others) against the Doctor: and to evince to the public, as well as to him, that—' as it is no unusual property of NEW ideas to erase OLD ones, there may be times and circumftances that may render it almost impoffible for a man to recollect his own thoughts, when it is very easy for another to COLLECT what those thoughts were.'

Sir W's conclufion of this letter is equally fevere and polite. The Doctor had, in his letter, farcaftically taxed him with having two haftily adopted the falfe gloffes of a new ally. Sir W. takes notice of this, when he comes to apologife for the length of his prefent performance. 'Let me, fays he, intreat your pardon for having troubled you fo long. You will forgive me the rather, as you laid me under a neceffity of fhewing that I had fome principle and fome little knowlege of my own, without being guided by the falfe gloffes of a new ally. That alliance, Sir! (of which I am totally ignorant) feems to have given a certain fet of men as much furprize as apprehenfion. For to divide and subdivide, and on a pretence of breaking connections, to destroy all faith and union amongst men, has been the fyftem of government (I mean the interior and real part of it) for these last feven years.'-This is a home charge, indeed; and we fear the neceffities and apprehenfions of men in power, have afforded but too just grounds for it.-But he goes on- Then might the conftitution, (they thought) be attacked with fecurity, when that Union which alone could defend it, was made impracticable. But the hope was as deceitful as the intention was wicked. For ftill I trust in God, that neither the arts of divifion have fo effectually fucceeded; nor that Corruption, with all its extent and potency, has yet fo obliterated all public fpirit and public virtue in the minds of public men; that although they may DIVIDE on modes of administration, yet they will UNITE when the foundations of Right and Liberty are attacked :Then there can remain but two divifions, the one of men allied (if you please to call them fo) in defence of the conftitution; the other combined against it. But, in this conteft, however you may devote your personal services, you cannot divest yourfelf of the merit of having made a noble effort to unite all men in defence of our laws, by having opened to every man's view the bleffings he derives from that part of his birth-right which confifts in the government of laws †. And when these political difputes and fuch little occafional writers as I am, fhall be configned to oblivion, your commentaries (in fpite of their Author) will remain an honourable teftimony of your parts and knowlege, and a lafting benefit to your country.'

With respect to the points in conteft between thefe two fenatorial difputants, we must refer our Readers to the letters themselves. Art. 18. The Free Britons fupplemental Memorial to the Electors of the Members of the British Parliament; wherein the Origin of Parhaments in Europe, and other interefting Matters are confidered. 4to. 1 s. 6 d. Williams, 1770.

Our zealous, public-fpirited memorialift continues this ardent ex

Not totally fure, when, at the fame time, he gives an account of the effect of this alliance on the minds of the ministry.

+ Major bereditas a jure quam a parentibus.

See our fhort account of his former memorial. Rev. Sept. p. 233. hortations

hortations to the Freeholders of Great Britain. to guard, with unremitting care and diligence, their invaluable rights of election. He declares, that it appears to him, on mature confideration, that- the corruptions which attended the two last general elections,—were pregnant with greater danger to the common-wealth, than 40,000 hoftile foes, landed on the coafts of Kent and Suffex, would have been. P. forty five.

This writer appears to be a man of learning and observation, tho' his manner of conveying his thoughts to the public is somewhat defultory and unconnected. He makes great use of his reading, by numerous quotations from hiftorians, politicians, lawyers, &c. and in the application of the experience of paft ages to the prefent times. He feems to have conceived an invincible averfion to minifters, and efpecially to favourites; the latter of whom, in particular, he confiders as the conftant fucceffive enemies to the rights and liberties of their fellow fubjects. He appears alfo to be not a little apprehenfive of the fatal effects of ministerial influence and corruption among the fenatorial deputies † of the people.

His concluding paragraph is conceived in these notable terms:-· Since the reformation and establishment of the commonwealth fo far depend on your enjoying the right of election free from all trefpaís and derogation, with its inherent and proper ufe, in juftice to your country, and to yourfelves. you will, without question, in the moft proper manner, maintain this right against all opponents, and make the beft ufe of it when you shall have it in your power. Men of HONOUR, it is prefumed, will not defire to continue your ATTORNIES against your wills-.' The application of this is fufficiently obvious.'

Art. 19. The decifive Trial; or, the Proceedings in the Court of common Senfe, in the great Caufe between the Supporters of the Bill of Rights, and the Petitioners of Middlefex, London, and Surry, Plaintiffs; and the prefent Adminiftration, Defendants. 8vo. T. Jayne.

