l 
 
 ^ 
 
 Thoughts on the English 
 Government .. .in a Series of 
 Letters . . . 
 
 by 
 John Reeves
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 Thoughts on the Engitjk Government. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO THE 
 
 QUIET GOOD SENS!- 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 IN A SERIES OF LETTERS. 
 
 LETTER THE FIRST. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 National Character of Englijhmen The Nature of 
 the Englijh Government The Corruptions caufed 
 In both by the Introduction of French Principles 
 The Effecls produced by the Reformation and the 
 Re-volution upon Political Principles The Conducl 
 of the Whig Party The Character of the modern 
 Democrats. 
 
 LONDON; 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. OWEN, NO. l68, PICCADILLY. 
 1795- 
 
 [Price Two Shillings.]
 
 5 
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 I 
 
 CO 
 
 THE following pages make part of 
 H what was intended as a Preface to a Work 
 
 OQ 
 
 ^ now in hand : But the Author having 
 been gradually led into many reflections 
 which are of a temporary nature, and fome 
 
 ^ of them fuch as may be thought not quite 
 
 CD % 
 
 ^ fuited to the temper and gravity of the 
 
 0. 
 
 * Work to which they were to be prefixed, 
 he gives them to the Public as a Pamphlet ; 
 and if his manner of treating the fubject 
 of our Government and Laws fhould be 
 
 z 
 
 I approved, the prefent fheets may be fol- 
 
 Iowe4 by more. 
 
 07069
 
 TO THE 
 
 QJJIET GOOD SENSE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 A ADDRESS myfelf to you in that temper of 
 mind, which is produced when we contemplate 
 what may be conlidered as the caufe of all the 
 happinefs we enjoy in this country. 
 
 GOOD SENSE is faid to be worth all learning and 
 all fcience ; and it is believed that, among other 
 diflin&ions which we pofiefs, in this Ifland, above 
 the Nations around us, we poflefs a great por- 
 tion of this excellent quality, through all ranks of 
 fociety, from the higheft to the loweft. I declare 
 myfelf one, who affents to this belief. Should any 
 of the modern philofophers, or politicians, think 
 this declaration too affuming and illiberal, and that 
 B too
 
 too little is allowed for the endowments and quali- 
 fications of the reft of mankind, my anfvver is this ; 
 That I have not yet feen equal marks of Good Seiife 
 in thofe matters where of all others they mould be 
 manifefted, I mean in their La\vs and Government. 
 In the next place, I am not a Citizen of the World, 
 fo as to divide my affection with ftrangers I am 
 an Engliftiman and I thank God for having 
 placed me among a People who, I think, poiTefs 
 moregoodnefs of heart and more GOOD SENSE than 
 any other in the world, and who are the happieft, 
 becaufe they make the bed ufe of both. 
 
 WHEN our happinefs fo much depends upon the 
 exercife of GOOD SENSE, how kind has Providence 
 been in beflowing this valuable quality fo gene- 
 rally through all ranks of People! It is to be found 
 among the middling and ordinary claries as much 
 as among the higher ; depending lefs upon the 
 helps of education than the original frame and 
 temperature of the mind. It is ufually diftinct 
 from the faculties that make moil fho\v and attract 
 notice ; it manifefts itfelf in conduct rather than 
 difcourfe ; it is not what a man fays, fo much as 
 what he does. In fuch a fphere as this, how many 
 can act without feeming to be employed ; and what 
 effects may be produced without any one appear- 
 ing to be in motion 1 
 
 3 IT
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 IT is in fuch quiet unperceived movements that 
 the GOOD SENSE of the Country performs mod ofits 
 operations, and exercifes its influence on the con- 
 duct of public men and the national affairs. How 
 often have we feen defigns opened with high ex- 
 pectation, fet off with great appearance of argument 
 and much ornament of fpeech ! How have we 
 fecri parties combine ; all their power of numbers, 
 and all their arts of confederation brought into 
 action ! meeting after meeting ! all the flirrers 
 and all the talkers at work ! no doubt of accom- 
 plifhing their object ! no fufpicion that anything 
 could oppofe them! and how have all thefe mighty 
 doings been baffled, and fcattered into air, with- 
 out our feeing the hand that has deftroyed them. 
 
 IT is the GOOD SLNSE of the Country that has 
 done this ; it is YOU who have confounded the 
 builders in their mad work, and have difperfed 
 them ; one of them you have admonifhed, another 
 you have reprehended, another you have frowned 
 down ; all of them you have discountenanced and 
 difcredited ; and behold ! the leader and the led 
 find no longer ftrength in their numbers ; their 
 arguments appear to have no reafon, and their 
 oratory no charms to miflead. 
 
 B 2 THUS
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 THUS we generally find, that whatever ators 
 may be on the ftage, and whatever piece may be 
 propofed, nothing can be brought to a fuccefsful 
 conclufion unlefs it is approved by the GOOD SENSE 
 of the Country ; which, though it difcovers itfelf 
 in a QUIET way, is very rarely, without eftect. 
 
 BEING fenfible of the final decifion YOU, fortu- 
 nately for us, poffefs in all public matters, and 
 wiming publickly to own and fhew my reverence 
 for the gentle and ufeful fway which you enjoy, 
 and I hope will always maintain in this nation, I 
 have addrefled to you thefe Thoughts upon the 
 nature of our Government, which is now fafiiion^ 
 ably called, The Conjiitution. If my thoughts 
 mould be agreeable to YOUR GOOD SENSE, I 
 mail not doubt of their being founded on princi- 
 ples that are found, and truly Englifh. 
 
 THE peculiarities of the Englifti character are 
 difcernible in nothing more than in the Laws and 
 Government which they have gradually formed to 
 themfelves. Thefe in their frame and quality, are 
 entirely our own j and it is for want of our habit 
 of thinking, that foreigners, who have ftudied 
 them and are difpofed enough to admire them, do 
 not yet comprehend their true value. We admire 
 -the fame things, but not in the fame manner, nor 
 upon the fame motive, nor with the fame view. 
 
 Thus,
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 Thus, an Englifhman loves liberty, but he loves 
 it not for the fake of the mere name ; he mud 
 have fomething fubftantial that refults from it ; 
 fome thing that he can fee and feel : this he has in 
 the freedom of his perfon, and the fecurity of his 
 property. An Englifhman, therefore, thinks 
 more of his civil than his political Liberty ; more 
 of the end than the means : die confequences of 
 the former are always before him, and he feels it 
 to be truly the Liberty he needs ; the other is 
 only an occafional refource, a necefiary evil, and 
 he fees that the exercife of it too frequently tends 
 to private licentioufnefs and public diforder. - 
 
