'££T6 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN1 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 LETTER 
 
 T o 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. DEBRETT, 
 OPPOSITE BURLINGTON HOUSE, PICCADILLY. 
 
 M DCC.XCI. 
 
 „8 t
 
 23 
 
 LETTER, 
 
 K*KLJ 
 
 > 
 
 C 
 
 T) ELONGING to no party, addicted 
 ~*~~* to no feet, and too old not rather to 
 fear than to invite notoriety of any fort, 
 may I not hope from among the few in- 
 citements which could induce fuch a man 
 S§ in love with retirement to obtrude him- 
 «» felf on the public eye that I mall be al- 
 gj lowed to affume the defire of being: ufe- 
 ful as my fole motive? " Confcious," to 
 fpeak in the language of Lord Bacon, 
 " that what I fhall offer arifes from no 
 *' vein of popularity, oftentation, defire 
 " of novelty, partiality to either fide, dif- 
 |= B " pofition 
 
 3( )104.8
 
 ( 2 ) 
 
 " pofition to intermeddle, or any the like 
 '* leaven -, I conceive hopes that what I 
 " want in depth of underflanding may be 
 ** countervailed by fimplicity and fmcerity 
 " of affection. " Sure I am, Sir, that fuch 
 a difpofition will find favour in your light; 
 that I fhall meet you ready to admit that 
 men may honeftly differ on topics where 
 the conclufions lie at fuch a diftance from 
 the premifes, and where the beft abilities 
 and the bell intentions fetting out from 
 the fame centre have been found to di- 
 varicate into every point of the compafs. 
 
 Permit me, Sir, before I proceed, to 
 offer you the humble tribute of my ap- 
 plaufe. I have for many years been 
 amongft the foremoft. of your admirers. 
 I have feen you with uninterrupted energy 
 purfue the right, ftraight forward, and 
 
 fearlefs
 
 ( I ) 
 
 fearlefs of confequences. I have feen you 
 the foul of a great enterprize, which, 
 though " offences' gilded hand may move 
 " bye juftice," or " the wicked prize itfelf 
 " buy out the law," will fecure immor- 
 tality to your name. When I differ from 
 you in opinion, I am with you in fenti- 
 ment. I regard you as one of the beft 
 and ableft men of our day. 
 
 You have publifhed a work abounding 
 with eloquence, learning, knowledge, and 
 every other excellence to be foretold of the 
 production of a mind furnifhed like yours. 
 Butinthemidft of fuch goodandfound doc- 
 trine are maxims and poiitions which I 
 think may be ufed by the worft of men for 
 the worft of purpoles. The more you poffefs 
 of thofe qualifications which give the opi- 
 nion of one man authority over the rea- 
 
 B 2 foil
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 Ton of others, the more I feel it a duty, 
 thinking as I do, to combat to the beft of 
 my power ihefe dangerous tenets 5 to 
 warn thofc who are about to feed upon 
 your well-flavoured and high-feafoned 
 dim that " there is death in the pot." 
 Anfwerers you will have in plenty of va- 
 rious defcriptions, with various motives, 
 fome of them mofl probably of much bet- 
 ter abilities than I can pretend to ; but I 
 will cede to none of them in limplicity 
 and purity of intention, or in refpect for 
 the perfon and character of the excellent 
 man with whom I find myfelf fo reluc- 
 tantly obliged to differ. 
 
 To follow you, non pajjibiis cequis, 
 over the wide and flowery field where you 
 difport yourfelf with fo much dexterity 
 and grace is by no means my intention. 
 
 I am
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 I am not one of thofe who, having taken 
 a part, have an anfwer ready for every 
 thing which can he offered on the other 
 fide. In many things I agree with you 
 moit heartily, and the high approbation I 
 feel of much of vour work gives me the 
 more confidence where I am obliged to 
 diiTent. I have ftrong doubts, and offer 
 them as fuch in fair difcuflion. I will 
 endeavour to be as fhort as the time allot- 
 ted me will allow of, for it belongs only 
 to your pen to be diffufe without being 
 tedious. 
 
 It is I think the peculiar infirmity of 
 noble and ardent minds to run into ex- 
 tremes, to follow even the right too far. 
 You are difgufted with the folly and dan- 
 ger of wild theories and extravagant pro- 
 jects, and would therefore reduce the 
 
 fcience
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 fcience of government to a mere craft and 
 myftery ; but politics muft have fome 
 abftracl principles * Though flavery muft 
 
 * The moft meafured and technical writers have been 
 forced to confider natural liberty and the rights of men as 
 preceding all civil irrftitutions. Sir William Blackftone, 
 who has never paffed for alight or fa&ious writer, fpeaks 
 thus: " Thus much for the declaration of our rights and 
 •« liberties. The rights themfelves, thus defined by thefe 
 P feveral llatutes, confiit in a number of private immuni- 
 «' ties, which will appear from what has been premifed to 
 " be indeed no other than either that reftduum of natural 
 ** liberty which is not required by the laws of fociety to 
 *' be facrificed to public convenience, or elfe thofe civil 
 ** privileges which fociety hath engaged to provide 
 «' in lieu of the natural liberties fo given up by indivi- 
 '« duals. Thefe therefore were formerly either by inhe- 
 " ritanee or purchafe the rights of all mankind ; but in 
 •« mod other countries of the world, being now more or 
 " led debafed and deitroyed, they may at prefent be faid 
 " to remain in a peculiar and emphatical manner the 
 " rights of the people of England." 
 
 Montefquieu in his admirable Spirit of Laws treats 
 this fubjecT; with his ufual neatnefs and perfpicuity : 
 *f Les etres particuliers intelligenspeuvent avoir des loix 
 
 qu'ils
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 be felt by the people, it may be foretold 
 by the fage. To prophecy of fueh events, 
 certainly much fagacity, and much ex- 
 perience, and much moderation are re- 
 quired, and many falfe prophets will arifc 
 who will deceive many ; but this is equally 
 true in morality, religion, and every thing 
 elfe that cannot be made the immediate 
 object of demonftration j and yet thefe 
 are all reducible to fome great and general 
 truths, which, when underilood, will be 
 as univerfally aflented to as that the three 
 
 " qu'ils ont faites; mais ils en ont auffi qu'ils n'ont pas 
 ** faites. Avant qu'il y eut des etres intelligens, Us 
 " etoient poffibles ; ils avoient dose des rapports poffibles 
 " et par confequens des lois poffibles. Avant qu'il y 
 (< eut des loix faites il y avoit des rapports de juftice 
 «« poffibles. Dire qu'il n'y a rien de jufteni d'enjufte que 
 '* ce qu'ordonnent ou defendent les loix pofitives, e'eft 
 " dire qu'avant qu'on eut trace de circle tous les rayons 
 ** n'etoient pasegaux." Efp. des Lois, liv. i. chap. r. 
 
 angles
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 angles of a triangle are equal to two right 
 ones. The fcience of politics may in- 
 deed be properly enough conlidered as a 
 fubdivifion of moral philofophy, capable 
 of bein» treated fynthctically with much 
 advantage at this moment. What has 
 happened in our own view in America, in 
 Ireland, in France, are great and pregnant 
 experiments. A' treatife to which the 
 proper title would be The Pbilojopby of Pq- 
 titles, executed as I conceive it might be, 
 would form an excellent and moft ufeful 
 work. 
 
 If the principles of the Revolution Club 
 are as you tell us, but as I do not know that 
 they acknowledge them to be, that the 
 people of thefe realms are in a conilant and 
 habitual right and practice of* " choofing 
 
 Page 20. 
 
 " their
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 M their own governors" — " of camiering 
 
 ** them for mifconduct" — " of framing 
 
 " a new government 5" fuch folecifm 
 
 in reafon and fact feems fcarcelyto de- 
 
 ferve a ferious anfwer. The mifchief of 
 
 thefe doctrines, merges in their abfurd- 
 
 ity. Is it not obvious to the flighted: 
 
 obfervation that before the people (who- 
 
 foever they are) can exercife the leaft of 
 
 thefe powers, all thofe of the actual con- 
 
 ftitution muft be fufpended or done away, 
 
 a complete revolution muft have already 
 
 taken place ? What do they mean by the 
 
 people ? Where does this fourth eftate 
 
 exift ? How is its collective voice to be 
 
 taken, or its collective force to adt ? 
 
 Where has it fo long lain perdue, and 
 
 from whence does it now come, like the 
 
 army in the Rehearfal, " to the door and 
 
 C « ia
 
 ( io ) 
 
 " in difguife ?" When flate quacks pre- 
 fcribe thefe recipes, I believe if they were 
 told, like their predecefTor in Moliere, 
 Why, Doctor, this is a Revolution, they 
 would anfwer as he does — a Revolution ! 
 aye, Sir, and what is better than a Revolu- 
 tion ! I ftrongly fufpect that all the fenfe 
 (if they have any) of thefe unintelligible 
 theories and vicious circles of the governed 
 governing the governors might be com- 
 prized in a plain proportion, to which I 
 for one would give my hearty affent ; 
 that when government, under any form 
 or denomination offers oppremon in the 
 room of protection, and injury inftead of 
 juftice; a {tone for bread and a ferpent 
 for a nfh, fuch government ought to be 
 refitted with all the powers which God 
 and nature have placed in our hands. 
 
 For
 
 ( " ) 
 
 For this great and grievous difeafe, a re- 
 volution is the only true fpecific. 
 
 Since I have mentioned the Revolution 
 Club, I muft fay that I think you treat 
 Dr. Price's nunc dimittis * with very unde- 
 ferved afperity. If you think he errs, his 
 errour can only be fairly attributed to a 
 little too much ardour in a good caufe. All 
 enthuliafm is certainly excefs, it begins 
 where reafon ends ; but an enthufiaftic 
 love of liberty has always been reckoned 
 amongft the moil ufeful and refpectahle 
 infanities of the human mind. The Doctor 
 and many others with him will think, that 
 to hinder the King from erecting the royal 
 ftandard at Metz was of the lair, import- 
 ance to the embryon liberties of France. 
 They will think that an immediate aad 
 
 * Page 96. 
 
 C 2 mofl
 
 ( I« ) 
 
 moit. probably a very bloody civil war was 
 cheaply prevented by the excefles of the 
 mob at Verfailles on the 6th of O&ober. 
 They will confider the degradation of the 
 King with fome fort of complacency j not 
 as you fay by reducing him to his qualities 
 of man or animal, for it is under thefe 
 titles only which he holds in common 
 with all of us that he can claim any pity 
 at all; but becaufe they fee in his perfon the 
 actual living reprefentative of an oppreffive 
 and intolerable defpotifm, the defcendant 
 cf old and the progenitor of future tyrants. 
 A pious divine, where he thinks he beholds 
 fo much falvation, will very naturally break 
 out into thanks to God for what he be- 
 lieves to have been brought about by the 
 immediate interposition of his providence. 
 Grave and religious men and lovers of or- 
 der
 
 ( '3 ) 
 
 der too have burfe into ejaculations on the 
 recovery of liberty before Dr. Price. A 
 great antient ariftocrat, whofe authority I 
 believe you eileem more than I do, em- 
 ploys a ftill higher {train on a much more 
 violent occafion. Speaking of the killing 
 of Julius in the Capitol, he fays, What was 
 there ever performed, O holy Jupiter! not 
 only in this city but in the whole world 
 greater, what more glorious, what more 
 worthy of the eternal remembrance of man- 
 kind * ! 
 
 For my own part, I cannot apprehend 
 any fuch danger as you feem to fear from 
 allowing men to fpeculate on the common- 
 
 * Qua? enim res unquam, proti fanfte Jupiter ! non 
 modo in hac urbe, fed in omnibus terris eft gefta major, 
 quae gloriofior, quae commendation horainum memorice 
 fempiternx! Cic. 
 
 • wealth
 
 ( i4 ) 
 
 wealth as much as they pleafe. Speeches 
 and fennons and pamphlets will produce 
 but little effect, except where they find 
 the minds of men predifpofed and ripe for 
 the fubje6l. The bufinefs is already done 
 before they can operate to any ftrong pur- 
 pofe. They will only be ferioufly attend- 
 ed to when they give vent to fome paffion, 
 or furnifh forne plaufible argument orex- 
 cufe for what we are beforehand determined 
 upon. While the people are happy and 
 free they will no more be made to believe 
 themfelves opprefTed and enflaved than all 
 the oratory in the world will perfuade flaves 
 and beggars that they are rich and con- 
 tent. 
 
