and indeed by the nature of the thing, they must be fo; I mean the feveral keepers of buck-hounds, flaghounds, fox-hounds, and harriers. purpose of utility or of fplendor. to abolifh. It is not proper that fhould be keepers of dogs, though king's dogs.Oecon. Reform.

They anfwer no Thefe I propose great noblemen they were the

SOVEREIGN (BRITISH.)

I believe, Sir, that many on the continent altogether mistake the condition of a king of Great Britain. He is a real king, and not an exccutive of❤ ficer. If he will not trouble himfelf with contemptible details, nor wifh to degrade himself by becoming a party in little fquabbles, I am far from fure; that a king of Great Britain, in whatever concerns him as a king, or indeed as a rational man, who combines his public interest with his personal fatisfaction, does not poffefs a more real, folid, extensive power, than the king of France was poffeffed of before this miferable revolution. The direct power of the king of England is confiderable. His indirect, and far more certain power, is great indeed. indeed. He ftands in need of nothing towards dignity, of nothing towards fplendor; of nothing towards authority; of nothing at all towards confideration abroad. When was it that a king of England wanted wherewithal to make him refpected, courted, or perhaps even feared in every ftate in Eu、rope.-Letter to a Member of the National Affembly.

SOVEREIGNS.

Their Difpofitions.

Bur indeed kings are to guard againft the fame fort of difpofitions in themfelves. They are very eafily alienated from all the higher orders of their fubjects, whether civil or military, laick or ecclefiaftical. It is with perfons of condition that Sovereigns chiefly, come into contact It is from them

that they generally experience oppofition to their will. It is with their pride and impracticability, that Princes are most hurt; it is with their fervility and bafeness, that they are most commonly difgufted; it is from their humours and cabals, that they find their affairs most frequently troubled and distracted. But of the common people in pure monarchical governments, Kings know little or nothing; and therefore being. unacquainted with their faults (which are as many as thofe of the great, and much more decifive in their effects when accompanied with power) Kings generally regard them with tenderness and favour, and turn their eyes towards that defcription of their fubjects, particularly when hurt by oppofition from the higher orders. Memorial on the Affairs of France in 1791.

SOVEREIGN JURISDICTIONS (SEE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN.)

WITH regard to the fovereign jurifdictions, I muft obferve, Sir, that whoever takes a view of this kingdom in a curfory manner, will imagine, that' he beholds a folid, compacted, uniform fyftem of monarchy; in which all inferior jurifdictions are but as rays diverging from one center. But on examining it more nearly, you find much eccentricity and con fufion. It is not a monarchy in ftri&tnefs. But, as in the Saxon times this country was an heptarchy, it is now a strange fart of pentarchy. It is divided into five feveral diftinct principalities, befides the fupreme. There is indeed this difference from the Saxon times, that as in the itinerant exhibitions of the ftage, for want of a complete company, they are obliged to throw a variety of parts on their chief performer; fo our fovereign condefcends himself to act, not only the principal but all the fubordinate parts in the play. He condefcends to diffipate the royal character, and to trifle with thofe light fubor

dinate lacquered fceptres in thofe hands that fuftain the ball, representing the world, or which wield the trident that commands the ocean. Crofs a brook, and you lose the king of England; but you have fome comfort in coming again under his majefty, though "fhorn of his beams," and no more than prince of Wales. Go to the north, and you find him dwindled to a duke of Lancafter; turn to the weft of that north, and he pops upon you in the humble character of Earl of Chefter. Travel a few miles on, the earl of Chefter difappears; and the king furprises you again as count palatine of Lancafter. If you travel beyond Mount Edgecombe, you find him once more in his incognito, and he is duke of Cornwall. So that, quite fatigued and fatiated with this dull variety, you are infinitely refreshed when you return to the fphere of his proper fplendor, and behold your amiable fovereign in his true, fimple, undisguised, native character of majefty, Oecon Reform.

SPAIN.

Prefent State of that Country.

As to Spain, it is a nervelefs country. It does not poffefs the ufe, it only fuffers the abuse of a nobility. For fome time, and even before the fettlement of the Bourbon dynasty, that body has been fyftematically lowered, and rendered incapable by exclufion, and for incapacity excluded from affairs. In this circle the body is in a manner annihilatedand fo little means have they of any weighty exertion either to controul or to fupport the crown, that if they at all interfere, it is only by abetting defperate and mobbish infurrections, like that at Madrid which drove Squillace from his place. Florida Blanca is a creature of office, and has little connexion, and no fympathy with that body.

As to the clergy, they are the only thing in Spain that looks like an independent order, and they

kept in fome refpect by the inquifition, the fole but unhappy refource of public tranquillity and order now remaining in Spain. As in Venice, it is become moftly an engine of ftate, which indeed to a degree it has always been in Spain. It wars no longer with Jews and Heretics: It has no fuch war to carry on. It's great object is to keep atheiftic and republican doctrines from making their way in that kingdom. No French book upon any fubject can enter there which does not contain fuch matter. In Spain the clergy are of moment from their influence, but at the fame time with the envy and jealoufy that attend great riches and power. Though the crown has by management with the Pope got a very great fhare of the ecclefiaftical revenues into it's own hands, much ftill remains to them. There will always be about that court thofe who look out to a farther divifion of the church property as a refource, and to be obtained by fhorter methods than thofe of negotiations with the clergy and their chief. But at prefent I think it likely that they will ftop, left the bufinefs fhould be taken out of their hands; and left that body in which remains the only life that exifts in Spain, and is not a fever, may with their property lofe all the influence neceffary to preferve the monarchy, or being poor and desperate, may employ whatever influence remains to them as active agents in it's deftruction. 、

The Caftilians have ftill remaining a good deal of their old character, their Gravidad, Lealdad, and il Timor de Dios; but that character neither is, or ever was exactly true, except of the Caftilians only. The feveral kingdoms which compofe Spain, have perhaps fome features which run through the whole; but they are in many particulars as different as nations who go by different names; the Catalans, for inftance, and the Arragonians too, in a good measure have the fpirit of the Miquelets, and much more of republicanifm than of an attachment to royalty. They

are more in the way of trade and intercourfe with France; and upon the least internal movement, will difclofe and probably let loose a spirit that may throw the whole Spanish monarchy into convulfions,

It is a melancholy reflection that the fpirit of me lioration which has been going on in that part of Eu. rope, more or less during this century, and the various schemes very lately on foot for further advancement are all put a stop to at once. Reformation certainly is nearly connected with innovation—and where that latter comes in for too large a fhare, thofe who undertake to improve their country may rifque their own fafety. In times where the correction, which includes the confeffion of an abuse, is turned to criminate the authority which has long fuffered it, rather than to honour thofe who would amend it (which is the fpirit of this malignant French diftemper) every step out of the common course be comes critical, and renders it a task full of peril for princes of moderate talents to engage in great undertakings. At present the only fafety of Spain is the old national hatred to the French. How far that can be depended upon, if any great ferments should be excited, it is impoffible to fay.- -Memorial on the Affairs of France in 1791,

SUBLIME.

The Sublime and Beautiful compared.

ON clofing this general view of beauty, it naturally occurs, that we fhould compare it with the fublime; and in this comparison there appears a remarkable contraft. For fublime objects are vaft in their dimenfions, beautiful ones comparatively fmall : beauty fhould be fmooth and polifhed; the great, rugged and negligent; beauty fhould fhun the right line, yet deviate from it infenfibly; the great, in many cafes, loves the right line; and when it deviates, it often makes a strong deviation: beauty fhould not be obfcure; the great ought to be dark and