 AN Englifliman is more jealous of Power, than 
 ambitious to partake of it. Thus he feeks not 
 to domineer over his neighbours, but he will take 
 good care, that they mall not domineer over him. 
 This jealoufy difpofes him more towards a Mo- 
 narchical than a Republican Government ; for he 
 xvill bear with the fuperiority of thofe who are 
 his fuperiors, but he \vill not brook, that his 
 equals mould be placed over him ; and he feels 
 that the protection which his civil Liberty has 
 under the one fort of Government, is a greater 
 blefling than all the fway and honours that he 
 may chance to attain from the full exercife of 
 
 political Liberty in the other, 
 
 THESE
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 THESE qualities of the mind are joined with 
 another, which has been noticed, and has fome- 
 times raifed a fneer among foreigners. An Eng- 
 lifhman has a natural modefty 9 which is not un- 
 mixed with a quiet, referved, unaffuming pride. 
 Thefe difpofe him to conform to fubordination, 
 and to refpecl: rank and ftation : his modefty in- 
 clines him to yield that, which eftablifhed cuftom 
 demands, and his pride will not allow him to 
 ami me what belongs to another. The native 
 difpofition of Engliflimen, therefore, brings about 
 imperceptibly that, which in other countries is pre- 
 fcribed by pofitive infiitutions ; I mean the dif- 
 tindion of Ranks. But we poflefs this convenient 
 modification of Society in a manner that is feen 
 in no other country ; for the diftinction of ranks 
 with us makes no difference of perfons ; we 
 have no privileged Orders ; and yet there are 
 none of us who do not yield proper deference 
 to diftinguifhed rank. In no country, per- 
 haps, is Nobility more efleemed and honoured ; 
 and yet certainly, when we confider what Nobi- 
 lity beftows on its pofiefibrs, in no country can 
 it ftrike lefs awe, or need be .lefs feared. We 
 concede readily to them that refped which we 
 liave the power to withhold ; we unite in up- 
 holding the honour and influence of the higher 
 ranks out of courtefy, and from a love of deco- 
 rum ;
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 rum ; perhaps alfo from a confcioufnefs that 
 many of us afpire. and a knowledge that all of us 
 may by pofiibility attain, to a participation of it, 
 from fteady exertions and virtuous conduct. 
 
 THIS generofity in the middle and lower orders 
 of life is not received by the Great without ac- 
 knowledgment and return. To fay nothing of 
 the relative fituation of the Nobleman and the 
 Gentleman (where the famenefs of education and 
 habits of life will not fufier any eiTential diftinc- 
 tion of manners and fentiment), we feem, from 
 the very higheft to the very loweft in the nation, 
 to confefs that there is a native unalterable tem- 
 per and conflitution of mind which belongs to us 
 all in common ; we exprefs it by two Ihort 
 words * that are at length become endeared to 
 us ; expreffing, as we all think, that original in- 
 delible character of an Engliflnnan ; which thq 
 firft Nobleman is proud to profefs he enjoys, but 
 enjoys only in common with the meaneft of his 
 tradefmen, his tenants, or his fervants. This is 
 a fentiment that makes us love and refpeft one 
 another. The want of this in France, where the 
 Nobility and Gentry hated or defpifed thofe be- 
 neath them, as a diflincl race of men, was the 
 
 * John Bull 
 
 cauie
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 caufe that they firft placed barriers of fepa- 
 ration, which made an inequality that xvas invi- 
 dious ; and afterwards, in their rage to cure the 
 mifchief of fuch a Reparation, levelled all to an 
 equality that is more deteilable than their former 
 diftindions. This feeling of a congenial equality 
 among us, is a philofophy that is the growth of 
 this Ifland. Its rife is natural, not forced ; it is 
 a philofophy that comes from the heart, and not 
 from the head. It has been generated by a com- 
 mon confent, not impofed by hot-headed fpecu- 
 lators ; and I trull it will have the power to pre- 
 ferve us by indiffoluble bands of union, when the 
 artificial fchemes of philofophizing Politicians 
 are buried in oblivion. 
 
 BUT, above all things, an Engliftiman loves 
 $uiet. Gives us peace in our time is the language 
 of his prayers, and the filent wifh of his heart. 
 How many virtues does this fingle difpofition 
 oblige him to practife ! It is from hence that he 
 is patient and forbearing towards his Governors ; 
 not captious and -wilful, but feeking the faireft 
 conftru&ion of what they do ; afcribing to them 
 the fame honefty of intention which he feels in 
 his own mind. And, mould his jealoufy once be 
 excited, he will bear and forbear for a time, ftili 
 Doping that things may mend. He knows the 
 
 value
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 value of what he poflefles better, than lightly or 
 haftily to wifh for a change, and he dreads every 
 change may be for the worfe. What ftorms and 
 convulfions have been efcaped by the prevalence 
 of this love for Peace and Quiet ! But the mpre 
 immediate confequence of it is this, that its kin- 
 dred quality GOOD SENSE has thus an interval left, 
 to interpofe its protecting influence, and confider 
 of fuch remedies as may feem fuited to the nature 
 of the exifting evil. 
 
 THE Englifh Government is an organ of public 
 union and activity, which is adapted to the humour 
 and mode of thinking of thofe who were witnefles 
 to the formation of it, and who live under it. It ap- 
 pears to me, we may difcern in the whole difpofiti- 
 on of it, the refult of that conftitution of mind 
 which I have juft afcribed to our countrymen. Un- 
 ambitious, and preferring the quiet and peace, 
 which enables them to purfue their own affairs, to 
 the power and fplendor of managing thofe of the 
 public, the Englifh yield a willing obedience to a 
 Government not of their own chufmg : it is an 
 Hereditary King, who bears all the burthen of Go- 
 vernment, who is endued with all the power necef- 
 fary to carry it on, and who enjoys all the honour 
 and pre-eminence neceflary to give fplendor to fo 
 high a ftation. It is the Kings Peace, under 
 C which
 
 C '3 ) 
 
 which we enjoy the freedom of our perfons and 
 the fecurity of our property : he makes, and he 
 executes the Laws, which contain the rules by 
 which that peace is kept ; and for this purpofe, 
 all officers, civil and military, derive their autho- 
 rity from him. Still further to ftrengthen this 
 all-powerful fway, two qualities are added that 
 feem to bring this Royal Sovereignty, as far as 
 mortal inftitutions can be, ftill nearer to the Go- 
 vernment of Heaven. Firft, This Power is to have 
 perpetual continuance the King never dies.- 
 Secondly, Such unbounded power mail be pre- 
 fumed to be exercifed with as eminent goodnefs ; 
 and it is accordingly held that the King can do 
 no wrong ; meaning, that his perfon is fo facred 
 that wrong mall never be imputed to him. 
 
 THESE are the original and main principles 
 upon which the plain Englifhman, full of honefty 
 and confidence, thinks he may reft for the pro- 
 te&ion of his perfon and property. But human 
 inftitutions will fwerve from their original defign, 
 and Englimmen will not always confide ; jealoufies 
 and fears arife, and thofe muft be appeafed. The 
 reafonable jealoufy of an Englifhman feems to be 
 fully fatisfied, when a qualification is annexed to 
 the power in the King, firft, of making, and fe- 
 condly, of executing the Laws j by which his 
 
 fubjefts
 
 fubjeds are admitted to participate in a (hare of 
 thofe high trufts. 
 
 ACCORDINGLY, the King can enaft no Laws 
 without the advice andconfent, not only of the Lords 
 Spiritual and Temporal, who are in fome fort coun- 
 fellors of his own chufing, but alfo of the Commons 
 in Parliament aj/embled. And the jealoufy with re- 
 gard to property has been fuch, that in devifmg 
 this meafure the fubjeft has fuffered a guard to 
 be put upon himfelf ; for the Commons, who 
 are to advife and confent, are not the people at 
 large, nor are they chofen by the people at large, 
 but they are the Knights, Citizens, and BurgcJJes 9 
 who are refpe&ively chofen in Counties, Cities, 
 and Boroughs, by perfons of fubftance and fuf- 
 ficiency, who may fafely be trufted with the 
 exercife of a charge where property is in queftion. 
 
