e decrease of population, is the happy
consequence of the progress of arts and agriculture. Instead of some
rude villages, thinly scattered among its woods and morasses, Germany
now produces a list of two thousand three hundred walled towns:
the Christian kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Poland, have been
successively established; and the Hanse merchants, with the Teutonic
knights, have extended their colonies along the coast of the Baltic,
as far as the Gulf of Finland. From the Gulf of Finland to the Eastern
Ocean, Russia now assumes the form of a powerful and civilized empire.
The plough, the loom, and the forge, are introduced on the banks of the
Volga, the Oby, and the Lena; and the fiercest of the Tartar hordes have
been taught to tremble and obey. The reign of independent Barbarism is
now contracted to a narrow span; and the remnant of Calmucks or Uzbecks,
whose forces may be almost numbered, cannot seriously excite the
apprehensions of the great republic of Europe. [6000] Yet this apparent
security should not tempt us to forget, that new enemies, and unknown
dangers, may possibly arise from some obscure people, scarcely visible
in the map of the world, The Arabs or Saracens, who spread their
conquests from India to Spain, had languished in poverty and contempt,
till Mahomet breathed into those savage bodies the soul of enthusiasm.

[Footnote 6000: The French and English editors of the Genealogical History
of the Tartars have subjoined a curious, though imperfect, description,
of their present state. We might question the independence of the
Calmucks, or Eluths, since they have been recently vanquished by
the Chinese, who, in the year 1759, subdued the Lesser Bucharia, and
advanced into the country of Badakshan, near the source of the Oxus,
(Memoires sur les Chinois, tom. i. p. 325-400.) But these conquests
are precarious, nor will I venture to insure the safety of the Chinese
empire.]

II. The empire of Rome was firmly established by the singular and
perfect coalition of its members. The subject nations, resigning the
hope, and even the wish, of independence, embraced the character of
Roman citizens; and the provinces of the West were reluctantly torn
by the Barbarians from the bosom of their mother country. [7000] But this
union was purchased by the loss of national freedom and military spirit;
and the servile provinces, destitute of life and motion, expected their
safety from the mercenary troops and governor