 When you boafl to your French corre- 
 spondent, with fuch an air of triumphant 
 confidence of the loyalty, the " religious 
 
 " zeal,
 
 ( is ) 
 
 " zeal *," the obedience, the " fimplicity, 
 " the bonhommie of the Britifli -J- charac- 
 " ter," their " awe of Kings" and " reve- 
 " ence for [Priefts %" their « fullen re- 
 " fiftance of innovation ||," their unalter- 
 able perfeverance in the «« wifdom of pre- 
 " judice for the laft four hundred years § y' 
 are you not a little apprehenfive left he 
 fhould retort upon you the feven interrup- 
 tions of the hereditary fucceffion previous 
 to the Revolution ; the public execution of 
 one King and the banifhment of another 
 a little before that period, and the priva- 
 tion and exile of a whole line of Kings im- 
 mediately afterwards j four radical and en- 
 tire changes of religion in three fucceflive 
 reigns ; Papilt under Harry the firfl de- 
 fender of the Romifh faith, and then Pro- 
 
 * Page 135. f P. 133. t P. 128. ||P. 127. §P. 130. 
 
 teftant
 
 ( 16 ) 
 
 teftant under the fame Harry the firfl de«* 
 fender of the Proteftant faith ; violently 
 Papift again under his daughter the 
 Bloody Mary, and once more Proteftant 
 under her lifter Elizabeth -, Prelbyterian un- 
 der Oliver and the Commonwealth, An- 
 glican and Epifcopal at the Restoration ; 
 High Church under Anne, and Low Church 
 under the firft Georges ; and at this very 
 moment feparated into as many fects as 
 there are (hades of opinion between the 
 wide extremes of bigotry and infidelity ? 
 
 If a free and equal conflitution could have 
 been erected in France on the foundation of 
 the old eftabiifhment, I am ready to allow 
 that to level all without distinction was a 
 rafh and dangerous experiment. But this 
 does not appear to have been the cafe. A 
 century and half of defpotifm had fo warped 
 
 and
 
 ( i7 ) 
 
 and moulded every inftitution to the fup- 
 
 port of the omnipotence of the Crown, 
 and to the annihilation of the liberty of the 
 fubject, that they could not be ufed for the 
 contrary purpofes. If the four eftates had 
 continued to meet in their antient form, the 
 nobles, the church, and the crown, pof- 
 fefling each of them powers utterly incon- 
 fiftent with a free conftitution, would have 
 united to render the reprefentatives of the 
 people, le tiers etdt, a mere nullity. The 
 change from liberty to flavery may pro- 
 ceed by filent lapfe, but illegitimate force 
 muft be wrenched by violence from the 
 ftrong hand of power. The tyranny of 
 France could only be overturned by the 
 great mafs of the people. When this vaft 
 and unwieldy machine is once fet in mo- 
 tion, no mortal arm can exactly direct its 
 
 D force,
 
 ( i8 ) 
 
 force, or determine its momentum. We 
 know that mankind in the aggregate muft 
 be forced into activity by the immediate 
 impulfe of fome ftrong paffion, and that 
 their action will therefore always be ac- 
 companied with fome violence and fome 
 excefs. We know too that change itfelf 
 cannot be wrought without difturbance 
 anddiforder; the decompofition and com- 
 bination of elements will be attended with 
 commotion and effervefcence. But where 
 much is to be obtained much may and 
 ought to be hazarded : the utmoft that 
 human prudence can provide againft future 
 contingencies is to fecure the proba- 
 bilities, the reft muft neceffarily be left to 
 the great arbiters time and chance, to 
 eventual courage and eventual ability. The 
 destruction of an inveterate tyranny, and 
 
 the
 
 ( «9 ) 
 
 the probable eftablifhment of a free confti- 
 tution, muft be always conlidered as cheap- 
 ly purchafed at the expence of a few years 
 anarchy and diibrder. In all ages thofe 
 citizens who (hall obtain for their country 
 fuch advantages at fuch a price, will con- 
 tinue to be ranked among the great bene- 
 factors of mankind. 
 
 The queftion then is reduced to this; 
 Whether the late government of France 
 was fuch as ought to have been endured. 
 It mud I think appear to every man who 
 acknowledges the ineftimable value of a 
 free conftitution that it was not. A go- 
 vernment where the foundation of all law 
 is comprized in one fhort formula, for 
 
 SUCH IS OUR PLEASURE — CAR TEL EST 
 
 notre plaisir; where the perfonal li- 
 berty, and confequently the property and 
 
 D 2 life
 
 ( 2° ) 
 
 life of every individual, is held at the ab- 
 folute will and difpofal of one man j is a 
 government mocking to the common fenfe 
 and common feelings of mankind. Nei- 
 ther the hereditary fucceiiion of ages nor 
 the acquiefcence of millions can fanclify 
 abufe or change evil into good. Wrong 
 may be endured, but it cannot be eftablifh- 
 ed. A bond in which no valuable con- 
 lideration has been retained by one of the 
 contracting parties is void in law as well 
 as in equity. Poffeffion and prefcription 
 may be good titles prima facie, but they 
 Biuft give way when higher claims and 
 better rights are produced. I would con- 
 fider it as a datum confirmed by the ge- 
 neral fenfe and experience of mankind in 
 all ages, that an abfolute, or as you are 
 
 pleafed to call it, an unqualified monarchy 
 
 is
 
 ( 21 ) 
 
 is no where to be fuffered. The prefer- 
 vation of no order, no eftablifhment, can 
 compenfate for this enormous evil. Every 
 humane mind will anticipate with heart- 
 felt fatisfaction the approach of that day 
 when the race of defpots (hall have difap- 
 peared from the face of the earth ; and 
 when by their rufly coins and mutilated 
 ftatues they (hall be known to have ex- 
 ifted, it fhall be faid of them as of the 
 giants of old, " in thofe days there were 
 " tyrants in the land." 
 
 Will you permit me, Sir, to hazard a 
 conjecture ? Twenty years ago you would 
 not have thought of this revolution as you 
 do now. In the fage caution I think may 
 be difcerned fomething of the timidity of 
 age 3 fome traces perhaps of the ftrong 
 impreffion made upon your vivid ima- 
 gination
 
 - ( 22 ) 
 
 gination by the violences to which you 
 were an eve witnefs in the fummer of 
 1780. In your dread of diforder and mif- 
 rule you would counfel rather to bear the 
 ills we have of what magnitude foever, 
 quemvis durare labor em, than fly to others 
 that we know not of. " Your refolution 
 " is ficklied o'er with the pale cafl of 
 " thought. 5 ' 
 
 As the fource of the revolution in France 
 feems to have been purer, fo its procefs has 
 hitherto appeared milder than any in an- 
 tient or modern flory. The journal of the 
 iiege of Londonderry furnifhes more hor- 
 rours than ail that we know of this great 
 event. A few obnoxious heads and fome 
 voluntary banimments have been the only 
 facrifices to vengeance and the infernal 
 gods. Nor can thefe be fairly attributed 
 
 to
 
 ( 23 ) 
 
 to any new fpirit infufed into the people 
 by the diforder of the times. The execu- 
 tion of M. Foulon cannot be compared 
 for atrocity with that of the Marechall 
 D'Ancre, or the marTacre of the King's 
 guards with the night of St. Bartholo- 
 mew. And yet thefe happened before 
 the baleful atmofphere of philofophy, 
 the azote * in which no virtuous or falu- 
 tary prejudice can continue to breathe, 
 had poifoned the minds of men. When 
 thofe very principles of loyalty and gal- 
 lantry whofe fall you fo tenderly lament 
 were yet in their meridian fplendour. 
 
 The humiliation of a King and the ter- 
 rour of a Queen form under your pencil 
 a very pathetic picture -, a tragic and af- 
 fecting leffon of the inability of human 
 
 P.ge 132. 
 
 greatnefs.
 
 ( 24 ) 
 greatnefs. You fcem to confider thefe 
 great perfonages, what in the day of their 
 profperity they are always ready enough 
 to confider themfelves, as above vulgar 
 humanity. In their fufFerings I fear they 
 found that they were mere mortals. For 
 my part, fo far from looking upon thofe 
 who are born to crowns as being of a fu- 
 perior nature, I think they have not the 
 common chance with the reft of man- 
 kind. It is out of our weaknefTes and 
 wants, the fweet intercourfe of fervices and 
 benefits, that all the focial ties of charity 
 and benevolence are formed. Men will 
 feel for others what they apprehend for 
 themfelves ; 
 
 ——-Non ignara mali miferis fuccurere difco — 
 
 They will labour to obtain a fuperiour 
 rank among their fellow mortals by fupe- 
 
 ricrity
 
 ( 25 ) 
 
 riority in learning, or wifdom, or courage, 
 or ufefulnefs, or virtue. But Kings as they 
 are above the focial neceffities, fo they are 
 above the focial feelings of life. Having 
 no equal, they can have no friend nor no 
 competitor -, and {landing on the pinnacle 
 of greatnefs, to labour for any higher ele- 
 vation by the common means of eminence 
 muft appear to them like adding " another 
 " hue unto the rainbow, or with taper- 
 " light feeking the beauteous eye of hea- 
 " ven to garnifh - 3 — a waileful and ri* 
 " diculous excefs."— 
 
 As to the unhappy beauty whofe charms 
 fo well deferve to be recorded in the fvveet 
 ftrain of your eloquence, I moft fincerely 
 join with you in pitying her diure£ becaufe 
 I conceive it muft beverypoignant. When 
 you go forth the knight of this fair unfor- 
 
 E tunate
 
 ( 26 ) 
 
 tunate I mall be proud to be your fquire. 
 In the mean time I do very truly hope 
 that together with the dignity of fenti- 
 ment becoming her high birth and ftation 
 fhe alfo enjoys the heartfelt fatisfaclion to 
 reflect that fhe has not by her own con- 
 duct contributed to her own misfortunes ; 
 that it is over her diftreffes only and not 
 over her faults that her friends and ad- 
 mirers would wifh to draw a veil. 
 
 Bu t t let us turn from this fad leflbn for 
 Kings, where we are conftrained to pity 
 what we cannot much efteem, to the moft 
 magnificent fpectacle that has ever prefent- 
 ed itfelf to the human eye. A great and 
 generous nation, animated with one foul, 
 rifing up as one man to demand the resti- 
 tution of their natural rights. When it was 
 once determined that a free conftitutiori 
 
 would 
 
 2
 
 ( *7 ) 
 
 would be had, I have endeavoured to (hew 
 by a fhort argument that the Nobles and 
 Clergy could not with any hfety, be al- 
 lowed to enter the fortrefs in embodied 
 ftrength. Their exclufive privileges and 
 opprefllve territorial jurifdictions were 
 among the grievances moil immediately 
 felt by the people. They prefented an 
 eternal barrier to any fubftantial amend- 
 ment of the condition of the Commons, 
 It is to know little of the temper of 
 men born to high founding titles and lofty 
 pretentions, to fuppofe that thefe bodies, 
 poffefllng a commanding voice in the 
 legiflature, would have made a voluntary 
 furrender of antient powers and fplendid 
 diftinctions derived to them through a 
 long fuccehlon of anceflry, merely becaufe 
 thefe powers appeared incompatible with 
 
 E 2 a free
 
 ( 28 ) 
 
 a free constitution. They muft, on the 
 common principles of prudence, habit, 
 and inclination, have fided with the 
 Crown againft the people. In this 
 country it had been the policy of one of our 
 antient tyrants, under their old maxim 
 divide & impera, to Strengthen the hands 
 of the Commons by way of counter- 
 balance, to the haughty and ungoverned 
 claims of his feudal Barons *. From this 
 
 * By the ftatute De donis, eftates tail were rendered 
 unalienable, and the large domains were of courfe fettled 
 in perpetuity. By the decifion of the judges in Talia- 
 rumscnfe, 12 Edw. IV. common recoveries were allowed 
 to bar an eftate tail ; and by the ftatute of 26 Hen. VIII. 
 they were declared to be forfeited to the King in cafes of 
 high treafon. By different ftatutes of Hen. VII. and 
 Hen. VIII. a fine levied by a tenant in tail is al- 
 lowed to be a complete bar to him and his heirs, and all 
 other perfons. Sir William Blackfione obferves (zd 
 Comm. 1 1 8), that it was the policy of Hen. VII. to lay 
 the road as open as poffible to the alienation of landed 
 
 property.
 
 <l( 29 ) 
 
 impure fource much good eventually 
 flowed, that was certainly neither intended 
 nor forefeen by the Monarch of that day. 
 The rank and title of nobility foon ceafed 
 to have any connection with territo- 
 rial jurifdiction, and became attached 
 Amply to a legiflative and judicial peer- 
 age. Rich and powerful commoners and 
 a fubftantial independent yeomanry began 
 to form a real balance to the ariftocratic 
 part of the Confiitution ; in procefs of 
 time it became the interefl of both to 
 unite, to circumfcribe the unbounded pre- 
 tentions of the Crown. In this country 
 every man who is not an actual member 
 of the Houfe of Peers is a Commoner. 
 Every Peer is born a Commoner, and 
 
 property, in order to weaken the overgrown power of 
 hio nobles, 
 
 mod
 
 ( 3° 3 
 
 xnoft of them have been at one time or 
 
 other members of the Houfe of Commons 
 
 in their own perfons ; Co that they carry 
 
 up fomething of a popular fpirit into the 
 
 ariftocratical aflembly. Many of the 
 
 leading men in the Lower Houfe look up 
 
 to the peerage either as their hereditary 
 
 right or as the ultimate reward of their 
 
 public fervices ; an ariftocratic tendency 
 
 has therefore always prevailed among the 
 
 reprefentatives of the people. The fa<fl is 
 that nothing of pure democracy or pure 
 
 monarchy, or pure ariftocracy, in a diftincl: 
 
 or feparate flate, is be found in our Confti- 
 
 tution. Thethreeprinciplesare blended and 
 
 tempered together into one common mafs. 
 