 IN this manner is the power of the King quali- 
 fied in the making of Laws. His power in ex- 
 ecuting the Laws is qualified by joining Grand 
 and Petty Juries, in the adminiflration of 
 Juftice, with his Judges. To thefe two con- 
 trouls on the power of the King, muft be added 
 a principle, which gives the Nation another fecu. 
 rity for the due exercife of the Kingly Power ; 
 for though the King can do no wrong, yet if 
 wrong is done by the application of the. King's 
 C 2 Power,
 
 Power, as he never acts without advice, the per- 
 ion who advifes fuch application is refponfible to 
 the Law. 
 
 WITH the exception, therefore, of the advice 
 and confent of the Two Houfes of Parlia- 
 ment, and the interpofitiori of Juries ; the Govern- 
 ment, and the adrniniftration of it in all its 
 parts, may be faid to reft wholly and folely on 
 the King, and thofe appointed by him. Thofe 
 two adjuncts of Parliament and Juries are fub- 
 fidiary and occafional j but the King's Power is 
 a fubftantive one, always vifible and active. 
 By his Officers, and in his name, every thing is 
 tranfacted that relates to the peace of the Realm 
 and the protection of the Subject. The Subject 
 feels this, and acknowledges with thankfulnefs 
 a fuperintending fovereignty, which alone is con- 
 genial with the fentiments and temper of Englifh- 
 men. In fine, the Government of England is a 
 Monarchy j the Monarch is the antient (lock from 
 which have' fprung thofe goodly branches of the 
 Legiflature, the Lords and Commons, that at the 
 fame time give ornament to the Tree, and afford 
 ihelter to thofe who feek protection under it. 
 But thefe are ftill only branches, and derive their 
 origin and their nutriment from their common 
 parent j they may be lopped off, and the Tree 
 
 w
 
 ( '3 ) 
 
 is a Tree ftill ; fhorn indeed of its honours, but 
 not, like them, caft into the fire. The Kingly 
 Government may go on, in all its functions, 
 without Lords and Commons : it has heretofore 
 done fo for years together, and in our times it 
 does fo during every recefs of Parliament ; but 
 without the King his Parliament is no more. 
 The King, therefore, alone it is who neceffarily 
 fubfifts, without change or diminution : and 
 from him alone we unceafmgly derive the protec- 
 tion of Law and Government. 
 
 SUCH are the Principles and Conftitution of the 
 Englim Government delivered down to us from 
 our anceftors ; fuch they can be demonstrated 
 to be from the inconteftible evidence of hiftory 
 and records ; and fuch it is wiflied they mould 
 continue by nine tenths of the Nation. 
 
 BUT, notwithstanding this great- majority, in 
 favour of the Government, there have never been 
 wanting perfons to find fault with it, decry its 
 excellence, and do their endeavours to fubvert it, 
 and fet up another in its place. Though fuch 
 perfons err againfl the plainefl evidence, yet, all 
 circumftances confidered, it is not to be wondered 
 that differences of this fort mould happen under 
 a Government, whofe bed title is profefled to be, 
 4 its
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
 its conformity to the principles of reafon ; it is 
 not to be wondered that this, among other fub- 
 jefts, mould occafionally become matter of fpe- 
 culation, and be brought to the ted which it fo 
 readily challenged. And, where liberty of 
 fpeech and of writing has been fo invariably al- 
 lowed, this fpirit of difcuffion could not fail of 
 fpreading. Thus, from the belt of motives, 
 might the merits of our Laws and Government 
 be brought in queftion. Little mifchief could 
 be dreaded from honeft difputations like this, and 
 ultimately fome benefit might be derived from 
 the new lights, which frequent argumentation 
 would be fure of producing. The opponents, 
 in fuch controverfies, might be friendly to the 
 Government equally with the defendants : differ- 
 ing in the means, and not in the end ; in circum- 
 flances, and not in the fubflance. 
 
 BUT the greater part of thofe who have raifed 
 queftions upon the merits of our Government, are 
 certainly determined enemies to its fundamental 
 principles ; and amongft thefe are fome, who have 
 moft arTumed the guife and affectation of great 
 friends and favourers of The Conftitution. That 
 there mould be perfons of this description is not 
 much more to be wondered than that there 
 mould be miflaken friends of the description 
 before mentioned. 
 
 THE
 
 ( '5 ) 
 
 THE truth is, that all Engliflimen are not of 
 the (lamp I have above fuppofed to belong to our 
 Countrymen. But thofe who bear a different 
 mark feem to me to be influenced by a defect of 
 mind, which I muft confider as an aberration. 
 from the national character and general difpoft- 
 tion of Englimmen. In thefe men, it is fome- 
 times the underftanding, and fometimes the will 
 that has received a wrong bias ; either their af- 
 fections are hurried away by an impreffion from 
 ftrong propenfities, that they think too well jufti- 
 fied to need examination ; or their underftand- 
 ings are fo fophifticated by preconceived opinions, 
 that they are unable to make a clear judgment 
 of any thing that is to affect thofe opinions : fo 
 that by the ftrength of the will, or the weaknefs 
 of the wit, they go on from error to error, and 
 are almofl always in a heat from the purfuit, and 
 from the difappointment attending it. 
 
 SUCH are thofe men, who contrary to the 
 genius of Englimmen, hate peace and quiet^ and 
 inftead of repofmg themfelves confidently on the 
 Government of the King, earneftly feek to have 
 a mare in it themfelves. Such men have ufually 
 no calling of their own, or none that they attend, 
 and they wifh to make one for themfelves in the 
 affairs of the public. Such are thofe unbridled 
 
 fpirits
 
 ( 16 > 
 
 Spirits that hate all power but their own, and would 
 cry down all rank and ftation that they may rife 
 upon its downfall, leaving no inequality in the 
 land but the wealth they appropriate from the 
 fpoil of the good and great ; who would rather 
 take the chance to become one of five hundred 
 Republicans that govern by their ordinances, that 
 is, by their own will, than continue the fubjeds 
 of a King who governs by Law. It is not ta 
 be expected, that men blinded by paflion, and 
 flimulated to defigns fo contrary to the general 
 bent of the Englifh character, mould be influenced 
 by any fuggeflibns of that GOOD SENSE, which 
 prevails fo much with the reft of their country- 
 men. Delivered over to a ftate of reprobation, 
 they act as totally bereaved of that fpecies of faving 
 and preventive grace, which interpofes its admo- 
 nitions fo feafonably, and fo often refcues us from 
 the commiflion of fome folly or wickednefs. 
 
 WHEN we find, amongft a fober and difcreet 
 people, a certain fet with crazed brains and per- 
 verted underftandings oppofing their own con- 
 ceits to the general inclination of the people, 
 we are led to enquire what could have been the 
 caufe of fuch a fchifm, whence the fpirit originated, 
 and what motives or encouragement could have 
 confpired to keep it up. And here I feel fome 
 
 confolation
 
 ( >7 ) 
 
 confolation to be able to fay, that although the 
 difpofition to cavil at our Laws and Government., 
 and to extol another fyflem, is a mifchief that 
 has been cherimed and ftrengthened by the ma r 
 licious induftry of many amongft ourfelves ; yet 
 it is a weed of foreign original, tranfplanted by 
 men who had fuffered their minds to be captivated 
 and corrupted by outlandifli fafhions ; and only 
 adopted and cultivated here by perfons of a lightr 
 or fanatical humour, addicted to paradox, infa- 
 tuated with refinement, and fond of innovation. 
 
