tion of flax, and flax feed, into this kingdom, or Ireland, in any fhip or veffel belonging to any kingdom or ftate in amity with his majefty, navigated with foreign mariners, during the prefent hoftilities.

An Act to permit goods, the product or manufacture of certain places within the Levant, or Mediterranean feas, to be imported into Great Britain, or Ireland, in British or foreign veffels, from any place whatfoever, and for laying a duty on cotton, and cotton wool, imported into this kingdom, in foreign fhips or veffels, during the prefent hoftilities,

An Act to permit, during the prefent hoftilities, the importation of goods, the produce of the plantations of the crown of Portugal, into Great Britain and Ireland, in Portuguese veffels, and the importation of certain other goods therein mentioned, in any neutral fhips and veffels,

An Act for preventing certain abuses and profanations on the Lord's day, called Sunday.

An Act for continuing and amending an Act, made in the laft feffion of parliament, intituled,

An A&t for appointing and enabling commiffioners to examine, take, and ftate the public accounts of the kingdom; and to report what balances are in the hands of accountants which may be applied to the public fervice, and what defects there are in the prefent mode of receiving, collecting, if fuing, and accounting for public money, and in what more expeditious and effectual, and lefs expenfive manner, the faid fervice can, in future, be regulated and

carried on for the benefit of the public."

An Act to direct the payment into the exchequer, of the refpective balances remaining in the hands of the feveral perfons therein named, for the use and benefit of the public, and for indemnify. ing the faid respective perfons and their reprefentatives, in refpect of fuch payments, and againft all future claims relating thereto, and for other purposes therein mentioned.

An A&t to render valid, certain marriages folemnized in certain churches and public chapels, in which banns had not ufually been published before, or at the time of paffing an Act, made in the 26th year of King George the Second, intituled, An Act for the better preventing all clandeftine marriages."

An Act for establishing an agree ment with the united company of merchants trading to the Eaft-In dies, for the payment of the fum of four hundred thousand pounds, for the use of the public, in full difcharge and fatisfaction of all claims and demands of the public, &c. and for granting to the faid company, for a farther term, the fole and exclufive trade to and from the Eaft-Indies; and for establish. ing certain regulations for the better management of the affairs of the faid company, as well in India as in Europe, and the recruiting the military forces of the faid company.

An Act to explain and amend so much of an Act, made in the 13th year of the reign of his prefent majefty, intituled, An A&t for establishing certain regulations for

the

the better management of the af. fairs of the Eat-India company, as well in India as in Europe, as relates to the administration of juf tice in Bengal; and for the relief of certain perfons imprifoned at Calcutta, in Bengal, under a ju

dicature; and alfo for indemnifying the governor - general and council of Bengal, and all officers who have acted under their orders or authority, in the refiftance made to the process of the fupreme court."

CHARAC

Character of the Emperor Conftantine; from Gibbon's Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

T

[A. D. 324.]

HE character of the prince who removed the feat of empire, and introduced fuch important changes into the civil and religious conftitution of his country, has fixed the attention, and divided the opinions, of mankind. By the grateful zeal of the Chriftians, the deliverer of the church has been decorated with every attribute of a hero, and even of a faint; while the difcontent of the vanquished party has compared Conftantine to the moft abhorred of thofe tyrants, who, by their vice and weaknefs, dífhonoured the Imperial purple. The fame paffions have in fome degree been perpetuated to fucceeding generations, and the character of Conftantine is confidered, even in the prefent age, as an object either of fatire or of panegyric. By the impartial union of thofe defects which are confeffed by his warmeft admirers, and of thofe virtues which are acknowledged by his most implacable enemies, we might hope to delineate a just portrait of that Vo L. XXIV.

extraordinary man, which the truth and candour of history should adopt without a blush. But it would foon appear, that the vain attempt to blend fuch difcordant colours, and to reconcile fuch inconfiftent qualities, muft produce a figure monftrous rather than human, unless it is viewed in its proper and distinct lights, by a careful feparation of the different periods of the reign of Conftantine.

The perfon, as well, as the mind of Conftantine, had been enriched by nature with her choicest endowments. His ftature was lofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment graceful; his ftrength and activity were displayed in every manly exercife, and from his earlieft youth, to a very advanced feafon of life, he preferved the vigour of his conftitution by a strict adherence to the domeftic virtues of chastity and temperance. He delighted in the focial intercourfe of familiar converfation; and though he might fometimes indulge his difpofition to raillery with lefs referve than was required by the fevere dignity of his ftation, the courtefy and liberality of his manners gained the hearts of all who approached him. The fincerity of his friendship has been fufpected; yet he

B

thewed,

fhewed, on fome occafions, that he was not incapable of a warm and lafting attachment. The difadvantage of an illiterate education had not prevented him from forming a juft eftimate of the value of learning; and the arts and fciences derived fome encouragement from the munificent protection of Conftantine. In the difpatch of bufinefs, his diligence was indefatigable; and the active powers of his mind were almoft continually exercifed in reading, writing, or meditating, in giving audience to ambaffadors, and in amining the complaints of his fubjects. Even thofe who cenfured the propriety of his measures were compelled to acknowledge, that he poffeffed magnanimity to conceive, and patience to execute, the most arduous defigns, without being checked either by the prejudices of education, or by the clamours of the multitude. In the field, he infused his own intrepid fpirit into the troops, whom he conducted with the talents of a confummate general; and to his abilities, rather than to his fortune, we may afcribe the fignal victories which he obtained over the foreign and domeftic foes of the republic. He loved glory, as the reward, perhaps as the motive, of his labours. The boundlefs ambition, which, from the moment of his accepting the purple at York, appears as the ruling paffion of his foul, may be juftified by the dangers of his own fituation, by the character of his rivals, by the consciousness of fuperior merit, and by the profpect that his fuccefs would enable him to restore peace and order to the distracted empire. In his ci

vil wars against Maxentius and Licinius, he had engaged on his fide the inclinations of the people, who compared the undiffembled vices of thofe tyrants, with the fpirit of wisdom and juftice which feemed to direct the general tenor of the adminiftration of Conftantine.

Had Conftantine fallen on the banks of the Tyber, or even in the plains of Hadrianople, fuch is the character which, with a few exceptions, he might have tranfmitted to pofterity. But the conclufion of his reign (according to the moderate and indeed tender fentence of a writer of the fame age) degraded him from the rank which he had acquired among the moft deferving of the Roman princes. In the life of Auguftus, we behold the tyrant of the republic, converted, almoft by imperceptible degrees, into the father of his country and of human kind. In that of Conftantine, we may contemplate a hero, who had fo long infpired his fubjects with love, and his enemies with terror, degenerating into a cruel and diffolute monarch, corrupted by his fortune, or raised by conqueft above the neceffity of diffimulation. The general peace which he maintained during the last fourteen years of his reign, was a period of apparent fplendor rather than of real profperity; and the old age of Conftantine was difgraced by the oppofite yet reconcileable vices of rapacioufnefs and prodigality. The accumulated treasures found in the palaces of Maxentius and Licinius, were lavifhly confumed; the various innovations introduced by the conqueror, were attended with an encreafing