 They hold a joint undivided property. No 
 
 line of demarcation can poffibly be drawn 
 
 between them - 3 nor can they ever be played 
 
 off
 
 ( 3' ) 
 
 off againft one another. This is one of 
 the beautiful anomalies of the Englifh 
 government which difdains all the fixed 
 and known rules of political grammar. 
 This is the unity of intereft which is the 
 foul of our great drama : the key-ftone 
 of the arch : the contripetal force that 
 confines thefe eccentric bodies within their 
 orbits. Hence the extreme inequality 
 of reprefentation which founds fo ill in 
 theory alrnoft difappears in practice. 
 The fabric exifts in unimpaired beauty and 
 ftrength, not as is commonly fuppofed by 
 preferving the balance between contend- 
 ing and difcordant principles, but by the 
 firm unifon and ilrong texture of corre- 
 fpondent and homogeneous parts. It may 
 and probably will fooner or laterbe fapped 
 by corruption, and its main timbers 
 
 confumed
 
 ( 3* ) 
 confumed by the dry rot of influence $ 
 but it has nothing to fear from wild theory 
 or treacherous ingenuity, from the cafhier- 
 ers of Kings or the aiferters of paffive 
 obedience and divine hereditary right. 
 
 The government of France exhibited 
 the direct contrary of all this 3 an unqua- 
 lified monarchy, a feudal nobility, a domi- 
 neering hierarchy, an impoverished and 
 fervile people. Divided intereft and dis- 
 jointed power. What was there here fo 
 well worth preferving? Were thefe the 
 corner ftones upon which you would have 
 laid the foundation of a free conftitution ? 
 By what common ties of advantage, what 
 chain of gradual dependencies would you 
 have held thefe irreconcilable parts, thefe 
 jarring elements together ? Till you have 
 fhewn what alchymy would have tranf« 
 
 muted
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 muted tbefe bafe materials into filver and 
 gold of ftandard currency, I muft for one 
 continue to think that to amalgamate them 
 into the common mafs, to refolve them 
 into their natural individuality, and then 
 to admit them to a fair and equal fhare in 
 the benefits of a free conftitution was the 
 bell that could be done. Perhaps in the 
 event the noble families of France will 
 not be found to have made fo bad an ex- 
 change. When the ftorm fubfides landed 
 property and hereditary rank will flow 
 back into their channels. Inflead of vaf- 
 falage to the Crown unworthy of a man to 
 pay, and vaffalage from the people un- 
 worthy of a man to receive, thefe patri- 
 cians will find themfelves among the lead- 
 ing reprefentatives of a free people, the 
 legillators of a great nation. 
 
 F The
 
 ( 34 ] 
 
 The abolition of hereditary titles of 
 honour, which has been confidered as a 
 mere wanton difplay of democratic envy 
 or ill humour, had its peculiar neceffity 
 in the peculiar conftitution of the body 
 of nobility in France ; differing in toto 
 from any thing like what we know of 
 here. That perfonal diftinctions mould 
 be hereditary at all is perhaps not very 
 advantageous to public virtue any where ; 
 perhaps they ought to be referved as the 
 perfonal rewards of public fervices ; but 
 however this may be, when they reprefent 
 no refpeftable public character like the 
 judicial or legiflative peerage of thefe 
 countries -, when they ferve for nothing 
 but to feparate the nation into the two 
 foolim and unnatural clafTes of gentil- 
 hornme and roturier (a divifion which our 
 
 language
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 language has not even terms to defcribe), 
 they are then not only barren of any good 
 but very mifchievouily prolific in evil. 
 The refources of honeil induftry or inge- 
 nious invention were forbidden even fjp 
 the mofr. beggarly hobereau, Co that the 
 numerous poor nobility were really little 
 better xhznferfs of the Crown, (hut up and 
 ranged in garrifons and citadels, always 
 ready to be employed againfl the people ; 
 while on the other hand the roturier by 
 no merit however great and ufeful could 
 ever be received into the other clafs. It 
 is not I think poilible to conceive a parti- 
 tion more unfavourable to liberty and all 
 virtuous exertion ! In vain might you 
 have fought for a citizen in either of thefe 
 claries ; and the operation of this un- 
 happy divifion accounts for that miferable 
 
 F 2 fpirit
 
 ( 36 ) 
 
 iplrit of uniformity and imitation fo 
 ftriking in France to the flighteft ob- 
 ferver. Much more indeed might be faid 
 upon this fubjecl: which I muft content 
 myfelf thus barely to indicate. 
 
 How far the wifdom and virtue of the 
 leaders of the French revolution will be able 
 to proceed towards forming the beftpoffible 
 government time alone can fhew. All po- 
 litical power confifts of an aggregate fum of 
 the natural rights and liberties of theper- 
 fons over whom it is exercifed. In a jufl 
 and equitable government no more liberty 
 will be taken from the individual than is 
 neceffary to form an aggregate of power 
 furficient to protect the whole againfl 
 each, and each againft the other. The 
 heft government therefore is that, under 
 what denomination foever, where the 
 
 fmalleft
 
 ( 27 ) 
 
 fmalleft quantity of liberty is exchanged 
 for the greater!: quantity of protection. 
 Thefe legiflators are certainly called to a 
 moft arduous tafk. They have not only 
 the paflions and interefts of their adverfe 
 parties but, what is much more dangerous, 
 their own to contend with. Power is 
 the ftrongefl of all tefts of human virtue, 
 an ordeal almoft too fevere for the in- 
 firmity of our nature. During the form- 
 ation of a new conftitution a dictato- 
 rial power muft however of neceflity be 
 afiumed by the lawgivers -, and happily 
 we are not without examples of fuch trults 
 faithfully exercifed for the purpofes of 
 their inftitution, and then reftored into 
 the hands of the people. Let us then 
 hope for the ben:. If avarice and ambi- 
 tion are ftrong motives, the love of glory 
 
 in 
 
 301048
 
 ( 38 ) 
 
 In generous minds is ftill flronger ; and 
 furely no fet of men in the annals of the 
 world had even a brighter profpect of be- 
 ing confecrated to the eternal admiration 
 and gratitude of pofterity than thefe men 
 have if they mould complete what they 
 have fo glorioufly began. 
 
 But, alas ! with the Gothic feudalifm of 
 France, learning and the fine arts, and 
 honour and humanity have paffed away 
 from among men*; and Europe is on 
 the point of being once more oversha- 
 dowed with the darknefs of ignorance and 
 barbarity ! Men will become illiberal by 
 becoming free ! The liberty of the prefs 
 will put a final flop to the diffufion of 
 knowledge ! Learning will not furvive 
 the lofs of its fyndics and licenfers, its im« 
 
 * Pag. 113, 114. 
 
 primatcurs
 
 ( 39 ) 
 
 primateurs, privileges, and approbations ! 
 Honour mud perifh by extending its in- 
 fluence over a multitude of perfons hitherto 
 excluded from its jurifdiction ! Human- 
 ity itfelf will be driven like another 
 Aftrasafrom the earth, by fubftitu tingthe 
 foft gradations of unfelt dependencies to 
 thofe violent and hoftile diftinclions 
 which fever the commonwealth in twain j 
 where one half fears and hates, and the 
 other hates and defpifes ! Farewel that 
 tender and ever wakeful providence of 
 government which fuffered no rafh 
 word or extravagant thought to efcape its 
 vigilance ! That falutary coercion which 
 filently difpofed of a dangerous fubject 
 without fcandal or alarm ! That beauti- 
 ful inequality of conditions which, by 
 dividing men into diftinft and impamble 
 
 .orders
 
 ( 40 ) 
 
 orders of beings, taught them to love as 
 brethren ! That convenient and levelling 
 politenefs which makes vice amiable 
 and virtue unnecerTary ! Farewel for 
 ever thofe warm and foftering beams of 
 arbitrary power alone favourable to ge- 
 nius and courage, to great conceptions 
 and great atchievements ! It was under 
 your benign and genial influence, and not 
 in the chilly atmofphere of a republic, 
 that thofe miracles of valour and art were 
 performed and produced which have 
 ferved as models to all fucceeding ages, 
 and which ft ill continues to aftonifh the 
 mind with the vaft fuperiority of their ini- 
 mitable excellence ! I confefs to you, Sir, 
 the little knowledge and experience I have 
 might have led me to conclude directly 
 the contrary of all this. I fhould have 
 
 been
 
 ( 4i ) 
 been apt too to think truth and fincerity 
 and honefty and benevolence fufficiently 
 lovely in the fimplicity of their nature 
 without that prodigality of ornament and 
 adfcititious decoration which you feem to 
 confider as fo erTential to them. Rich 
 
 robes and coftly jewels I mould have 
 thought might be employed with advan- 
 tage to conceal the uglinefs of the fmoaky 
 image of Loretto, but could add no new 
 grace to the Florentine Venus or the Ro- 
 man Apollo. 
 
 In your view of France you feem to 
 have been fo awe-ftruck with the magni- 
 ficence of the court and fo enamoured of 
 the rifing beauties of the Dauphinefs that 
 you had no attention left to beftow upon 
 the people. If at your return from Ver- 
 failles you had looked into the Morne, 
 
 G where
 
 ( 4* ) 
 
 where the bodies of thofe unfortunate 
 wretches whofe miferies had drawn them 
 to feek the laft refuge from defpair were 
 daily expofed in frightful numbers j if 
 you had followed the peafant or the arti- 
 fan to his fcanty meal on a morfel of black 
 unfavoury bread, fuch fpectacles would 
 not have been loft upon a heart like yours. 
 They would furely have abated fomething 
 of your partial regard for the destructive 
 fplendour of a court, or the redundant 
 and invidious wealth of a lazy and luxu- 
 rious priefthood. 
 
 Among the inftitutions to be funda- 
 mentally reformed or utterly done away 
 before any fyftem of liberty could be efta- 
 blifhed in France the Papal hierarchy flood 
 prominent j and this is the inftitution 
 whofe defalcation and reform you feem 
 
 moft
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 moft feelingly to deplore ! To be called 
 upon in this country and at this day to 
 defend the Proteftant Reformation, the 
 leading motives of the Revolution in 1688, 
 the arTociation of ideas fucked in with our 
 milk that Popery and flavery are as it were 
 convertable and fynonimous terms, feems 
 fo ftrange and extraordinary that all con- 
 fideration of the fubject is at firft loft in 
 furprize. I believe however your para- 
 doxes may be fafely entrufted to the or- 
 dinary fenfe of mankind notwithstanding 
 the authority of your name and the 
 fplendid oratory with which they are in- 
 troduced. It will not I think be necef- 
 fary on this occafion to difturb the repofe 
 of thofe controverfies by which the con- 
 trary principles were long ago eftablifhed. 
 When evident and practical truths have 
 
 G 2 been
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 been received into the mind fo as to form 
 ft kind of in fundi ve fenfe, the diagrams by 
 which they were at firft demonftrated, 
 like the fcaffolding of a completed build- 
 ing, may be fafely laid afide. Shall I now 
 go about to prove by logical induction 
 that liberty of confcience, not being in 
 the power cannot be in the right of man 
 to take away ? or that belief not being 
 fubject to human volition cannot be fub- 
 ject to human controul ? No, Sir, I will 
 content myfelf with fimply recapitulating 
 fome of thofe proportions to which the 
 minds of men in thefe countries have been 
 fo long ufed to give fpontaneous afTent, 
 and then leave your paradoxes to fight 
 their way through them as well as they 
 can. 
 