 IT is from a nation whofe national character is 
 the very oppofite to ours, that the feeds of this 
 evil were borrowed, and then fcattered in this, 
 ifland ; a nation, which has made itfelf odious to. 
 Europe by its violence and fraud j always plan- 
 ning frefh hoflility againft its neighbours, either 
 by arms and open war, or by fomenting internal 
 commotions : and by fuch bafe means this 
 Nation has grown to a fize and importance that 
 the Great Difpenfer of all things has not feen fit in 
 his wifdom to allow to thofe, who confine them- 
 felves within the facred bounds of juftice, and 
 propofe nothing but the fafety of thernfelves and 
 the peace of mankind : a Nation, which the fame 
 jufl God has neverthelefs at length punifhed for 
 its iniquities, by delivering them over to their 
 own vain and wicked imaginations, /o that they 
 D might
 
 might revenge upon themfelves the injuries of 
 Europe, more by a thoufand fold, than all 
 Europe itfelf could have done ; and that they 
 might become a fcorn and by-word for every 
 thing hateful and abominable among men : a 
 Nation fo unfit fop the enjoyment of liber- 
 ty, that while they were kept in fubjection to 
 their Kings they had Religion and Laws, man- 
 ners and refinement, and were admired and imi- 
 tated by their neighbours j but, fmce they have 
 broken from that reftraint, and have recovered 
 what they call Liberty, they have pulled down 
 and abolifhed all thofe valuable fupports of life, 
 even to the very wreck of civilization itfelf. In 
 their place, their Rulers have ere&ed one mockery 
 of a Conftitution after another ; haranguing 
 daily upon Liberty, but exercifing the mod unex- 
 ampled Oppreffion ; for Opprefiion is (till the lot 
 of a Frenchman. In a Republic of three years 
 {landing, the greatefl exploit they have to boafl 
 is the deflroying of a tyranny that filled upfifteen 
 months of the time. And who was this tyrant ? 
 Not a man on an eftablifhed throne, furround- 
 ed with guards, and abetted by powerful alli- 
 ances and numerous friends and dependants ; it 
 was one of themfelves, who mewed himfelf daily 
 among them, of the fame order, upon the fame 
 form. 
 
 WHAT
 
 WHAT a counterfeit of Liberty has been 
 played off upon the poor people of that country ! 
 and what a degenerate down-trodden race muft 
 they be, who have not difcovered the impofition ; 
 or, difcovering it, have not refifted it, and done 
 themfelves juftice ! this could not be, if there 
 was any honefty, any fortitude, or any manly 
 fentiment in the country ; but thefe are not qua- 
 lities to be found in France, and Liberty feems 
 deftined never to make her abode there. Men muft 
 be trained to Liberty ; and a whole Nation cannot 
 fo eafily practife it as a Committee of conceited 
 Academicians can lay down definitions, and pro- 
 pound maxims for its eftablifhment. The mind 
 and manners of a Frenchman need much puri- 
 fying, before he can comprehend the Liberty he 
 talks of with fo much fluency and heat. Liberty 
 is the reward of thofe only who are juft and good; 
 and it is to be attained only by thofe who have 
 GOOD SENSE enough to underfland it, and to ufe 
 it with moderation. 
 
 BUT, although the French nation have mif- 
 carried in the only attempt they ever made to 
 eftablifh Liberty in their own country, they have, 
 neverthelefs, produced men, who in their writings 
 have endeavoured to advance a caufe which bore 
 the appearance of it j and fome, who have been 
 D 2 able
 
 able actually to carry it into practice in other 
 countries. In former times, thofe who fled from 
 flavery at home became Apoftles of Liberty 
 abroad ; and fince the Nation has perfuaded 
 itfelf that the land is full of Liberty, the eftab- 
 liming a college for propagating their bleffed 
 doctrines in foreign countries, is nothing more 
 than might be expected from the vainglory of 
 a Frenchman. Be the times what they may, the 
 Governments of Europe are ftill to be diflurbed 
 with the conceits of Frenchmen ! Whether it is 
 for Religious or Civil Liberty, they will never 
 keep their inventions to themfelves ; they are 
 determined, by preaching and profelyting, to 
 bring all the world to conform to the new lights 
 which they alone have discovered ; and to infult 
 the blindnefs and fofly of thofe who refift their 
 fraternization ! From Calvin down to Condorcet^ 
 from eza to Briffbt (innovators in different mat- 
 ters, but alike in the felf-fufikiency, heat, and 
 imperioufnefs belonging to all Frenchmen), no 
 true GofpeV but theirs ; no Rights of Man but 
 theirs ; no Government in Chwrth or State but 
 according to their platform and their principles. 
 
 WE all know the deftructive dodrines upon 
 which the French Liberty of the prefent day is 
 founded \ and we fee, with uneafinefs, the pains 
 
 and
 
 ( 21 ) 
 
 and the fuccefs in propagating them in this 
 Country. The infection has fpread already too 
 far ; and, fuch is the fatal feduftion of thofe 
 principles, that they are too likely to work their 
 way much further : their loofenefs is likely to 
 win to their fide the diflolute and immoral ; their 
 fpecioufnefs to enfnare the unwary and unpre- 
 pared ; men of bad principles find a comfort and 
 fupport in them ; men of no principles know not 
 how to combat them. Thus it has happened, 
 that many of our countrymen, who had not 
 ftrongly impreffed on their minds the National 
 Character before defcribed, have given them- 
 felves up to thefe foreign delufions, and have 
 begun to apply them to the reforming and new- 
 modelling of the antient Government eftablifiied 
 in this Land by the wifdom and experience of 
 our forefathers. 
 
 SUCH is theprefent novelty from France ! We 
 may learn from Hiftory what was the nature of 
 the principles which Calvin and Beza, and their 
 followers at Geneva, inftilled into the Puritans? 
 who infefted our Government in the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth ; and who, under the name of 
 Prejbyteriam, Commonwealth* 's-men, Independents, 
 and other factions and fects without number, at 
 length overturned firft the Government of Scot- 
 land, and afterwards the Government of England. 
 4 Upon
 
 Upon examination \ve fhall find a fimilar fpirit 
 prevailing in the French principles of thofe days, 
 and of the prefent times. 
 
 IT would be curious to purfue the comparifon 
 that fometimes makes a contrail, and fometimes 
 a parallel, between the character and defigns of 
 the French Reformers of old time in the Church, 
 and thofe of the prefent day in the State ; the 
 Religious and the Civil 'Jacobins ; the Puritans^ 
 and the Democrats. It is wonderful how fimilar 
 they all are in their doctrines, and how they agree 
 in the fyftem and the inftruments they ufe for dif- 
 feminating their principles, for gaining profelytes, 
 and for carrying on the unhallowed 'work of fetting 
 the populace againfl the eftablimed Government. 
 How analogous was the machinery of their party ; 
 
 the cant and impofture of their pretences ! 
 
 The unalienable rights of the People to form the 
 Government of the Church, taught by Calvin 
 and the Puritans ; and the unalienable right of 
 the People to form the Government of the State, 
 taught by the French Democrats : The pre- 
 tended commands of God for the one ; and that 
 omnipotent power upon earth, the Sovereign 
 Will of the People commanding the other. 
 What is " The fword of the Lord and of Gideon" 
 but the modern title to the holy right of infur- 
 
 redion ?
 
 ( 23 ) 
 
 re&ion ? View the Covenants and Engagements 
 of the one, the Civic Oaths of the other ; both 
 alike fworn, and broken and re-fworn ; the hy- 
 pocrify of Solemn Fails, and the mummery of 
 Civic Feafts ; the Clafles and Conventicles of the 
 one, and the Affiliated Clubs of the other j the 
 
 Pulpit, and the Tribune preaching down, or 
 
 lecturing down the Government ; affedted ap- 
 pellations of Brethren and Citizens ; and, laftly, 
 the fpring of action that is the caufe of motion in 
 the two, the Fanaticifm of thofe who had too 
 much fenfe of Religion, and the illumination 
 and New Lights of the latter, who have no Reli- 
 gion at all. 
 
