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 parties; since those periods are so obscure, that every writer may fill them up according to the turn of his imagination; just as people who are abroad in a dark night, may with equal keenness, and equal appearance of reason affirm, that they see objects totally different.

Let Corsica have been the property of the Phenicians, the Etruscans, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Goths, the Saracens: let it have been a conquest of France; a gift from that kingdom to the pope; a gift again from the pope to the Pisans, and at length a conquest of Genoa; still we must have recourse to the plain and fundamental principle, that the Corsicans are men, and have a right to liberty; which, if usurped by any power whatever, they have at all times a just title to vindicate.

In reviewing these strange and rapid revolutions, which this island has undergone, we may join with Seneca in reflecting on the mutability of human affairs, and be silent on the changes which happen to individuals, when we contemplate the vicissitudes of a whole nation.

The Genoese having obtained the undoubted possession of Corsica, they were eager to enjoy their power, and thought they could not fully