 No
 
 ( 45 ) 
 No man or body of men under any pre^ 
 tence whatfoever can afTume the power of 
 governing or forcing the belief, the 
 thoughts, the reafon of others without 
 the mofl impious and foolifh arrogance of 
 the power of God. Religion as a rule of 
 faith by which we are to be faved or con- 
 demned in another life muft be the exclu- 
 five private concern of the individual, in 
 which every man has an indifputable right 
 to follow the light of his own reafon and 
 to reject all authority founded on the rea- 
 fon of others. Law is a rule of action only 
 and cannot be extended to the fentiments 
 and feelings of men. Thofe who de- 
 nounce to us eternal damnation as the 
 confequence of errour in faith, and then 
 would force us to hazard our immortal 
 fouls upon their judgments who have no 
 
 concern
 
 ( 46 ) 
 
 concern in the matter, contrary to our 
 reafon who have fo deep an intereft in it, 
 are the moft execrable of all tyrants. All 
 temporal power in the Church is of mere 
 human invention and amenable to human 
 controul. Chrifl has exprefsly declared 
 that his kingdom is not of this world. 
 If the Apoflles were obeyed it was from 
 reverence of their virtues and not from 
 any obligation ; they received the volun- 
 tary gifts of the brethren, but they laid no 
 claim to a tenth mare m every man's pof- 
 feffions or the produce of his induftry. 
 Excommunication was no more at firft, as 
 the word imports, than expuliion from a 
 club or focietyj and BifTiops only men of 
 the wifer and difcreeter fort, chofcn by 
 the brotherhood to prefide over their ce- 
 remonies and to inftruft the ignorant, to 
 
 whom
 
 ( 47 J 
 
 whom all fubmiffion was entirely volutin 
 tary. In procefs of time this fociety be- 
 came fufficiently ftrong to fet all civil go- 
 vernments at defiance -, and then that fa- 
 tal confederation between civil and eccle- 
 fiaflical power took place, under which 
 mankind has groaned for more than a 
 thoufand years. By this contract for the 
 bodies and fouls of men, the mind is firft 
 to be enflaved and then the body delivered 
 over to the fecular arm with its active 
 principle, the fpring of all its virtues and 
 faculties, bound up in chains. From this 
 complicated tyranny even death itfelf is 
 no refuge. Its power extends into the 
 kingdom of darknefs ; the miferable mor- 
 tal who has not obeyed its ordinances here, 
 who does not go to the grave clothed in 
 the fan benito of their inquifition and carry 
 
 in
 
 ( 43 ) 
 ill his hand the pafTport of abfolution, is 
 handed over to the agents of the hierar- 
 chy in another world 5 to the difcipline of 
 eternal torment. 
 
 Hierarchy confidered as a religious in- 
 ftitution is contrary to the plain precepts 
 of Chrift and to the whole tenor of the 
 Chriftian religion. As a civil inftitution, 
 where it has been mod modified and re- 
 formed, it is at beft an unnecefTary burthen 
 upon the induftry of the people and a dead 
 weight in the preponderating fcale of 
 power. In this country it is perhaps one 
 of thofe evils fandtined by time which it 
 may be more fafe to endure than to re- 
 move, but Hill calling loudly for reform. 
 The ecclefiaftical courts are a crying op- 
 preflion. The miferable and inadequate 
 provifion made for the major part of the 
 
 parochial
 
 [ 49 ] 
 
 parochial clergy is alfo a ferious grievance* 
 In the place where I live the refpeclable 
 clergyman with a numerous family does 
 the duty of a molt extenfive parim for 
 fixty pounds a year, while from the fame 
 parifh the Dean of Lincoln receives a 
 thoufand per annum for doing nothing at 
 all *. The constitution of the Papal 
 
 • One of the greateftand wifeft men this country ever 
 produced ftrongly recommended it to reform thefe and 
 other abufes 150 years ago. To thofe who afiert it to be 
 " againft good policy to innovate any thing in church" 
 matters he fays ; " This objection is excellently anfwered 
 " by the prophet ; ftand upon the old ways ; and conjider 
 " which is the right or true way and walk therein." He 
 " does not {&y Jland upon the old ways and walk therein: 
 " for with all wife and moderate perfors, cuftom and 
 V ufage are indeed of reverence fufficient to caufe a 
 " ftand, and to make them look about them, but no 
 «' warrant to guide and condudl them : fo as to be a juft 
 f « ground of deliberation but not of direction : and who 
 «* knows not that time is truly compared to a ftream 
 *.* which carries down frefh and pure water into that dead 
 *' fea of corruption furrounding all human attions ? 
 
 H Therefore
 
 ( 5° ) 
 
 hierarchy in France bore a ftrong analogy 
 to that of her civil ftate; it exhibited 
 the two extremes without the interme- 
 diate parts. The prelates were rich luxu- 
 rious lords and the country parfons rude 
 and needy peafants. And can you, Sir, 
 feriouily maintain that religion is likely to 
 fuffer by transferring its miniftry from 
 fuch hands into thofe of a fober well re- 
 gulated parochial clergy ? The religion of 
 Chrift is peculiarly the religion of the 
 
 " Therefore if men mall not by their induftry, virtu* 
 " and policy, as it were, with the oar row againft the 
 " ftream and bent of time, all inftitutions and ordi- 
 " nances, be they never fo pure, will corrupt and dege- 
 " nerate. Aid I would ark. why the civil Jl ate mould 
 *« be purged and reftored by good and wholefome laws 
 " made every feffion of parliament, devifing remedies as 
 '* faft as time breeds mifchief, and yet the ecclejiajiical 
 " fiate continue upon the dregs of time and receive no 
 " alteration at all ?" Lord Bacon's Philof. Works, 4to. 
 p. 3° 8 - 
 
 poor
 
 ( 5i ) 
 
 poor and diftreffed -, his miffion more efpe- 
 cially regards the meek and lowly. The 
 mild fpirit of charity and love, the fublime 
 and fimple morality, the endearing and 
 confolatory dodrines of the Gofpel will 
 not lofe their hold upon the hearts of 
 men, becaufe inflead of Popes and Cardi- 
 nals and Archbifhops and Deans and Ca- 
 nons they are delivered to them by plain 
 paftors, their own chofen and immediate 
 guides. The power and authority of thefe 
 teachers will be preferved by the fame 
 means by which the voluntary fubmiffion 
 of free confciences was at firft obtained 
 by the apoftles, " * by wifdom, humi- 
 " lity, clearnefs of doctrine and fincerity 
 " of converfation, and not by fuppreflion 
 9* of the natural fciences and of the mo- 
 
 * Hobbes. 
 
 H 2 «« rality
 
 / 
 
 *( 
 
 ti 
 
 ( 52 ) 
 
 1e rality of natural reafon, nor by obfcure 
 " language, nor by arrogating to them- 
 " felves more knowledge than they can 
 tc make appear, nor by pious frauds ; nor 
 by fuch other faults as in the paftors 
 of God's church are not only faults but 
 f* alfo fcandals, apt to make men (tumble 
 " one time or other upon the fuppreffion 
 ff of their authority." 
 
 I will pafs over your apotheofis of 
 Monkery, and the neceffity for retaining 
 the Biihops to take care of the confciences 
 of the Lords, for fear of being tempted 
 to more levity than is confident with re- 
 fpecl:; however I will juft obferve that it 
 does not appear that there are any par- 
 ticular figns of reprobation among the 
 Nobility of Scotland who are deprived of 
 thefe fublime guides. 
 
 Men
 
 ( 53 ) 
 
 Men have in different periods refifted 
 Spiritual as well as civil tyranny in various 
 degrees and with various fuccefs. The 
 good fenfe and high fpirit of this country 
 caff off the bonds of Rome at the firft 
 dawn of reafon ; 
 
 - then might you fee 
 
 Cowls, hoods, and habits with their wearers toft: 
 And fluttered into rags ; then reliques, beads, 
 Indulgences, difpenfes, pardons, bulls 
 The fport of winds. 
 
 The political part of the Church govern- 
 ment has I fuppofe been wholly diffolved 
 by the late reformation in France, and 
 this was certainly the moil: prefling objedt 
 of a political revolution. The prefent 
 mixture of religion with politics, our re- 
 ligious teds and parliamentary religion 
 would I fufpect appear fomewhat ludi- 
 crous
 
 ( 54 ) 
 
 crous to a perfon who could come to the 
 
 confideration unbiaffed by habit and cuf- 
 
 tom. Is it not a curious idea that if a 
 
 Solon or a Socrates were to rife up amongft 
 
 us one could not fit for Old Sarum, or the 
 
 other execute the office of juflice of peace, 
 
 Epaminondas could not command a troop 
 
 of horfe or Themiflocles be made a port 
 
 captain, till they had made themfelves 
 
 matter of the Thirty-nine Articles previous 
 
 to taking the facramental ten: ? till they 
 
 thoroughly understood what Lord Bacon 
 
 calls the characteriftics of a believing 
 
 Chriflian * f 
 
 * 2. He believes three to be one and one to be three; 
 a father not to be older than his fon ; a fon to be equal 
 with his father ; and one proceeding from both to be 
 equal to both ; as believing three perfons in one nature ; 
 and two natures in one perfon. 
 
 3. He believes a virgin to be the mother of a fon ; 
 find that very fon of hers to be her maker. He believes 
 
 him
 
 ( ss ) 
 
 How much of the trumpery of the 
 Church of Rome has been fuffered to re- 
 main I do not know nor is it I think of 
 much confequence. As foon as men are 
 allowed the free exercife of their rea- 
 fon thefe wretched inventions of igno- 
 rance and folly will be prefently neglected 
 and forgotten. With the temporal power 
 the fpiritual jurifdiction, the vain and 
 fenfelefs theology of Rome v/ill alfo pafs 
 away. The miserable diftinctions and fub- 
 tleties of the fchools, their abflracl ef- 
 fences and fubftantial forms, their expla- 
 nation of the incomprehenfible myfteries 
 of religion by the incomprehenfible meta- 
 
 him to have been fhut up in a narrow cell, whom heaven 
 and earth could not contain. He believes him to have 
 been born in time, who was, and is from everlafting. 
 He believes him to have been a weak child, and carried in 
 arms, who is almighty; and him once to have died who 
 alone has life and immortality. Bac. Philof. Work, 4to. 
 Vol. XI. p. 2^5. 
 
 phyfics
 
 ( S6 ) 
 
 phyfics of the peripatetics, will ceafe to 
 refound from the benches of the Sor- 
 bonne and reft for ever confined to the 
 learned duftofits libraries. 
 
 One of the moft common objects of 
 oratory is to perfuade men to believe fome- 
 thing more than we are willing to afifert 
 in plain terms or can "prove by plain ar- 
 gument. I do not know that you any 
 where fay, in fo many words, that all re- 
 volutions and reformations pad prefent 
 and to come are unlawful ufurpations, 
 but I am fure you labour hard to leave 
 this impreffion upon the mind of your read- 
 ers. And what is fomewhat curious in a 
 whig by profeffion you go over the fame 
 ground which the hiftorians mention to 
 have been taken by the tories in the Con- 
 vention Parliament. In the loofe analogies 
 
 of
 
 ( 57 ) 
 
 of declamation it is not difficult to con- 
 found revolution with rebellion, refor- 
 mation with irreligion, refinance with re- 
 volt, and a jealous love of the conftitution 
 with faction ; they have all fome features 
 in common, and by prcfenting the refem- 
 blance and artfully concealing the differ- 
 ence might in the jumble be miftaken 
 for each other. But we will not be fo 
 deceived, we will diftinguifh between 
 them, nay more we will utterly detefl 
 and abominate the one and approve and 
 when neceffary vindicate the other, with 
 our lives and fortunes. In fupport of our 
 common fenfe and feelings we have the 
 higheft authority. The nation has fpoken. 
 The decree is eternally recorded, " en- 
 
 * f DEAVOURING TO SUBVERT THE CON- 
 *' STITUTION, BY BREAKING THE ORl- 
 
 I " GINAL
 
 ( 5« ) 
 
 " GINAL CONTRACT BETWEEN THE 
 " KING AND PEOPLE, AND VIOLATING 
 ** THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS," juftify, 
 
 nay fandtify refiftance and revolution. 
 This you are reluctantly and give me leave 
 to fay fomewhat awkwardly obliged to 
 admit, and the warmeft advocate for the 
 liberty of the fubjecl:, the moft ardent lover 
 of the constitution, can claim, can defire 
 no more. You fay, Sir, that you defire to 
 be thought no better a whig than Lord 
 Somers. Are you fure that you deferve to 
 be thought as good a one ? Let us com- 
 pare your whiggifm with his. You tell 
 ut *i that " it is fo far from being true 
 ft that we acquired a right by the Revo- 
 *' lution to elect our kings (King Wil-» 
 "*' Ham the Third however was certainly 
 
 * Page 27. 
 