 IN making this comparifon, I have taken the 
 liberty to mix together the character and pro- 
 ceedings of the French abroad, as well as of their 
 difciples in this country ; it is all a part and re- 
 fult of the fame fyftem. The firft French Re- 
 formers, and their followers in this Country, 
 proclaimed a Church Government, which was the 
 invention of Calvin's brain, as commanded by 
 God, and as impofing upon every one the obli- 
 gation to overturn the eftablifhed Church Govern- 
 ment, and ereft this in its place ; fuch was the 
 impudence and profanation of the Puritans. The 
 modern French Reformers declare all Govern- 
 ment
 
 ment to be ufurpation which is not formed by the 
 will of the People ; and that the People have an 
 imprefcriptible right to fubvert fuch Govern- 
 ment and make another according to their own 
 will and pleafure ; fuch are the imperious pre- 
 tenfions of the ^Jacobins. The principles of the 
 Puritans and the Jacobins equally tend to fedition 
 and rebellion, and equally flrike us with terror : 
 the one refted its fupport on the greateft Power in 
 Heaven, and the-other depends upon the greateft 
 Power on Earth : the witnefles vouched for thefe 
 high demands, feem to be equally fufpicious in 
 both ; they are to be found nowhere but in the in- 
 fcrutable ways of their own minds ; in their own 
 ftrong perfuafions., dazzled by vain imaginations, 
 and ftrengthened by the confirmation of . fell* 
 
 IN order to fee 'the manner in which French 
 principles have infmuated thcmfelves into this 
 Ifland, and vitiated the plain honefly of the 
 Englifh character, it will be neceflary to look 
 back to fome occurrences in our Hiftory. We 
 fhall then fee what pretences have been ufed, 
 from time to time, to bring our antient Laws and 
 Government into difcredit, and to corrupt their 
 genuine principles with notions introduced from 
 abroad, and no lefs foreign in their nature than 
 their original. 
 
 IT
 
 IT feems to me, that moil of the errors and 
 mifconceptions relative to the nature of oar 
 Government, have taken their rife from thofe two 
 great events, The Reformation^ and what is called 
 The Revolution. There has either been fome dif- 
 fatisfaftion with the manner and extent of thofe 
 two meafuies, or fome mifapprehenfion of their 
 defign, or a want of infight into the grounds and 
 principles of the fubject matter, namely, the 
 Government in Church and State. 
 
 THOSE memorable tranfaclions were conducted 
 in a way that was truly Englifh ; the, actors in 
 them proceeded with their remedy as far as the 
 difeafe reached, and no further ; and they never 
 fuffered themfelves to lofe fight of this main rule, 
 that what they did was to preferve the antient 
 Government, and not to deflroy or alter it. 
 
 BY the Reformation, it was intended to remove 
 thofe errors and fuperftitions that had gradually 
 been introduced into the doctrines and ceremonies 
 of the Church by the Popim Clergy j fo that 
 Chriftianity might be profeffed in that purity and 
 fimplicity which prevailed in the primitive ages. 
 At the fame time, occafion was taken to put an 
 end to the long-contefted claim of the Pope to 
 exercife ecclefiaftical dominion over the King's 
 E fubjeds
 
 ( 26 ) 
 
 fubje&s in this kingdom. The whole of that 
 ufurped jurifdi&ion was exprefsly and completely 
 taken away by Act of Parliament ; and that jurif- 
 dicUon, firft under the name of Headjhip, and 
 then of Supremacy in all Ecclefiaftical Matter -j, 
 was placed by the fame authority in the King. 
 The Church was thus faft bound to the Monar- 
 chy ; and this union of all authority, ecclefiafti- 
 cal as well as civil, in the Crown, it was hoped, 
 befides placing Religion out of danger, would 
 make a common caufe between Church and State, 
 would produce mutual advantages to both, and 
 give to the antient pillar of the Government, the 
 Crown, new ftrength and fplendor for the pro- 
 tedlion of the fubject. 
 
 THUS much and no more feems to have been 
 the fum of what was done and defigned to be 
 done by the Reformation. The firft obfervation 
 that is fuggefted by this event is, upon the won- 
 derful moderation that feems to have prevailed 
 through the whole. It is a mafter-piece of tem- 
 per and good fenfe, and will ever remain an ex- 
 ample, among feveral others, of the great wifdom 
 (hewn by our Churchmen, and the fervices they 
 have done, at different times, towards preferving 
 our antient Government. 
 
 THE
 
 THE conduit and fuccefs of our Reformation 
 becomes more flriking when we look abroad and 
 take a view of the proceedings of our neighbours 
 in the fame fort of work. A fpirit of diflatisfaclion 
 had fpread in France on the fubjecl of Popifli 
 fuperftitions. According to the difpofition for 
 caballing and profelyting fo remarkable in that 
 people, opinions engendered in France were foon 
 preached and propagated at Geneva, and through 
 the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands ; 
 countries dill deftined to be infefted either by. 
 French arms, or by French principles, which 
 generate internal diftraftions that are worfe than 
 war. In all thefe countries, except in France 
 itfelf, the people took the affair of Reformation 
 into their own hands, and, proceeding in the only 
 way of reforming underftood by them, they began 
 to pull down and overturn every thing that had 
 been eftablifhed in the Church ; believing that 
 nothing could be primitive Chriftianity that was 
 not wholly oppofite to the fyftem which they had 
 been ufed to, and was now condemned. Thefe 
 commotions were fupprefTed in fome of the Pro- 
 vinces ; but in the others, and at Geneva, they 
 became the actual ground-woik of the Reforma- 
 tion that was afterwards fettled. 
 
 E 2 THE
 
 ( 28 ) 
 
 THE Bimop and Clergy of Geneva, like many 
 others of their order, had fled, to efcape the fury 
 of the populace. At this crifis, the French refu- 
 gee Calvin happening to come to that town was 
 chofen by the people to be their paftor. Having 
 once got a footing, he fucceeded, not without fome 
 viciffitudes, and through many a fhift and artifice, 
 to eftablifh and maintain to his death over the 
 people who raifed him, an afcendancy which they 
 neither liked nor dared to make off. From this 
 time, Geneva became the fchool for teaching the 
 new opinions in doctrine and Church government; 
 and during the unfortunate interval of perfecu- 
 tion in the reign of Queen Mary, many of our 
 exiled Reformers took up their refidence in that 
 place, and there imbibed thofe notions which 
 afterwards wrought fo much confufion and mifery 
 in this Ifland. 
 
 As Cahin came into power on no authority but 
 that of the people, he could form his Church 
 government upon no other than popular principles. 
 He joined, therefore, two elders with the Minifter, 
 and gave to thefe parochial officers fupreme 
 authority in all Church matters, without appeal, 
 except in fpecial cafes : and thus he fubjecled 
 the whole community cf a parifh to the direction 
 of three perfons, two of them laymen of an ordinary 
 4 ftanp,
 
 4!amp, who were likely to fubmit their judgment 
 in mod things to the guidance of their fpiritual 
 afibciate. This fpecies of Government was pro- 
 fefled to be fuch as God had commanded for the 
 government of his Church, and fuch as all were 
 bound in confcience to fet up, againfl all op- 
 pofition, whether from Magifhates, Bifhops, or 
 Kings. 
 