1 S.

An attempt to ridicule the oppofition. The Author, inftead of fairly adjusting the political balance, has contrived to throw all the fenfe and force of the argument into the ministerial, and all the nonfenfe into the popular fcale. This may be thought very ingenious, but is it

HONEST

Art. 20. The Falfe Alarm. 8vo. 1 S. Cadell.

Among other able writers who have appeared in aid of the oppofition, or the defence of adminiftration, amidst the out-cry of grievances and apprehenfions on the one fide, and of faction and fedition on the other, a genius of the highest eminence in the fcience of MoRALS, and in POLITE LITERATURE, after fome years of filence and folitude, hath at length broke from his retirement, rambled into the field of POLITICS, and gratefully drawn his pen in the fupport of that government by which he is himfelf fo generously fupported.

The performance is intended to fhew that the late alarms which have been given to the people are falfe, and their fears groundless.

Or attornies, as he files them, after Lord Eacon.

It confifts of argument, declamation, and ridicule. We shall present to our Readers a fpecimen of what he has offered to the confideration of the public, under each of thefe heads.

DECLAMATION.

One of the chief advantages derived by the present generation from the improvement and diffufion of philofophy, is deliverance from unneceffary terrors, and exemption from falfe alarms. The unufual appearances, whether regular or accidental, which once fpread confternation over ages of ignorance, are now the recreations of inquifitive fecurity. The fun is no more lamented when it is eclipted, than when it fets; and meteors play their corufcations without prognoftic or prediction.

The advancement of political knowledge may be expected to produce in time the like effects. Caufelefs difcontent and feditious violence will grow lefs frequent, and lefs formidable, as the science of government is better ascertained by a diligent study of the theory of man.

It is not indeed to be expected, that phyfical and political truth should meet with equal acceptance, or gain ground upon the world with equal facility. The notions of the naturalift find mankind in a ftate of neutrality, or at worft have nothing to encounter but prejudice and vanity; prejudice without malignity, and vanity without intereft. But the politician's improvements are oppofed by every paffion that can exclude conviction or fupprefs it; by ambition, by avarice, by hope, and by terror, by public faction, and private animofity.

It is evident, whatever be the caufe, that this nation, with all its renown for fpeculation and for learning, have yet made little proficiency in civil wifdom. We are ftill fo much unacquainted with our own ftate, and fo unfkilful in the purfuit of happiness, that we fhudder without danger, and complain without grievances, and fuffer our quiet to be disturbed, and our commerce to be interrupted, by an oppofition to the government, raifed only by intereft, and fupported only by clamour, which yet has fo far prevailed upon ignorance and timidity, that many favour it as reasonable, and many dread it as powerful.

What is urged by thofe who have been so industrious to spread fufpicion, and incite fury from one end of the kingdom to the other, may be known by perufing the papers which have been at once prefented as petitions to the King, and exhibited in print as remonftrances to the people. It may therefore not be improper to lay before the public the reflections of a man who cannot favour the oppofition, for he thinks it wicked, and cannot fear it, for he thinks it weak.'

We shall make no other obfervation on the foregoing paffage, than -that it is extremely characteristic of the writer.

ARGUMENT.

In difcuffing the question whether a member expelled, can be fo difqualified by a vote of the houfe, as that he fhall be no longer eligible by lawful electors?' he has the following argument against thofe who maintain that expulfion is only a difmiflion of the reprefenta

tive

tive to his conftituents, with fuch a teftimony against him as his fentence may comprise; and that if his conftituents, notwithstanding the cenfure of the House, thinking his cafe hard, his fault trifling, or his excellencies fuch as overbalance it, should again choose him as ftill worthy of their trust, the House cannot refufe him, for his punishment has purged his fault, and the right of electors must not be violated.'

This,' fays our Author, is plausible but not cogent. It is a fcheme of reprefentation, which would make a fpecious appearance in a political romance, but cannot be brought into practice among us, who fee every day the towering head of fpeculation bow down unwillingly to grovelling experience.

"Governments formed by chance, and gradually improved by such expedients, as the fucceffive difcovery of their defects happened to fuggeft, are never to be tried by a regular theory. They are fabrics of diffimilar materials, raifed by different architects, upon different plans. We must be content with them as they are; fhould we attempt to mend their difproportions, we might easily demolish, and difficultly rebuild them.