 46 elected)
 
 ( 59 ) 
 " elected) that if we had pofleffed it be- 
 " fore, the Engliuh nation did at that 
 " time (they chofe it muir. be confeffed 
 " a very extraordinary moment) moft fo- 
 " lemnly renounce and abdicate it for 
 " themfelvesand theirpofterities forever." 
 So then it feems the people abdicated as 
 well as the King! but before they could 
 abdicate the right they mud: have been in 
 poffeiTion of it. Now fetting afide the 
 conlideration whether thefe men could 
 agree eventually to bind their poflerity in 
 chains which they themfelves were un- 
 able to bear, it muft be allowed that to 
 abdicate and renounce for their defend- 
 ants for ever a right which they were at 
 that very moment averting and actually 
 exercifing for themfelves, prefents a com- 
 plication of injuflice and abfurdity that we 
 
 I 2 ought
 
 ( 60 ) 
 
 ought not to impute to our anceftors but 
 uoon the mod clear and fubftantial evi- 
 dence that fuch was their intention. But 
 you neither do nor can produce any fuch 
 evidence at all. You reft your whole 
 proof upon your conftruclion of a refolu- 
 tion of the Convention Parliament which 
 I will be bold to fay cannot poffibly be 
 wrefted to any fuch conftruction in the 
 judgment of any unprejudiced perfon who 
 takes in the whole of the circumftances. 
 << The Lords Spiritual and Temporal and 
 (t Commons do, in the name of all the 
 " people aforefaid,moft humbly and faith- 
 " fully fubmitthemfelves their heirs and 
 " poflerities for ever (a common form of 
 " creating a fee fimple, which may never- 
 «' thelefs be afterwards forfeited in various 
 " ways) and do faithfully promife that 
 
 « they
 
 ( 6x ) 
 t( they will ftand to, maintain, and defend 
 " their faid Majefties; and alfo the limit- 
 " ation of the Crown therein fpecified 
 " and maintained to the utmoji of their 
 4t power" (remark by the way that thefe 
 laft are words of limitation, and not of pur- 
 chafe). Againft whom to defend them 
 in the name of common fenfe ? againft the 
 abdicated King, his fon, their defend- 
 ants and adherents, and not againft any 
 future neceffity arifing from fimilar cir- 
 cumftances to thofe which were the very 
 origin, plea and foundation of this vote, 
 the corner-ftone of their whole proceeding ! 
 And when they did interrupt the actual 
 fucceflion to eftablifti a new one, (o far 
 from binding themfelves as you feem to 
 infinuate to more general and unlimited 
 obedience, they actually contracted with 
 
 the
 
 ( 6a ) 
 
 the Crown for the pofitive renunciation 
 of all its unconstitutional claims 3 and they 
 fixed land-marks not only as due boun- 
 daries and limits to the Crown, but as no- 
 tices to the nation what the conjiitution is 
 which they are not to fuffer to be fubverted, 
 what are the term* of the original contraff 
 which they are not to fuffer to be broken, 
 and what their fundamental laws are which 
 they are not to fuffer to be violated. The 
 Declaration of Right is interwoven with 
 and actually forms part of the act which 
 fettles the fucceflion of the Crown. By 
 the Act of Settlement, upon which the 
 rights of the prefent Royal Family to the 
 Throne of thefe realms is founded, not only 
 a " temporary," but a perpetual " folution 
 ce of continuity" took place. The here- 
 ditary fucceffion was intirely interrupted 
 
 in*
 
 ( H ) 
 
 In a whole male line, and William was 
 eleffed King. Now Sir you mufl either 
 maintain that in interrupting the fuccef- 
 fion and electing the Prince of NafTau 
 the nation ufurped as well as abdicated, 
 and fo vitiate the title of the prefent Royal 
 Family, or you mult admit that the na- 
 tion pofTeiTed the right which they then 
 exercifed; and if you admit this, I defy 
 you to fhew by any reafonable argument 
 that we have not at this time exactly the 
 fame rights which cur forefathers had to 
 do as they did in fimilar circumftances. If 
 your mode of reafoning had been of any 
 avail, there were not wanting men at that 
 time to give it its due weight. Turner 
 the deprived Bifhop of Ely among many 
 others has taken from your portions all 
 the graces of novelty, he has beat all the 
 
 ground
 
 ( 64 ) 
 
 ground before you. He told the Conven- 
 tion Parliament that, " that being one 
 " (fundamental) law which fettles the fuc- 
 " ceffion, it is as much a part of the ori- 
 " ginal compact as anyj then if fuch a 
 " cafe happens, as an abdication in a fuc- 
 " ceflive kingdom, without doubt the 
 '• compact being made to the King, his 
 " heirs and fucceflbrs, the difpofition of 
 f the Crown cannot fall to us till all the 
 <f heirs do abdicate too. There are indeed 
 " many examples and too many interrup- 
 *< tions in the lineal fucceffions of the 
 " Crown of England : I think I can in- 
 " fiance in all feven fince the Conqueft, 
 " wherein the right heir hath been put 
 c< by : but that doth not follow that every 
 *« breach of the firfl original contract gives 
 " us 'power to difpofe of the lineal fuc- 
 
 " ceffion;
 
 ( 65 ) 
 
 " cefiion; efpecially, I think, fince the 
 " fiatutes of Queen Elizabeth and King 
 " James the Firft, that have eftablifhed 
 " the oath of allegiance to the King, his 
 " heirs and fucceffors, the law is ftronger 
 " againft fuch difpofition : I grant that 
 " from King William the Firft to Henry 
 «« the Eighth there have been feven inter- 
 " ruptions of the legal line of hereditary 
 " fucceffion ; but I fay, thefe flatutes arc 
 (t made fince that time, and the making 
 *' of new laws, being as much a part of 
 «' the original compact as the obferving 
 u of old ones, or any thing elfe, we are 
 " obliged to purfue thofe laws, till altered 
 " by the legiflative power, which fingle 
 ** or jointly, without the Royal afTent, I 
 " fuppofe we do not pretend to" — te I hope 
 11 and am perfuaded, that both Lords and 
 
 K « Com-
 
 ( 66 ) 
 
 '* Commons do agree in this, not to break 
 " the line offuccejjion fo as make the Crown 
 " elective" 
 
 Now hear Lord Somers — " The word 
 " abdicate, doth naturally and properly 
 " lignify entirely to renounce, throw off, 
 tc difown, relinquim any thing or perfon 
 e< fo as to have no further to do with it ; 
 u and that whether it be done by exprefs 
 * e words, or by doing fuch ac7s as are in- 
 li confident with the holding or retaining 
 '« of the thing" " That King James the 
 tc Second hath renounced to be a King 
 " accordingto^the conftitution, by avowing 
 «* to govern by a defpotic power unknown 
 «< to the conftitution, and conliflent with 
 ie it he hath renounced to be King ac- 
 e < cording to the law. Such a King as he 
 " fwore to be at the coronation, fuch a 
 
 " King
 
 ( 6 7 ) 
 
 " King to whom the allegiance of an 
 " Englifh fubjecl: is due, and hath fet 
 ** up another kind of dominion, which is 
 ** to all intents and purpofes an abdica- 
 M tion or abandoning of his legal title, 
 « as fully as if it had been done by exprefs 
 " words." 
 
 Hear too Lord Chief Juftice Holt — 
 My Lords, " Both in the common law of 
 " England, and in the civil law, and 
 " in common understanding, there are 
 " exprefs acts of renunciation that are 
 " not by deed ; for if your Lordfhips 
 *' will pleafe to obferve the government 
 " and magifiracy is under a trufi, and any 
 " acting contrary to that truji is renoun- 
 " cing of the truft though it be not a re- 
 «' nouncing by formal deed; for it is a 
 *' plain declaration by act and deed, 
 
 Ka " though
 
 ( 68 ) 
 
 " though not in writing, that he who bath 
 " thetrufly acting contrary, is a declaimer 
 " of the truR -, efpecially, my Lords, if 
 " the actings be fuch as are inconfijient 
 " with, and fubverfive of the trufisy for 
 " how can a man in reafon or fenfe, ex- 
 " prefs a greater renunciation of a truft, 
 (e than by the conrtant declarations of 
 " his actions to be quite contrary to that 
 " truit?" 
 
 Now Sir whether your whiggifm moft 
 refcmbles that of Lord Chancellor Somers 
 and Chief Juftice Holt or that of the non- 
 juring ex-bifhops I will leave to your own 
 candour to decide. 
 
 You give your French correfpondent to 
 underftand that a vail majority of (t not 
 " the lead learned and reflecting men of 
 " this kingdom" totally difapprove and 
 
 abhor
 
 ( 69 ) 
 
 abhor the whole foundation and proceed^ 
 ings of the Revolution in France. In 
 the retirement in which I live, I have the 
 good fortune fometimes to converfe with 
 perfons deferving at lead of this defcrip-r 
 tion (for they are not all confined to courts 
 and capitals) and the refult of my obfer- 
 vation has been very different indeed from 
 that of yours. Thefe perfons have ap- 
 peared to me to confider the grounds and 
 motives of this Revolution as perfectly 
 legitimate. To have tried it upon the 
 principles of our own revered Revolution, 
 and to have found in their verdict that the 
 conftitution of France had been long fub- 
 verted^ the original contract; between King 
 and People long broken, and the fundamen- 
 tal laws hng violated. Far from confi- 
 dering the nafcent liberties of France 
 2 with
 
 ( 7° ) 
 with envy or averfion they have feemed 
 
 to look forward with a warm and lively 
 hope to the final eftablifhment of civil 
 and religious freedom in that great nation - y 
 perhaps to have extended their views into 
 the beautiful perfpe&ive of general liberty 
 and general toleration. Upon the wif- 
 dom or expediency of the acts of the Na- 
 tonal AfTembly they have not indeed 
 appeared fo ready to decide, they have 
 thought it more decent and refpectful to 
 fufpend their judgment till the final hear- 
 ing of the caufe, to leave to the perfons 
 immediately concerned the management 
 of their own affairs, and the confideration 
 of their own interefts, and not to give 
 extrajudicial opinions pendente lite in a 
 fuit in which they are neither plaintiff 
 nor defendant nor advocate nor judge. 
 
 If
 
 ( 7* ) 
 
 If you Sir have thought this prudent cau- 
 
 tion unnecefTary, I am perfuaded you 
 have been provoked to think fo by certain 
 indifcreet applications made or fuppofed 
 to be made of what is now doing in France 
 to what might or ought to be done here. 
 The extreme ardour of your zeal cannot 
 ealily be otherways understood. 
 
 You give as RoufTeau's a fecret for ex- 
 citing the callous attention of the public 
 which might otherwife perhaps have been 
 fufpected to be a receipt of your own *. It 
 has been faid of him that his deductions are 
 logical and exact from premifes which are 
 fometimes falfe. In this indeed you dif- 
 fer, for your firft pofitions may for the 
 mod part be fafely admitted and your con- 
 clufions mould I think be very frequently 
 
 Page 251, 
 
 rejected.
 
 ( 7* ) 
 
 rejected. And yet I believe the errours 
 
 as well as the beauties of the writings 
 of both derive much from the fame fource, 
 
 a too exquifite even to a morbid feeling 
 of your fubject. RoufTeau was a man of 
 great fincerity and far above any fuch 
 little art as you fay Hume attributed to 
 him ; fo, Sir, are you ; but you have un- 
 governed imaginations. The modefty of 
 reafon is dazzled and confounded amid 
 the brilliant blaze of your imagery and 
 invention. You are driven out of your 
 coivrfe by crowding too much fail in pro- 
 portion to your ballaft. In fuch lan- 
 guage as yours a man may (to borrow a 
 French term) dereafon with a great deal of 
 eclat and fuccefs ; plain matter-of-fact 
 writers might often anfwer you fufficiently 
 by tranflating your eloquent periods, where 
 
 " imagi-
 
 ( 13 ) 
 •• imagination bodies forth the forms of 
 
 " things unknown" — into common lan- 
 guage, the vulgar idiom. 
 
 Becaufe the tenets attributed to certain 
 focieties feem to ftimulate to premature or 
 unnecefTary reiiftance you attack all re- 
 form. You fee a machine leaning to one 
 fide and you redrefs it with fo much re- 
 dundant ftrength towards the other, that 
 inftead of reftoring it to its true perpen- 
 dicular medium, you force it into a more 
 violent and I think a much more dan- 
 gerous inclination j for if we were to admit 
 one of the extremes, either that the na- 
 tion may at any moment cafhier one King 
 and elect another 5 or that in no cafe 
 whatfoever the nation can interrupt or 
 change the hereditary fucceffion of the 
 Crown, I muft confider the firft alterna- 
 
 L tive
 
 ( 74 ) 
 
 tive as the founded in principle and the 
 fafeft in practice j for after all modify it 
 how you will, in fpite of all the addrefs 
 with which you endeavour to keep the 
 '• fmall and temporary folution of con- 
 " tinuity from the eye*," your diminutive 
 epithets qualifying phrafes and " pious 
 l( legiflative ejaculations," in fpite of the 
 pains you take to " countenance andfofter 
 u and make the moft of the idea of an 
 M hereditary fucceffion," in fpite of your 
 attempt to confound expediency with ne- 
 cej/ityf, it will at laft remain an undeniable 
 facl; that James was " cafhiered" and that 
 William was " eledled." 
 
 " How," you afkj, 4< does the fettle- 
 " ment of the Crown in the Brunfwick 
 line come to legalize our monarchy 
 
 * Page 24. f P. 23. J P. 19. 
 
 " rather 
 
 it
 
 ( 75 ) 
 
 " rather than that of any of the neigh- 
 " bouring countries ?" For this plain rea- 
 fon, becaufe the Houfe of Brunfwick was 
 called to the throne by the national choice 
 in preference to the Houfes of Stuart and 
 Savoy and Bourbon, as more likely to pre- 
 ferve and maintain our civil and religious 
 rights -, and becaufe the Houfe of Brunf- 
 wick accepted of the Crown under con- 
 tracts and ftipulations known, ratified and 
 recorded ; nothing like which has ever 
 happened that I know of in any neigh- 
 bouring monarchy. 
 
 You tell us too that the ftatute De 
 tallagio non concedendo *, the Petition of 
 right — the act of Habeas Corpus depend 
 upon the validity of the title of the King 
 by whom they were affented to ; but this 
 
 * Page 31. 
 
