researches. Calcutta, 1805.

OF F the new objects which India has offered to the curiosity of the Western world, none have appeared more worthy of attention than the remains of aftronomical fcience. Thefe fragments, preserved in a country where the means of acquiring fuch knowledge is no longer to be found; the peculiarity, and at the fame time the accuracy of the methods they employ; the mixture of fable and extravagance introduced even in the rules of trigonometrical calculation, form altogether an enigma which the antiquary and the philofopher must be equally defirous to refolve. The philofopher, indeed, will be much interested in the inquiry, by confidering that the darkness which covers the history and the chronology of the Eaft, is likely to be difpelled, at least in fome quarters, by the light which may be ftruck out from the analysis of these extraordinary fragments. Aftronomy, more than any other portion of human knowledge, is capable of having its history' traced by reasoning from principles, when other documents are wanting. As the object of that science is so far immutable, that it always prefents either the fame face, or a face that varies according to fixed laws; it is evident, that when we know the aftronomical fyftem of any nation, we must be enabled to judge with fome accuracy of its state of refinement, and of general information. We are acquainted with the original; and therefore, from knowing the copy, we can guefs with tolerable exactness at the skill of the painter. Befides, it often happens, that there is in the picture certain data from which its age may be deduced;

the

the time required to the compofition of the work may be afcertained; and even the place on the earth's surface where the obfervations were made, may be difcovered in the fyftem to which they have given rife.

The aftronomy of the Orientals, therefore, could not fail to excite the curiofity of men of science in Europe, as foon as it became known to them. The first intelligence of it was received by means of M. La Loubere, the ambaffador of Lewis XIV. to the King of Siam, who brought with him from that country a manufcript containing tables and rules for calculating the places of the fun and moon. This fragment, though obfcure and imperfect, was explained by the celebrated Dominic Caffini, into whofe hands it was put, and who bore teftimony both to its accuracy, and to its great diffimilitude to any of the fyftems of aftronomy that had previously been heard of in Europe. After that time, two other fets of aftronomical tables were fent to Paris by the French miffionaries in Hindoftan; but they feem to have lain unnoticed in the royal library till the return of Mr Le Gentil from India, where he had been to observe the tranfit of Venus in 1769. This aftronomer returned poffeffed of another fet of tables, and instructed by a learned Brahmen in the Indian methods of calcu lation. M. Bailly, proceeding on these data, dedicated an entire volume to the elucidation of the Indian aftronomy.

On the institution of the Afiatic Society, the aftronomy of the Eaft naturally became an object of attention. Several papers illuftrating different parts of the monuments of that science, have appeared in the Afiatic Researches, particularly a paper by Mr Davis, and two others by Mr Bentley, one in the fixth, and another (the particular object of this review) in the 8th volume of the fame work.

The notion concerning the antiquity of the Indian astronomy which M. Bailly endeavoured to establish, was, that it reached back to a very remote period, earlier than any other of the records of profane history, and upwards of 3000 years before the Chriftian era. This opinion was very prevalent among the learned in Europe, when Mr Bentley published the first of the papers above referred to, where he endeavoured to fhow, that the argument of M. Bailly was ill founded, and proceeded on an entire ignorance of the principles of the Indian aftronomy. The paper before us is directed to the fame object, and contains alfo fome ftrictures on an article in our review, where fome of the arguments contained in the former paper were shown, as we imagined, to be inconclufive.

Our intention, at prefent, is to confider the antiquity of the Indian tables, purely as an aftronomical question, and without

reference

reference to any other matter in the history or mythology of Hindoftan. It is the nature of aftronomical tables, as has already been remarked, to involve in themfelves evidence by which their antiquity may generally be afcertained, at least within certain limits. This fort of internal evidence, is the firft thing to be confidered, and is evidently a fubject which ought to be difcuffed as much as poffible on its own merits, and without the introduction of extraneous circumstances.

With this view, we fhall now take the liberty of examining Mr Bentley's papers, on principles purely aftronomical. We fhall endeavour to point out what we conceive to be the fallacy of the aftronomical argument contained in them; to fhow, that whatever be the age of the books in which the aftronomy of India is now contained, the aftronomy itself is probably of an antiquity not inferior to what has just been mentioned; but that, nevertheless, we fhould abstain from any abfolute conclufion on either fide, till the whole of the evidence is laid before the public.

In the fixth volume of the Afiatic Refearches, Mr Bentley treats of the antiquity of the SURYA SIDDHANTA, a work that profeffes to have been received by divine revelation about 2,164,899 years ago. The extravagance of this pretenfion requires no refutation; but Mr Bentley endeavours to fhow, that the age of it does not exceed a few hundred years. We do not however propofe, at this time, to enter into the queftion of the age of the Surya Siddhanta, or of any other book, but into that of the aftronomy contained in those books; taking our information from the science itself, and confining our attention, as Mr Bentley has alfo done, to the mean motions of the heavenly bodies as laid down in the Indian tables.

Mr Bentley fays, Afiatic Refearches, vol. vi. p. 537

Monfieur Bailly, in the year 1787, published at Paris, a whole quarto volume on the fubject of the Indian aftronomy; and Mr Playfair, in the year 1789, published a paper on the fame fubject in the Edinburgh Tranfactions. The principles, however, of the Hindoo fyftems of aftronomy, being unknown to thefe gentlemen, and differing widely in many refpects from that of the Europeans, the conclufions drawn by them refpecting the antiquity of the feveral aftronomical tables mentioned by M. Bailly, appear now to be altogether unfounded. Indeed, the materials which M. Bailly had collected, were infufficient to enable him to form a juft idea of the principles of the Hindoo syltems, which being molly artificial, his method of inveligation (from the quantity of the mean annual motions, &c. of the planets, though' otherwife perfectly juft), became altogether inapplicable; fo much fo, that the tables of Trivalore, which he had supposed were as old as the commencement of the prefent Cali-yug, at leaft, were actually written

VOL. X. NO. 20.

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and