• Laws are now made, and cuftoms are established; these are our rules, and by them we must be guided.

It is uncontrovertibly certain, that the Commons never intended to leave electors the liberty of returning them an expelled member, for they always require one to be chofen in the room of him that is expelled, and I fee not with what propriety a man can be rechosen in his own room.

Expulfion, if this were its whole effect, might very often be defireable. Sedition, or obscenity, might be no greater crimes in the opinion of their electors, than in that of the freeholders of Middlefex; and many a wretch, whom his colleagues fhould expel, might come back perfecuted into fame, and provoke with harder front a fecond expulfion.

Many of the reprefentatives of the people, can hardly be faid to have been chofen at all. Some by inheriting a borough inherit a feat; and fome fit by the favour of others, whom perhaps they may gratify by the act which provoked the expulfion. Some are fafe by their popularity, and fome by their alliances. None would dread expulfion, if this doctrine were received, but thofe who bought their elections, and who would be obliged to buy them again at a higher price.'

This back ftroke, by which many of our author's friends in that House whofe wifdom and rectitude he is now fo zealoufly vindicating, are, perhaps, harder hit than he was aware of, feems not much unlike the action reprefented in the noted picture of the country-parfon and his wife, riding double-while the good man is lifting his flaff on high, to fmite his fluggish beaft, he unwittingly breaks the head of the poor woman who fits behind him.

RIDICULE.

The following account of the progrefs of a petition has humour, at leaft, if not the moft fcrupulous verity:

An ejected placeman goes down to his county ar his borough, tells his friends of his inability to ferve them, and his conftituents

of

of the corruption of the government. His friends readily understand that he who can get nothing, will have nothing to give. They agree to proclaim a meeting, meat and drink, 'are plentifully provided, a crowd is easily brought together, and those who think that they know the reafon of their meeting, undertake to tell thofe who know it not. Ale and clamour unite their powers, the crowd, condenfed and heated, begins to ferment with the leven of fedition. All fee a thoufand evils, though they cannot show them, and grow impatient for a remedy, though they know not what.

A fpeech is then made by the Cicero of the day, he fays much, and fuppreffes more, and credit is equally given to what he tells, and what he conceals. The petition is read and univerfally approved. Those who are fober enough to write, add their names, and the reft would fign it if they could..

Every man goes home and tells his neighbour of the glories of the day; how he was confulted and what he advised; how he was invited into the great room, where his lordship called him by his name; how he was careffed by Sir Francis, Sir Jofeph, or Sir George; how he eat turtle and venifon, and drank unanimity to the three brothers.

The poor loiterer, whofe fhop had confined him, or whose wife had locked him up, hears the tale of luxury with envy, and at last enquires what was their petition. Of the petition nothing is remembered by the narrator, but that it spoke much of fears and apprehenfions, and fomething very alarming, and then he is fure it is against the government; the other is convinced that it must be right, and wishes he had been there, for he loves wine and venifon, and is refolved as long as he lives to be against the government.

The petition is then handed from town to town, and from houfe to houfe, and wherever it comes the inhabitants flock together, that they may fee that which must be fent to the king. Names are easily collected. One man figns because he hates the papifts; another because he has vowed deftruction to the turnpikes; one because it will vex the parfon; another because he owes his landlord nothing; one because he is rich; another because he is poor; one to shew that he is not afraid, and another to fhew that he can write.

The paffage, however, is not always fmooth. Those who collect contributions to fedition, fometimes apply to a man of higher rank and more enlightened mind, who, instead of lending them his name, calmly reproves them for being feducers of the people.

"You who are here, fays he, complaining of venality, are yourselves the agents of thofe, who, having eftimated themfelves at too high a price, are only angry that they are not bought. You are appealing from the parliament to the rabble, and inviting thofe, who scarcely, in the most common affairs, diftinguish right from wrong, to judge of a question complicated with law written and unwritten, with the general principles of government, and the particular cuftoms of the Houfe of Commons; you are fhewing them a grievance, fo diftant that they cannot fee it, and fo light that they cannot feel it; for how, but by unneceffary intelligence and artificial provocation, fhould the farmers and fhop-keepers of Yorkshire and Cumberland know or care how Middlesex is reprefented. Instead of wandering thus round the Rev. Jan. 1770.

F

county