 L z I utterly
 
 ( 7.6 ) 
 
 I utterly deny.. The privileges ratified 
 by thefe acts were not in the gift of any 
 King ; they were " the true antient and 
 " indubitable rights of the people of this 
 " kingdom-}-." 
 
 If, Sir, you had confined yourfelf to 
 expofing the hollow and mapelefs phan- 
 toms exifting, if they exifl at all in the 
 brains of a few fenfelefs enthufiafts, 
 
 —The brood of folly without father bred — 
 
 and to the examination of the wifdom and 
 equity of the proceedings of the National 
 Ailembly, you would never have been 
 troubled with any obfervations of mine. 
 But you have gone much and I think 
 mod unnectffarily farther : you have at- 
 tacked the fundamental principles of all 
 reform : you have brought the fubjccl: 
 
 * Bill of Rights. 
 
 which
 
 ( 71 ) 
 
 which appeared at fuch a diftance home 
 to our own bofoms — tua res agitur — 
 you have revived old difputes and fubfided 
 heats, evoked the fleeping fhades of Ja- 
 cobites and Republicans, and called up 
 into untimely refurreclion the long for- 
 gotten animofities of Roundhead and Ca- 
 valier. You have made it necefTary for 
 us now to examine when and how, under 
 what preffure of evil and under what 
 fanclion of right, a revolution may ever 
 again at any future period be recurred to 
 in this country. 
 
 It is of the efTence of power to encreafe 
 by its own force ; wherever the greatefr, 
 quantum is found, to that all inferiorquan- 
 tities will gravitate as to a common centre. 
 For this reafon Mr. Locke when he gave 
 a form of government to one of the Co- 
 3 lonies
 
 ( 73 ) 
 lonies in America limited its duration to 
 an hundred years. To fabricate eternal 
 machinery either phyfical or moral be- 
 longs only to the hand of God. Nay fo far 
 has God himfelf condefcended to the ver- 
 fatility of his creatures that he has already 
 given us two difpenfations differing con- 
 fiderably from each other. The very re- 
 gulation of time by which every thing 
 die is regulated has been found fubject 
 to errour and requiring change, To the 
 Julian has fucceeded the Gregorian fyf- 
 tem, and to that another mull fucceed if 
 the world mould fo long endure. Our poor 
 little inftitutions like our watches require 
 to be periodically wound up and fre- 
 quently repaired. They all contain in 
 their very eilence and original concoction 
 latent principles of deftruction. It is the 
 
 fceft
 
 ( 79 ) 
 beft office of the collective wifdom of the 
 times to mark the decay and to retard its 
 progrefs, and when the day comes, as come 
 it muft fooner or later, that the machine 
 ceafes entirely to anfwer the purpofes for 
 which it was conflrucled, to direct the 
 formation of a new one if poffible on a 
 better principle and of more durable ma- 
 terials. 
 
 In this country thofe who confider 
 
 the immenfe and growing influence of 
 
 the Crown in addition to powers which 
 
 had been already deemed fuflicient for its 
 
 fupport, will not I think be at a lofs to 
 
 prognofticate the malady which will one 
 
 day give the mortal blow to our boafted 
 
 conftitution. Corrupt influence is its 
 
 radical diieafe, it will encreafe with our 
 
 riches and peace and profperity j 
 
 The
 
 ( So ) 
 
 The young difeafe that muft fubdue at length 
 Grows with our growth and ftrengthens with our 
 ftrcngth. 
 
 This polypus in the heart of the con- 
 stitution will carry it off by a fudden 
 blow full of life and vigour, and without 
 much warning. The conqueft of Ame- 
 rica by the King's troops, would moll 
 probably have greatly accelerated this 
 event; as the increafe of Indian gold and 
 Indian influence now bid fair to haflen its 
 approach. 
 
 By way of deterring us in this country 
 from meddling in the myfteries of ftate, 
 and to " operate with a wholefome awe 
 " upon free citizens," you tell your cor- 
 refpondent that our commonwealth is 
 «' confecrated* ," that its " very defects and 
 
 Page 143. 
 
 " comip-
 
 ( 8t ) 
 
 " corruptions are to be approached" 
 " with pious awe and trembling folici- 
 
 " tude." You denounce the fate of 
 Uzzah, whom God fmote for his errour, 
 " becaufe he put forth his hand and took 
 hold of the ark of God when the oxen 
 (hook it, on all thofe who fhall dare to ex- 
 amine with facrilegious curiofity this my- 
 ftical hypoftatic union of Church and State. 
 With a little lefs of the terrible and 
 fomewhat more of enjouement, you in ano- 
 ther place advife us to leave altercation 
 and take to enjoyment. 
 
 Ut melius, quidquid erit, natis \ 
 
 And then again you quit this epicurean 
 indifference for quite another ftrain *, and 
 allow that a " jealous ever-waking vi- 
 
 • Pag. 79; 
 
 M f gilancc
 
 ( 82 .) 
 
 " gilance to guard the treafure of our 
 " liberty, not only from invafion but 
 • from decay and corruption is our beft 
 " vvifdom and our firft duty." 
 
 What an admirable writer has faid in 
 anfwer to the preachers up of all this ef- 
 feminate timidity in probing the wounds 
 of the ftate ; what he urges with irrefift- 
 ible force on thofe who would perfuade 
 us that at the time we guarded ourfelves 
 from one mode of oppremon we covenanted 
 to fubmit to every other, is fo flrong in 
 point, replete with fo much intelligence 
 and intimate knowledge of the fubjecl:, fo 
 appofite to the prefent times, and fo de- 
 ferving of conftant attention, that I will 
 indulge myfelf [in the liberty of making a 
 very long quotation. To what in fubflance 
 I might have faid myfelf, I will fuperadd 
 
 the
 
 ( «3 ) 
 
 the authority of a great name, and the 
 energy of mod eloquent language *. " It 
 " is not to be argued -f ," fays this great 
 orator, '« that we endure no grievances be- 
 f* caufe our grievances are not of the fame 
 " fort with thofe under which we labour- 
 " ed formerly; not precifely thofe which 
 " we bore under theTudors, or vindicated 
 " on the Stuarts. " J No complaifance 
 * ( to our Court, or to our age, can make 
 " me believe nature to be fo changed, but 
 " that public liberty will be among us, 
 " as among our anceftors, obnoxious to 
 if fome perfon or other j and that oppor- 
 " tunitieswill be furniihed for attempting 
 " at leaft fome alteration to the prejudice 
 " of our conflitution. Thefe attempts 
 
 * Thoughts on the Caufe of the prefent Difcontents. 
 f Page 8. % Page 10. 
 
 M 2 ** will
 
 (( 
 
 tt 
 
 <( 
 
 (t 
 
 ( 84 ) 
 
 will naturally vary in their mode, ac- 
 " cording to times and circumftances; for 
 ambition, though it has ever the fame 
 gencial views, has not at all times the 
 fame means, nor the fame particular 
 " objects. A great deal of the furniture 
 f* of antient tyranny is worn to rags, and 
 " the reft is entirely out of fafhion. Be- 
 " fides there are few ftatefmen fo very 
 " clumfy and awkward in their bulinefs, 
 " as to fall into the identical fnare which 
 " has proved fatal to their predeceffors. 
 " When an arbitrary impofition is at- 
 *' tempted upon the fubjecl:, undoubtedly 
 " it will not bear on its forehead the name 
 " of flip -money. There is no danger that 
 " an extenfion of the for eft-laws mould be 
 " the chofen mode of opprefiion in this 
 " age i and when we hear any inftance of 
 
 f! mi-
 
 ( 85 ) 
 
 M minifterial rapacity to the prejudice of 
 <( the rights of private life, it will cer- 
 " tainly not be the exaction of two hun- 
 «' dred pullets from a woman of fafhion for 
 " leave to lie with her own hufband. 
 f* Every age has its own manners and its 
 f politics dependant upon them, and the 
 " fame attempts will not be made againft 
 «* a conftitution fully formed and matured 
 *f that were ufed to deftroy it in the cra- 
 " die, or to refift its growth during its 
 *t infancy. 
 
 " Againft the being of Parliament I am 
 '< fatisfied no defigns have ever been enter- 
 M tained fince the Revolution. Every one 
 «' muft perceive that it is ftrongly the in- 
 " tereft of the Court to have fome fecond 
 " caufe interpofed between the Minifter 
 " and the people. The gentlemen of the 
 
 '« Houfe
 
 ( 86 ) 
 
 " Houfe of Commons have an intcreft 
 « equally ftrong in fuftaining the part of 
 Kt that intermediate caufe. However they 
 " may hire out the ufufrucl of their 
 (t voices, they never will part with the 
 " fee and inheritance. Accordingly thofe 
 *< who have been of the moil kaown de- 
 " votion to the will and pleafure of a 
 " Court have at the fame time been 
 41 mofl forward in afferting an high autho- 
 " rity in the Houfe of Commons. When 
 «' thev knew who were to ufe that au- 
 lt thority and how it was to be employ- 
 <c ed, they thought it could never be car- 
 «' ried too far. It muft. be always the 
 ■" wifh of an unconftitutional itatefman, 
 *' that an Houfe of Commons who are 
 •' entirely dependant upon him, fhould 
 ik have every right of the people entirely
 
 ( 8/ ) 
 
 " dependant upon their pleafure. It was 
 •' foon difcovcred that the forms of a 
 " free and the ends of an arbitrary govern- 
 «* ment, were things not altogether in- 
 " compatible. 
 
 tl The power of the Crown, almoft 
 •' dead and rotten as prerogative has grown 
 " up anew with more ftrength and far lefs 
 " odium, under the name of influence ; 
 " an influence which operated without 
 " noife and without violence; an influence 
 " which converted the very antagonist 
 " into the inftrument of power; which 
 ls contained in itfelf a perpetual principle 
 " of growth and renovation ; and which 
 " the diflreffes and the profperity of the 
 ** country equally tended to augment, was 
 •* an admirable fubftitute for a preroga- 
 " tive, that being only the offspring of 
 
 " and-
 
 ( 88 ) 
 •' antiquated prejudices, had moulded in 
 " its original {lamina, irrefiftible prin- 
 «' ciples of decay and dillblution. The 
 " ignorance of the people is a bottom but 
 " for a temporary fyflem ; the intereft of 
 •"« active men in the ftate is a foundation 
 " perpetual and infallible. 
 
 " * They who will not conform their 
 *« condud to the public good and cannot 
 " fupport it by the prerogative of the 
 u Crown have adopted a new plan. They 
 fi have totally abandoned the mattered and 
 ** old-fafhioned fortrefs of prerogative, and 
 «« made a lodgment in the ilrong hold of 
 44 Parliament itfelf. 
 
 tc If they have any evil defign to which 
 «' there is no ordinary legal power com- 
 i« menfurate, they bring it into Parlia- 
 
 * Page 70. 
 
 *« ment.
 
 ( h ) 
 
 " ment. In Parliament the whole is ex- 
 " ecuted from the beginning to the end; 
 " in Parliament the power of obtaining 
 " their object is abfolute and the fafety 
 " in the proceeding perfect. No rules 
 " to confine, no after-reckonings to ter- 
 '* rify. Parliament cannot with any great 
 " propriety punifh others for things in 
 *< which they themfelves have been ac- 
 « c complices. Thus the controul of Par- 
 " liament upon the executory power is 
 " loft, becaufe Parliament is made to par- 
 H take in every confjderable adl of go- 
 «* vernment. 
 
 " * I muft beg leave •}•, ' however,' to 
 " obferve, that no part of the legiflative 
 " rights can be exercifed without regard 
 " to the general opinion of thofe who are 
 
 • Letter to John Fair and John Harris, f P*g e S ' 
 
 N " to
 
 ( 9° ) 
 
 ** to be governed. That general opinion 
 <€ is the vehicle and organ of legiflativ« 
 ct omnipotence; without this it may be 
 " a theory to entertain the mind, but it is 
 " nothing in the direction of affairs. The 
 (t completenefs of the legiflafive authority 
 " of Parliament over this kingdom is not 
 " queftioned ; and yet many things indu- 
 " bitably included in the abftracT: idea of 
 te that power, and which carry no abfo- 
 ,c lute injuflice in themfelves, yet being 
 " contrary to the opinion and feelings of 
 " the people, can as little be exercifed as 
 *' if the Parliament in that cafe had been 
 " poffefTed of no right at all. I fee no 
 *< abilracl: reafon which can be given why 
 ** the fame power which made and re- 
 " pealed the High Commiffion-Court and 
 u the Star Chamber might not revive 
 
 «« them
 
 ( 9i ) 
 
 ** them again j and thefe courts, warned 
 " by their former fate, might poffibly 
 " execute their power with fome fort of 
 " juftice. But the madnefs would be as 
 " unqueftionable as the competence of that 
 " Parliament which mould attempt fuch 
 " things *. In effect to follow not to 
 " force the public inclination, to give a 
 " direction, a form, a technical drefs, and 
 " a fpecific fan&ion to the general fenfe 
 " of the community, is the true end of 
 " legiflature. It is fowith regard to the 
 t( exercife of all the powers which our 
 " conftitution knows in any of its parts, 
 '* and indeed to the fubftantial exiftence 
 M of any of the parts themfelves. 
 