 WHEN this popular bafis for Church government 
 had once taken full pofieflion of the mind, it was 
 not likely foon to ceafe fermenting. The work of 
 Reformation is very apt to overheat thofe who 
 are engaged in it ; the bold fpirit of fuch projeftirs 
 grows bolder as they go on ; every fuccefs gives 
 new courage; and if they have the ftrong hand of 
 the people to fecond them,, what fhould (lop their 
 ambitious defigns. We accordingly find, that the 
 French Reformers of the Church foon undertook 
 to fearch into the title of the Civil M.agiflrate, and 
 examine by what authority and upon what trufl he 
 exercifed his power. They foon told him, that 
 the origin of all power was from the People; and 
 they began to threaten Sovereign Princes wilh the 
 fame tremendous itorm wkich had been blown up 
 againft the Bifliops. Indeed, they did not open 
 this attack without well knowing what they had to 
 depend upon. The populace (who upon fuch cc- 
 caiions are called the People) were a monfter which 
 
 thefe
 
 C 30 ' ) 
 
 thefe Miniflers had in their own tuition and keep- 
 ing ; they knew they could work upon their fana- 
 tical fancies as ferved their purpofe ; could heat 
 them and cool them, unbridle and bridle them, 
 as they pleafed. In this manner did a new fet of 
 opinions ftart up to fhake the peace of fociety ; 
 and Civil Authority was once more expofed to be 
 undermined by the plots and confederations of 
 Churchmen, carrying on their work ynder the 
 pretence of religion. 
 
 THE Princes of Europe had weathered the ftorms 
 that ufed to be directed againfl them from the 
 Papal Throne ; and the thunder of excommunica- 
 tion or deprivation no longer daunted the Prince, 
 becaufe the People no longer thought it a pre- 
 tence for rebellion : but the new opinions gave 
 more alarm than any danger that had been efcaped. 
 The People were now tempted to rebellion, not 
 becaufe their Prince was excommunicated, and the 
 Pope authorifed them fo to do, but becaufe they 
 believed themfelves the origin of all Civil Autho- 
 rity. So long as Man loves himfelf, and is fond 
 of his own will and imaginations, fo long will he 
 liften with gratification to fuch doctrines. Thefe 
 puritanical notions give a zeft to fedition and a 
 title to rebellion which could never be difcovered 
 in any Papal Bull j and accordingly, \vherever 
 
 they
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 they were brought into action, they were accom- 
 panied with a rage and ferocioufnefs that is pecu- 
 liar to Fanaticifra, whether in a Puritan or a 
 Jacobin. 
 
 THESE notions upon Civil Government are to 
 be found in the writings of Calvin and Beza, and 
 in thofe of Buchannan, John Knox, Cartwright^ 
 and others of the Geneva Difcipline, who chofe to 
 make this Ifland the Theatre for acting fome of 
 their Tragedies. 
 
 THE praife of moderation and wifdom before 
 beflowed on the Engliih Reformers I cannot 
 help repeating here, when I turn my eyes to the 
 fad confufion caufed in the fitter kingdom by a 
 contrary conduct. Unhappily, the people there 
 took into their own hands the affair of Reforma- 
 tion, and it was performed to a degree of fubver- 
 fion and anarchy, that could only be fuggeftedby 
 fanaticifm, and executed by popular fury. More 
 unhappily for that country, and ultimately for this, 
 the feditious fpirit then infufed by Puritanlfm 
 was not allayed for many years after ; during 
 which the Prejbyterians in Scotland had an oppor- 
 tunity, by co-operating with their brethren in this 
 kingdom, to become the principal caufe of the 
 rebellion in the time of Charles the Fiift, which 
 
 led
 
 ( 3* ) 
 
 led to abolifhing, firft the Church Ceremonies and 
 Government by Bifhops (the immediate objeft of 
 all their delegation), and afterwards the Houfe 
 of Lords and the King, who, I firmly believe, 
 will in no times be able long to furvive the firft 
 breach made in the fabric of Civil and Ecclefiafti- 
 cal Government. 
 
 IN the midft of the confufion and anarchy 
 that reigned in the neighbouring countries where 
 Reformation was going on, the Church of 
 England had reafon to congratulate herfelf that 
 this great work had been accomplimed with all 
 the forms of law in a parliamentary way, and that 
 ilie was united with the interefts of the Crown in 
 fuch manner as to claim the full fupport of the 
 Civil Power, if aflailed by enemies ; and further 
 (he might comfort herfelf, that her reforms were fo 
 temperate, and fo compatible with all the efientials 
 of the late (late of the Church, that her enemies 
 would be few, and thofe few would have little 
 ftrength of reafon for maintaining their oppofition. 
 For feverai years of the early part of Queen Eli- 
 zabeth's reign the Church enjoyed peace, not- 
 withftanding the Papifl was ftill in the land. 
 
 BUT now was the time for a new adverfary to 
 appear, more implacable and politic than even 
 
 the
 
 C 33 ) 
 
 the Papift, and one too fprung from the bofom of 
 Reformation itfelf. Many of the Englifii who 
 had fuffered their minds to be infe&ed with Cal- 
 viniflical opinions during their refidence In Ge- 
 neva and in the Low Countries, began, about 
 the year 1572, to complain of our Reformation 
 as incomplete j and from that time men of this 
 perfuafion never ceafed, by their writings and 
 conduct, to manifeft-the moft violent diflike of- 
 our Church, and to profefs openly their wifli and 
 defign to overturn it and fet up the difcipline of 
 Geneva in its place. Doctrines like thefe were 
 very alarming, becaufe they were levelled not only 
 againfl the Bifhops, who were a confiderable part 
 of the Legiflature, but againfl the fupremacy fo 
 lately united to the Crown. Such is the effecl: of 
 all extremes, that the Calviniftical Church, no lefs 
 than the Popifli, affumed 'to itfelf to be independ- 
 ent of the Civil Magiflrate, and thus threatened 
 to revive all the inconvenience of a power in the 
 Church diftint from that of the State ; an 
 imperium in imperlo fo ill brooked in the Pope ; 
 and the fettling of which in the Crown was 
 thought to be one of the happiell ftrokes in the 
 Reformation. In this point of the Supremacy 
 they were therefore joined by the Papifts, and 
 both parties thought their objections particularly 
 ftrengthened at that time, from the circumftane*. 
 F of
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 of the Throne being filled by a Woman. But 
 though the Crown was, in this particular, affailed 
 by both parties, and although the Puritans, in 
 other refpedls, never ceafed heaping upon their 
 brother Non-Conformifts, thePapifts, every odium 
 that could be invented, and endeavoured, by 
 keeping up this cry, to draw off the attention of 
 the Government from their own defigns, they 
 were, nevertheleTs, regarded all through the re- 
 mainder of this reign, by thofe who, it appears 
 fmce, faw fartheft into human affairs, as the 
 fa&ion moft of all to be dreaded, on account of 
 their principles, and the activity, perfeverance, 
 and fyftem with which they promoted them. 
 
 THE high pretenfions of this new difciptine did 
 not pafs without moft complete anfvvers in point 
 of argument. The writings of Whitglft^ of 
 Bancroft^ and more particularly of Hooker, had fo 
 fully examined and confuted every argument 
 alledged for the propofed Reformation, and fo 
 expofed the pernicious tendency of the new doc- 
 trines, and the dangerous defigns which the 
 authors of them meditated, and which they had 
 actually begun to put in pradice, that they were 
 completely filenced by the end of this reign j fo 
 that at the commencement of the next reign, in 
 the conference at Hampton Court, held in the 
 
 prefencc
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 prefence of King James, they ..could make no 
 mow of defence whatfoever. 
 