 *< ^ jf there be one fadt in the world 
 *' perfectly clear it is this -, that the dif- 
 
 * Page 52. fP. 55. 
 
 N 2 " petition
 
 ( 9 2 ) 
 
 « pofition of the people of thefe countries* 
 " is wholly averfc to any other than a free 
 " government. If any afks me what a 
 " free government is, I anfwer, that for 
 " any practical purpofe it is what the 
 " people think fo ; and that they, and not 
 «' I, are the natural, lawful, and compe- 
 '« tent judges of this matter. 
 
 * Liberty" « muft indeed* f be limited 
 < s in order to be pofTerTed J ; but liberty 
 *' is a good to be improved, not an evil 
 (t to be lefTened. It is not only a private 
 te bleffing of the firft order, but the vital 
 " fpring and energy of the ftate itfelf, 
 " which has juft fo much life and vigour 
 i( as there is liberty in it. But whether 
 " liberty be advantageous or not (for I 
 •* know it is a fafhion to decry the very 
 
 * America in the original. f P3ge 57, t P« 5%* 
 
 < ( prin-
 
 ( 93 ) 
 
 " principle) none will difpute that peace 
 " is a bleffing; and peace muft in the 
 " courfe of human affairs be frequently 
 *• bought by fome indulgence and tole- 
 41 ration at leaft to liberty. For as the 
 " Sabbath (though of Divine institution) 
 W was made for man, not man for the 
 " Sabbath, government, which can claim 
 " no higher origin or authority, in its ex- 
 w ercife at leaft, ought to conform to the 
 ** exigencies of the time and the temper 
 " and character of the people with whom 
 ** it is concerned ; and not always to at- 
 " tempt violently to bend the people to 
 * their theories of fubjection. The bulk 
 " of mankind on their part are not ex- 
 '•* ceflively curious concerning any the- 
 <% ories whilft they are really happy; and 
 •' one fure fymptom of an ill-condu&ed 
 
 " ftate
 
 ( 94 ) 
 «' ftate is the propenfity of the people to 
 " refort to them. 
 
 *« But when fubje&s by a long courfc 
 *■ of ill conduct * are once thoroughly in- 
 ** flamed and the Hate itfelf violently dif- 
 *' tempered, the people muft have fome 
 " fatisfaction to their feelings more folid 
 u than a fophiftical fpeculation on law and 
 " government -f\ — General rebellions and 
 " revolts of a whole people never were 
 u encouraged, they are always provoked.-— 
 " Can it be true loyalty to any govern- 
 <( ment X or true patriotifm towards any 
 " country to flatter their pride and paf- 
 " fions rather than to enlighten their 
 " reafon ?" 
 
 This fame great author (for I love to 
 avail myfelf of his name and abilities) for- 
 
 # Page 59* t P. 4- % P- 4*. 
 
 merly
 
 ( 95 ) 
 
 merly expofed by arguments to which time 
 and experience have fince fet their feal, 
 the danger of the policy adopted in the be- 
 ginning of the prefent reign, of breaking 
 up the great parties into which the nation 
 had been divided from the time of the 
 Revolution *. Thefe parties certainly 
 formed a barrier between the people and 
 the Crown. They embodied as it were 
 Adminiftration. They entered into a re- 
 cognizance with the public for Minifters 
 and gave a broader furface to refponfibility. 
 They ferved too as a mutual counterpoife 
 and check upon one another ; and each 
 in turn became bound by intereft, the 
 ftrongeft tie, to make common caufe with 
 the people. Each had a reputation to 
 preferve and each acted under the pene- 
 
 • Thoughts on the Caufe of th» prefent Difcontents.' 
 
 trating
 
 ( 96 ) 
 trating and fufpicious eye of a rival. By 
 their conftant druggies for popularity, then 
 neceffary to any permanency in power, the 
 flame of liberty was ventilated and kept 
 alive. Public opinion while it fat as um- 
 pire between the pretenfions of thefe 
 great contending parties preferved its due 
 weight and confequence in all public 
 
 affairs. 
 
 A great part of this has been fince done 
 away and we may deprecate the hour 
 v/hen the work mall be completed. If 
 we mould ever fee a Minifter {landing 
 firmly on the ruins of all parties, uncon- 
 nefted and alone, filling the Houfe of 
 Lords with unknownand unconnected men, 
 and every office of the Hate with young re- 
 cruits to be drilled in his own difcipline 
 againfl future contingencies, keeping all 
 
 the
 
 ( 97 ) 
 
 the wifdom and virtue and ability and con- 
 fequence of the nation at a diftance, that 
 he himfelf may be the only figure among 
 cyphers, captivating the vulgar by fmall 
 temporary arts, and lavishing with un- 
 bounded prodigality the immenfe patron- 
 age of the Crown to procure an unheard- 
 of allegiance to his perfon and a blind and 
 abject fubmiflion to his will in the two 
 Houfes of Parliament j 'fuch a Minifter 
 would prefently be found to have no other 
 boundary to his power than the extent of 
 his ambition. He might pull ofr the 
 mafk when he pleafed. The confidence 
 and good opinion of the nation might or 
 might not be the object of his tafte, but 
 it muft very foon ceafe to be neceftary for 
 his protection. fc Under fuch a Minifter we 
 might perhaps maintain our confequence 
 
 O among
 
 ( 98 ) 
 
 among foreign nations, and our wealth and 
 commerce might flourish and encreafe : all 
 this happened to France under Richlieu 5 
 but our liberties and laws would (land upon 
 a moft hollow and unfafe foundation. The 
 government might be ftrong and powerful, 
 but the conjlitution would foon find itfelf 
 attacked with a moft dangerous, perhaps 
 fatal paralyfis. 
 
 Let us for the fake of argument fuppofe 
 ourfelves, what I mould conceive the ken 
 of your mental eye would find no very 
 difficult vifion, carried forward into a 
 period of time, 1 hope a diftant one, 
 when the flagnant and ftinking waters 
 of corruption {hall have pervaded every 
 avenue of the State 3 when there (hall be 
 a Houfe of Commons chiefly confifting 
 of placemen, penfioners, hungry expec- 
 tants,
 
 ( 99 ) 
 
 tants, India delinquents, and every other 
 defcription of Ministerial dependants, ken- 
 nelled like hounds and crouching for 
 employment ; reprefentatives reprefent- 
 ing nothing but their own perfonal in- 
 terefts ; a Houfe of Lords of new crea- 
 tures of the Minister and old valets of the 
 King, courtly lawyers and a courtly 
 hierarchy — Nihil ufquam prifci aut in- 
 tegri moris ; omnes, exuta asqualitate, 
 jufla principis afpectantis ; the nation 
 itfelf infected with a narrow felfifh ego- 
 tifm, where every man feels himfelf the 
 central point of his own little circle of 
 luxuries and conveniences, and holds a 
 flupid indifference to the public concern. 
 I have ftated, I think, nothing impoffible 
 to conceive, or unlikely to happen from 
 our actual tendencies ; under fuch a fup- 
 pofition, even you, Sir, will I believe 
 
 O 2 allow,
 
 ( ioo ) 
 
 allow, that though the forms of the cons- 
 titution might be preferved and the laws 
 yet remain inviolate,, all the liberty the 
 people were dill permitted to enjoy might 
 be fairly confidered as held at the will of 
 the Crown ; it would ftand upon no 
 deeper a foundation than the perfonal 
 virtue of the Brunfwick of that days as 
 the French are faid to have owed the 
 mildnefs of their defpotifm to the sweet 
 blood of the Bourbons. 
 
 In fuch a fituation of affairs, if I 
 thought with Tully, which I certainly 
 do net, the fiojfe fi velit * a fufficient 
 caufe for recurring to refinance and re- 
 volution in point of right, I mould confider 
 fuch a conjuncture in point of expediency 
 
 i 
 
 * 
 
 Quae caufa juftior eft bella gerandi, quam fervitutis 
 tlepulfio ? in qua etiamfi non fit moleftus dominus, tamen 
 fit mifercimum pofTe n velir. 
 
 as
 
 ( ■•!• ) 
 
 as of all others the moft unpropitious to 
 any flrong effort in favour of liberty. The 
 people as I have obferved before mull: feel 
 the actual preffure of the evil and feel it 
 pretty ftrongly too before they can be 
 made to move. They will not hazard 
 prefent good for contingent advantage; 
 and in this I think their grofs good fenfe 
 directs them perfectly well ; for prema- 
 ture refinance inftead of ferving the 
 caufe of liberty, has generally ended in 
 moft effectually playing the game into the 
 hands of power; it furnifhes the very de- 
 fired pretext, and turns glorious and ho- 
 nourable contention into treafon and re- 
 bellion. In fuch order of things, action 
 being neither necefTary nor expedient, I 
 would endeavour to provide for the fu- 
 ture by turning the thoughts and atten- 
 tion
 
 ( 102 ) 
 
 tionofmento the paftj the Glorious 
 Revolution mould be perpetually re- 
 called to their remembrance, and the im- 
 mortal decree of the Convention Parlia- 
 ment continually impreffed upon their 
 minds as the great fundamental law of 
 the conftitution. If this is the object of 
 the Revolution Society, and I am fure I 
 do not know that it is not, I mould be 
 proud to fee my humble name upon its 
 rolls. To the Revolution this nation owes 
 a hundred years of liberty and profperity, 
 and if we do not " forget the Lord which 
 " brought us forth out of the land of 
 " iEgypt from the houfe of bondage" 
 it may prolong the blefling to an hundred 
 more. Let us then " teach it diligently 
 *f to our children, let us talk of it when 
 " we fit in our houfes, and when we 
 
 " walk
 
 ( i©3 ) 
 " walk by the way -, when we lie down 
 '* and when we rife up ; let us bind it 
 " for a fign upon our hands and as a 
 " frontlet between our eyes ; let us write 
 " it upon the pofts of our houfe and on 
 '* our gates." To Kings and Minifters 
 too it furnifhed a moft admirable pre- 
 ventative leflbn. Inftead of endeavour- 
 ing to prolong their Afiatic dream with 
 foft lullabies to the tune of divine right 
 and paffive obedience, I would find 
 them where they lay afleep and hollow 
 in their ear Revolution. Revolution 
 mould refound through the palaces of 
 Kings and the levee-rooms of Minifters. 
 Far from endeavouring to hide — 
 
 " This word of fear, 
 
 " Unpleafing to a royal ear," 
 
 in the tawdry rags of fophiflry, I would 
 
 prefent
 
 ( 104 ) 
 
 prefent it to them in large and legible 
 characters, that he that runneth might 
 read. I would write it upon the wall at 
 the feafl of Balfhazzar j I would force 
 them to look up to it, like the " bow in 
 * c the cloud, as the token of a covenant 
 " for perpetual generations." 
 
 We will if you pleafe carry on the 
 fiction a little farther; we will figure to 
 ourfelves one of our future Kings in the 
 conftant habit of receiving unlimited obe- 
 dience from men, cafting a jealous eye 
 towards the flubborn unpliancy of the 
 laws. He feels his power, and his mind 
 hefitates. In this flate of doubt he feeks 
 for counfel. An honeft whig-privy-coun- 
 cillor on that day might I think exprefs 
 himfelf in terms fomething like the fol- 
 lowing : Sire, I mould ill repay the con- 
 fidence
 
 ( "> 5 ) 
 
 iidence with which your Majefty is plea- 
 fed to honour me if I did not give you 
 my opinion with truth and fincerity. If 
 your Majefty will deign to confider your 
 
 people not as your private property but as a 
 truft committed to your charge, your good 
 
 fenfe and the goodnefs of your heart will I 
 think eafily lead you to perceive that you 
 can have no claim to take away or abridge 
 any of their rights or to alter any of their 
 fundamental laws ', your Majefty knows 
 that the good of the people is the end, 
 the fupreme law, the only true founda- 
 tion of all government. In the excellent 
 constitution of this kingdom it has been 
 carefully provided to feparate the execu- 
 tive from the legijlative, becaufe whenever 
 thefe two powers came to be held by the 
 fame hands either directly or indirectly 
 
 P laws
 
 ( io6 ) 
 
 laws will be made not for the advantage 
 or fecurity of the public, but for the eafe 
 or fafety or aggrandifement of the go" 
 vernirig power. Your Majefty pofleffes 
 in right of your Crown the whole of the 
 executive power over your realms in its 
 utmoft extent, and as much of the legifla- 
 tive only as is necerTary for the preferva- 
 tion of the rights of your Crown. For 
 this purpofe you are entrufted with a ne- 
 gative voice upon all new laws, but with 
 no power to alter or originate laws be- 
 caufe every law being a renunciation of 
 fome portion of natural liberty to obtain 
 fome advantage at leaft equivalent to what 
 is given up, this fort of exchange can 
 only be made by the perfons to whom the 
 property belongs ; by the nation or its 
 agents and reprefentatives, Your Majefty 
 
 will
 
 ( I0 7 ) 
 will I am fure perceive that it is the pc- 
 fitive and immediate duty of thefe agents 
 to take the utmofl care of the iriterefts 
 of their employers, and efpecially to fee 
 that in no cafe whatfoever more liberty is 
 given up than is fairly purchafed by th<* 
 protection or other advantages obtained in 
 exchange. In the common proceedings 
 of life an agent who mould a£t othervvife 
 would incur that fort of infamy which 
 renders a man unlit for the fociety of 
 people of character and honour, and this 
 infamy would extend alfo to any perfons 
 of what rank foever who mould tamper 
 with thefe agents, to endeavour to feduce 
 them by perfonal influence or bribes or 
 threats to give up the rights and proper- 
 ties of their principals upon terms of un- 
 equal exchange or for the exprefs pur- 
 
 P 2 pofes
 
 ( io8 ) 
 
 pofes of being ufed to their detriment or 
 annoyance. I will therefore venture hum- 
 bly to flate to your Majefty that your rights 
 are ftri&ly confined to the exercife of the 
 executive power and to the fimple nega- 
 tion on all propofed laws ; and that you 
 have no claim in juftice or reafon either 
 by yourfelf or your Minifters to govern 
 and direct the legiflation. 
 
 Having with great humility ftated to 
 your Majefty what I take to be the rights 
 of a King of Great Britain, I will venture 
 to affert that your interejis exactly coincide 
 with them. To the fuperior excellence 
 of the government this country is in- 
 debted for its fuperior rank among the 
 nations far above its proportion of num- 
 bers or extent. Men are encouraged to 
 every ufeful exertion by the certainty of 
 
 enjoying
 
 ( *°9 ) 
 
 enjoying the fruits of their induftry or 
 ingenuity. The arts, the commerce, the 
 riches, the profperity of your Majefty's 
 people are owing to the fecurity of their 
 perfons and properties under a free con- 
 ftitution. Remove this fecurity and ta- 
 lents and induftry will inftantly feek it 
 where it is elfewhere to be found. 
 Inftead of the Monarch of a great and 
 powerful nation confident againft a world 
 in arms, holding in your hand the balance 
 among the powers of the world, you would 
 fink into the petty prince of a petty people, 
 the dependant of fome great ftate or the 
 confederate of a fmall one ; fo that your 
 Majefty's greatnefs is owing to the in- 
 fluence of thefe very laws now in queftion 
 before us. Nor is the bappinefs of your 
 Majefty lefs concerned in the prefervation 
 
 of
 
 ( 11° ) 
 
 of the conftitution than your greatnefs. 
 You ftand in a fituation perhaps unmatched 
 in the relative pofitions of men. You 
 have unlimited authority to do good and 
 none to do harm ; every faculty to create 
 reverence and love and no power to ex- 
 cite envy or anger ; with lefs effort than 
 is neceffary to fill the loweft offices of life 
 you are fecure of a perpetual empire over 
 the hearts of a naturally loyal and gene- 
 rous people. After the right and expe- 
 diency we come to confider the point of 
 fact; whether your Majefty could with 
 fafety to your Crown overturn the funda- 
 mental laws of the conftitution, and I am 
 firmly of opinion that you could not. 
 Though the people are luxurious and pro- 
 fligate and apparently indifferent to pub- 
 lic meafures, if your Majefty 's Minifters 
 
 were
 
 
 ( III ) 
 
 ^vere to put forth their hands and touch 
 any of thofe laws which the people have 
 been ufed to confider as the palladia of 
 their liberties, another order of things 
 would prefently take place. " It would 
 " operate as a call upon the nation." The 
 people would roufe from their lethargy; 
 men would aflbciate and combine and con- 
 vene; the found of " To your tents, O If- 
 c< rael !" would be propagated in low mur- 
 murs from the Hebrides to the Land's End, 
 Your Majefty well knows what parled in 
 1688, and there is no reafon in the world 
 to believe that the fame caufe would not 
 again produce the fame effect. The re- 
 finance of the people would indeed be 
 much more eafy and direct than it was at 
 that time, becaufe a grand precedent has 
 been eftablifhed ; there is now a leading 
 
 cafe
 
 ( H2 ) 
 
 cafe in point j they have tracks and guide- 
 polls and land-marks which they had not 
 before ; befides the more recent examples 
 of America and France and even Ireland 
 before their eyes. Thefe, Sire, are," the 
 opinions of a plain man fincerely attached 
 to your Majefty's perfon and government, 
 but holding a ftill flronger bond of attach- 
 ment to the laws and conftitution of my 
 country. 
 
 The Tories of that day would not fail 
 to take the oppofite ground. They would 
 obferve that there is all the difference in 
 the world between obtaining a repeal of 
 thefe fundamental laws by the good-will 
 and confent of Parliament and endeavour- 
 ing to carry on government without the 
 aid of Parliament. That liberty- may be 
 a fine thing but that politenefs and gal- 
 lantry
 
 ( "3 ) 
 
 lantry and loyalty are infinitely finer. 
 That the Revolution about which a few- 
 factious republicans made fuch a rout 
 went much more upon the prefervation of 
 the Proteftant hierarchy of the church of 
 England and the privileges of Parliament 
 than upon any nonfenfical abftract notions 
 of the rights of the people. That if the na- 
 tion did upon that occafion fee??i to elect 
 a King, they well knew that they were 
 doing what they had no right to do, they 
 did it as if they were afhamed of it, keep- 
 ing it from the eye with a fort of pick- 
 pocket addrefs, and the moment it was 
 over renouncing any fuch right in future 
 for ever j that provided the ecclefiaftical 
 and civil eftabliihments are preferved, and 
 above all provided the /oaves and Jifies can 
 continue to be diftributed fo that the 
 
 Q^ " multitude
 
 ( **4 ) 
 
 cc multitude may eat and be filled" all 
 will be well ; that men are tired of alter- 
 cation aridwifh only for enjoyment; that 
 indeed what has been done in America and 
 France has mace the people almoft fick of 
 the very name of liberty. 
 
 Before I conclude let me protefl againfl: 
 being mifunderftood. I am no abettor of 
 fa&ion. You, Sir, cannot love peace 
 and order and fubordination and tranquil- 
 lity more than I do. Anarchy and con- 
 fufion and civil difcord cannot be more 
 your abhorrence than they are mine *. I 
 only infift that we have confiitutional rights 
 and fundamental laws, all attacks upon 
 which the nation has as much right to 
 
 * Nee privates focos, nee publicas leges, nee liberta- 
 tis jura cura habere poteft, quem difcordia, quern c 
 civium, quem bellum civile deleftat; eumque ex numero 
 hominum ejeciendum, ex finibus humans naturs exter- 
 minandum puto. Cic. 
 
 refift
 
 ( "5 ) 
 
 refill: as every individual has to repd the 
 force of a highwayman ; refinance is no 
 more rebellion in one cafe than killing is 
 murder in the other. Thefe are extreme 
 cafes and require extreme remedies. — Why, 
 Sir, do you call upon us to moot points on 
 thefe delicate and dangerous topics ? The 
 very confideration of them is omenous; 
 it tends to fill the mind with vain fears 
 and falfe alarms. God avert them from 
 thefe kingdoms ! with very little reliance 
 on human wifdom and virtue we may hope 
 and truft that Government will ever be as 
 backward to provoke violence as the people 
 ought to be to recur to it. d man in 
 the world would hear what you fo em- 
 phatically term " a call of the nation *" 
 with more dread and horrour than I mould 
 * Lc'.t^r to ' . Farr and Harris, p. 16. 
 
 Q 2 do.
 
 ( "6 ) 
 
 do. But ftill I hope I mould obey that 
 call if the occafion really demanded it. I 
 am fure if I did not I muft for ever after 
 live a coward in mine own efteem. 
 
 I was born and nurtered in the old- 
 fafhioned defpifed principles of Whig- 
 gifm, and in thefe principles I (hall cer- 
 tainly die. They are the prejudices of 
 my infancy confirmed by the reafon of my 
 riper age. One of the fundamental arti- 
 cles of the fymbol of political faith in 
 which I received my firft rudiments of 
 inftruction is, that the prefent Royal Fa- 
 mily were called by the nation to the throne 
 of thefe kingdoms to defend and fupport 
 our religion and liberties and laws -, that 
 they have entered into a folemn contrast to 
 this effect, and receive the allegiance of the 
 people upon thefe terms and thefe terms 
 
 only.
 
 ( JI 7 ) 
 
 only. In the Declaration of Rights the 
 u people" " claim demand and injifi upon" 
 " all and Angular the premifes as their 
 " undoubted rights and liberties." In the 
 Bill of Rights " all and lingular the rights 
 (< and liberties afferted and claimed in the 
 " faid Declaration are recognized to be 
 ft the true, antient and indubitable rights 
 
 " of the people" In the Act of Settlement 
 limiting the crown to the prefent Royal 
 Family, they are declared to be ft the 
 (t birthright of the people of England." 
 Thefe were the doctrines by which I was 
 early taught a loyal attachment to the iU 
 luflrious Houfe of Hanover. Thefe were 
 the doctrines of the Courts of George the 
 Firft and George the Second. They were 
 proud to be told that they reigned by the 
 free choice of a free people. Hereditary 
 
 right
 
 ( »8 ) 
 
 rieht and unlimited fubmifiion were then 
 the watch-words of faction and rebellion. 
 Thefe, Sir, are the doctrines for which I 
 contend becaufe I believe them to be per- 
 fectly constitutional. I go no farther. I 
 fufpect I was tempted to anfwer your let- 
 ter merely upon account of that paffage 
 where you feem to fay that the nation ab- 
 dicated and renounced at the Revolution 
 the right of claiming demanding and injijl- 
 ing upon their undoubted rights and liberties, 
 the birthright of the people of England by 
 any future interruption of the fuccefiion. 
 I will now take my leave. It is high 
 time to put an end to this defultory letter 
 already I fear much too long. I will finifh 
 as I began with the mod fincere affurances 
 of refpcct and efteem. I think I have 
 feen it fomewhere mentioned that you 
 
 have
 
 ( "9 ) 
 
 have been or are to be prefented with ho- 
 nary degrees in our univerfities ; and that 
 your work is admired and praifed by the 
 highefl perfonages. I fincerelyhope fome- 
 thing more folid will follow. Honours 
 cannot be placed on a more deferving head 
 or truft committed into purer hands. I 
 am perfuaded that there is not a man in 
 the nation whofe elevation would be re- 
 ceived with lefs envy or more univerfal 
 approbation. To give a dignified repofe 
 to the evening of a life like yours would 
 equally honour the receiving and the con- 
 ferring hand. 
 
 My clients have nothing of this fort to 
 difpofe of; they have nothing to give but 
 barren applaufe ; and they commonly be- 
 flow that with fuch incapacity of judg- 
 ment that a wife man will not be much 
 flattered with the acquisition. There is 
 
 - i. .„j
 
 ( 120 ) 
 
 indeed another fort of applaufe of which 
 I confefs myfelf more ambitious, an ap- 
 plaufe which the world can neither give 
 nor take away, and which cannot be bought 
 with darts of patriotifm or hypocritical 
 grimace ; an applaufe, Sir, of which I am 
 perfuaded no man knows the value better 
 than you do, and which will not fail to 
 gild your fetting day with more cheering 
 rays than ever emanated from the fmiles 
 of Minifters or Kings, I mean the applaufe 
 of our own confciences. — Adieu then, 
 good Sir — accept my fmcere falutations, 
 and the regard and confideration with 
 
 which I am 
 
 Your faithful and moft humble fervant, 
 
 BROOKE BOOTHBY. 
 
 Alhborne Hal!, 
 Dec. ±~, 1790. 
 
 FINIS.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 3, !• 4» f° r b e > reacl *> 
 
 . - o, 1. 13, for fuck, read wwc//. 
 
 . 13, note, for prctf; 'read proh. 
 
 _— - 24, 1. 8, for being, read £«'««; 
 
 . 31, 1. 7, for contripetal, read centripetal. 
 
 . -jg y 1. 1, for imprimaturs, read imprimaturs^ 
 
 « 40, 1. 14, for continues, read continue. 
 
 ■ 42, 1. 2, for drawn, read driven. 
 
 . 4^ 1. 7, for concertable, read convertible* 
 
 . 46, 1. 2, before reafon, add own. 
 
 . 48, 1. 5, before Hierarchy, add y*. 
 
 r ; 6, 1 the laft, for /oo/i, read loofer. 
 
 68, 1. 14, for cx-bijhops, read cxbtjhop. 
 
 • 81 , 1. 1 4, for BaftJ, read pad. 
 
 . 99) I; it, for afpetlantb, read afpetlantes. 
 
 , 103,1. 7, for JurmJlied,re.i&JurmJkes. 
 
 — 104, 1. 1 7, for on, read 0/, 
 
 _ 105, 1. 18, for came, read come. 
 
 . 115,1. 8, for omenous, read ominous 
 
 — — u6, 1. ,5, for. nurUrcd, read nurtured-
 
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