 BUT though the Puritans were fo foiled in argu- 
 ment, they did not, on that account, relinquifh their 
 purpofe. The failure, indeed, in the conference, 
 iechied to have this effect, that they no longer pre- 
 tended to force their difcipline into notice upon 
 any open and bold claim of merit in its favour, 
 but thenceforward rather confined themfelves 
 to raifing and keeping up a cry about the increafe 
 of Papifts and the danger of Popery. In the mean 
 while, they loft no time filently to improve every 
 opportunity for fprcading their opinions, and adding 
 to the number of their difciples and partizans. 
 
 DURING the reign of James and Charles the 
 Firft, other matter of public diffatisfaclion arofe, 
 which the Puritans could manage with better face 
 than their own ecelefiiaftical pretenfions ; and if 
 they could work any political differences up to a 
 pitch of general difcontent, and fo to refinance 
 againft the Government, their end would be 
 equally ferved, and their darling object might 
 Hand a chance of being attained without direclly 
 contending for it. It is well known, that both in 
 Parliament and out of Parliament the moft for- 
 ward to quarrel with the meafures of Government, 
 F 2 and
 
 ( 3 3 
 
 and to foment contention between the Crown and 
 the People, were thofe infecled with Puritanical 
 opinions. This contefl went on from bad to 
 worfe, till the plot was thoroughly matured, and 
 the whole broke out into full-blown rebellion in 
 the year 1641. This was not brought to bear tiii 
 the Scots army of Prcjbytcrian Covenantors was 
 prevailed upon to invade the kingdom, and our 
 Houfe of Commons recognized and received with 
 open arms their Puritanical Brethren ; then the 
 Covenant was taken univerfally by the Parlia- 
 ment and all its adherents ; the loog-looked-for 
 time was arrived, \vhen Calvin's plan of Church 
 government Prtjbytery by Divine Right \vas to 
 be erected on the ruins of"Epifcopacy ; and it was 
 according 1 fo ordained by the Parliament. 
 
 WE all know what followed ; and the calami- 
 ties endured by the unhappy people for near twenty 
 years, till the Country, worn out with projects of 
 one Government after another, in none of which 
 was found fecurity of property, freedom of perfon, 
 or the peace and quiet it fo much fighed after, 
 at length recovering its good fenfe and former 
 energy, returned to the place whence it had fo 
 fatally departed, and caufed, without bloodflied 
 or a blow, the antient Government of Monarchy 
 to be reftored in 1660. 
 
 SUCH
 
 ( 37 ) 
 
 SUCH were the viciffitudes and cataftrophe at- 
 tending the fir ft fet of French opinions introduced 
 into this kingdom, for the purpofe of difparaging, 
 undermining, and fubverting the Constitution of 
 our Government eftablifhed by law. They fet 
 out with a frivolous exception to Caps and Sur- 
 plices worn by Minifters in performance of Divine 
 Service ; they proceeded to cavil at the govern- 
 ment of the Church by Bi/hops, and at placing that 
 Supremacy in the Crown, which ought,' as they 
 contended, to refide in the Parfon of the pariih and 
 his two Lay elders. Not being able to advance this 
 by argument, or win the people to a liking of the 
 defign, they referved themfelves to take advantage 
 of every occafion to public difcontent, and became 
 the moft forward Patriots of the time ; till they 
 were enabled, under pretence of the general good, 
 for preferving the People's rights and maintaining 
 the good old laws of the country, as they faid, to 
 deftroy all ranks and ftations in Church and State ; 
 to levy war againft the King, for the protection, 
 as they pretended, of the King's perfon ; and, 
 finally, to deftroy him : all which they tranfa&ed 
 under various denominations of Prejbytenans, 
 Independents, Commonwealth's men, Fifth Mo- 
 narchy Men, Anabaptijis, Quakers, and other 
 feels and divifions too irkfome to be named j all 
 of them, more or lefs, difciptes of the fame 
 
 .'507069 fchool;
 
 jchool ; where the Sovereignty of the people and 
 the Killing of Kings was firft brought into fyftein* 
 and fan&ioned by the dictates of the Gofpe 1 .. 
 
 THE abdication of King James the Second,, 
 and the tranfa&ions that enfued upon the vacancy 
 thereby made in the Throne, coinpofe a very 
 important and curious paflage in the Hiitory of 
 our Government and Laws. It has been vulgarly 
 called, The Revolution ; upon what authority I 
 know not ; it was not fo named by Parliament, 
 nor is it a term known to our Laws. This term 
 had certainly no better origin than the converfe- 
 tion and pamphlets of the time, where words are 
 ufed, in a popular and hiftorical fenfe, without 
 any regard or thought of technical propriety. 
 But, unfortunately, this invention, or mifapplica- 
 tion of words, leads to a confufion of ideas ; 
 knowledge is thereby put into a retrograde 
 courfe ; inftead of going from things to words, 
 xve are obliged to pafs from words to things ; let 
 the term Revolution be once confecrated as the 
 true denomination of that event, and the mind 
 afcribes to that tranfa&ion every thing which it 
 can conceive to belong to the term. Too many 
 among us ufe the word in fome fuch indeterminate 
 general fenfe, and fuch perfons are accordingly mif- 
 led by notions that have no fort of connexion with 
 
 the 
 3,
 
 ( 39 ) 
 
 the thing of which they are fpeaking : and yet it is 
 remarkable, that thofe who embrace this phantom 
 do it with a zeal and prepoffeffion which we do not 
 fee in thofe who regard the fubflance and reality. 
 Thefe men think they can never fhew fufficient 
 warmth and emotion when they name The Revo- 
 lution ; they form Clubs to fwear by, and wor- 
 fhip it ; they make great feafts to celebrate it; 
 they have no love for The Conjlitution but for that 
 which was formed at the Revolution ; and they are 
 good fubjects and loyal, only upon Revolution 
 principles. 
 
 WHAT can be the caufe of this mighty zeal ? 
 Whence does it originate, and to what does it 
 tend ? This beloved Revolution happened more 
 than a century ago ; fo that all the heat which 
 naturally attends fuch a crifis, and which may be 
 kept up while it was recent, muft have long fince 
 cooled and died away. No one can fay, that any 
 of the caufes which produced that event, have re- 
 curred in our time, fo as to remind us of the 
 remedies our anceftors applied on that occafion, 
 All this earneft demonftration of affection and 
 devotion, without any apparent caufe or occafion. 
 is either ridiculous affectation, or fignifies fome- 
 thing that is not obvious to perfons of common 
 underftandings. For we may afk them, Who has 
 
 cenfured
 
 ( 40 ) 
 
 cenfured or cavilled at thofe proceedings, that 
 mould move thefe perfons fo violently to defend 
 or extol them ? And we may further afk, Who 
 befides themfelves fay or think any thing about 
 them? They are recorded in our Statute Book, 
 like other matters of equal importance., and are 
 the- objects of ferious fludy and contemplation ; 
 precedents that are regarded with reverence and 
 with gratitude towards thofe who made them, 
 but which we hope never to have occaiion to fol- 
 low. Thefe are the fentiments which are fug- 
 gefted by GOOD SENSE on the view of thefe valua- 
 ble memorials j and as they are never thought of 
 without fome mixture of concern and pain, we 
 are always glad to lay them afide, and we rarely 
 wifh to recall them. 
 
 BUT what manner of men muft they be who 
 make this a fubjed for Tavern Meetings, for 
 congratulation, and for frivolous feftivity ! a 
 fubjecl. to declaim, to combine, to run ftark mad 
 upon I However, they know their meaning, and 
 there are very few of us who do not know their 
 meaning alfo. All this wondrous paffion is ex- 
 cited by the idea of a Revolution ; what they 
 idolize is a Re-volution in the abftracl ; and thefs 
 Revolution principles are the only ideas they pro- 
 fefs of our Conflitution. 
 
 BUT
 
 ( 41 ) 
 
 BUT we muft not expecl: men to be fo void of 
 caution as to avow fuch a motive ; they pretend 
 nothing more than the fame event which we all 
 mean ; and, upon fuch a confideration, they think 
 themfelves juftified fufficiently in all they fay and 
 do. To repeat nothing here of the folly in fuch 
 effervefcence of zeal, I wonder, confidering the 
 rank and ftation of fome of thefe perfons, that a, 
 fenfe of good-breeding and decorum has never 
 fuggefted to them that fo much commemoration 
 of that Revolution, repeatedly urged out of all 
 feafon and meafure, cannot found agreeably in the 
 ears of the Sovereign. To him, fuch commemo- 
 ration muft convey fome inlinuation of reproach. 
 I know, fome who have had qualms of this fort, 
 have excufed themfelves by alledging that The 
 Hanover Succejfion arofe in confequence of the 
 Revolution, 
 
 BUT with the good leave of thefe Gentlemen, 
 the way for them to manifeft fuch fentiments 
 would be exprefsly to commemorate The Hanover 
 Succejfion; for which I never heard that, in all their 
 zeal, they had formed one Club, or made one 
 dinner. And it docs not look well, that when 
 they are gratifying their own prejudices and pre- 
 pofleffions in pofitive and plain terms, they mould 
 compliment their Sovereign only by circumlocu- 
 tion, and leave him to make it out himfelf, as he 
 can, by collection and inference. 
 
 G SUPPOSE,
 
 ( 42 ) 
 
 SUPPOSE, for a moment, that fome Patriot 
 mould, among the eftates that he has not yet been 
 obliged to fell, pofiefs one that came to his ancef- 
 tor from the favour of the Crown (which is no 
 obftacle to the defendants being Patriots), and 
 that this eftate had come to the Crown, as perhaps 
 it may again, by forfeiture for high treafon ; if 
 fome wag of a tenant mould collect a noify meet- 
 ing in the village to celebrate there the virtue of 
 forfeiture and cbnfifcation for treafon, and ailed ge 
 a reafon like the above, I doubt whether the cir- 
 cumlocution would give much reiifii to the joke 
 in the mind of the faid Patriot. But it is not for 
 men of a popular difpofition to do by others as they 
 would be done by ; they are men who do no right 
 and take no wrong ; men who reap where they 
 fow not. Like the Patriots of former times, the 
 godly Puritans, they have a privilege peculiar to 
 themfelves, that difpenfes with the obligations 
 which bind ordinary perfons, who are not of 
 the Brethren. 
 
 BUT though the term Revolution throws con- 
 fufion on the nature of the event it is meant to 
 denote, it mud yet be confeifed, that it is not 
 wholly without analogy to the circum fiances at- 
 tending it. As this term is of a comprehenfive 
 and loofe import, and of a capacity for the worfl 
 
 men
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 men to find their own meaning in it, fo that evenf, 
 which was brought about by the energy, good 
 fenfe, and firmnefs, of fome of the bed and great- 
 eft men in the Nation, was of a nature (unlike 
 moft good things) to be helped on by the con- 
 currence and approbation of fome of the word 
 men that could be found. But there was this 
 difference between the two defcriptions of agents j 
 what was merit in the one clafs of men was none 
 in the other. Thofe who loved the antient 
 Government, and knew the value of Mqnarchy, 
 had great prepofieffions to facrifice before they 
 could take fuch a ftep, though for the prefervation 
 of both, and though they knew that on the pre- 
 fervation of both depended their Laws and Liber- 
 ties. But the reft, who had no partiality for 
 Monarchy, or who were ignorant or carelefs 
 of its value ; the Republican, the Prejbyterlan^ 
 and the Sectaries, to whom may be added a long 
 train of the abandoned and diifolute; nothing was 
 more eafy to them than to join in any thing that 
 looked like fuccefsful rebellion. Thofe who 
 hated the very frame of the Government could 
 not but be pleafed with the mock it now received : 
 fome hoped that the change might lead to other 
 innovations j thofe who had been ufed to pull 
 down and deftroy, gladly faw a profpecl of reviving 
 their old trade ; perfons without a determinate 
 G 2
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 objeft were yet too much amflfed with novelty 
 not to be on the fide of the authors of it. 
 
 WHATEVER were their motives for joining in 
 the new fettlement, the Republicans, Prejlyie- 
 rlans, and Sectaries, did not fail foon afterwards 
 to urge their merit, and it mud be confefied not 
 without fome mow of reafon. It was a fortunate 
 crifis to them ; they now faw a Government which 
 they had a hand in rearing ; they thought they 
 fhould no longer be regarded with jealoufy and 
 fufpicion ; and they hoped now to make them- 
 felves a party in the State, inftead of being confi- 
 dered as a party agdinjl it. Bending all their 
 endeavours to this point, the firft thing to be done 
 was to get a good name. For this purpofe, they 
 took their (land among The Whigs : under the 
 pretence of that way of thinking, they began to 
 vent their political opinions ; which, however, 
 they now fo tampered and turned as to adapt them 
 to the Government eflabliflied by Law. As they 
 facrificed the rigour of their own notions, they 
 did not fail to take a fimilar liberty with the prin- 
 ciples of the Government ; and fo they have gone 
 on, from thofe times to our own, corrupting the 
 genuine principles of the Englifh Laws and Go- 
 vernment, in order to fuit them to their own theo- 
 ries and fyftems, till they have filled the whole with 
 
 uncertainty j
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 uncertainty ; and The Conftitution, of which they 
 are fo inceflantly debating, is made one of the mod 
 doubtful and difficult things to comprehend. 
 
 To thefe men, and to this finifter defign, we are 
 indebted for the jargon of which I have juft com- 
 plained. They invented the term Revolution, to blind 
 and miflead ; and they have never ceafed repeating 
 it, that they may put the People in mind of making 
 another. This myflery they have couched under 
 the ftill more loofe metaphyfical idea of Revolution 
 principles ; and by the glorious fpell of The Confti- 
 iutlon they can conjure up any form, fafhion, 
 modification, reform, change, or innovation in 
 Government they pleafe, and it mail ftill be no- 
 thing more, as they pretend, than the genuine 
 true Englifh Conftitution. 
 
 THE term Conftitution has nothing in itfelf 
 objectionable : a plain man might receive it with- 
 out fufpicion of any mifchievous implication 
 lurking under it. It might be underftood as a 
 Jhort way of fpeaking for The Conftitution of the 
 Government. Butctbofe who introduced this mode 
 of expreffion were men famous for doing nothing 
 without defign. That defign was noted very early 
 by perfons whofe ears had been habituated to the 
 proper language of our Englifh Government. 
 
 It
 
 ( 46 ) 
 
 It appeared to them, according to the language of 
 one of them, " that this new term Conftitution 
 " was commonly brought forward with a Repub- 
 " lican face, as if it meant fomewhat excluding 
 <* or oppofite to the Monarchy, and carried an 
 '* infmuation as of a co-ordination or coercion 
 * of the Monarchy*." 
 
 THE tenor of almoft every thing that has been, 
 written or faid by this clafs of men, from that tima 
 to the prefent, on the nature of this fuppofed 
 Conftitution 9 juftifies the fufpicions then early en- 
 tertained. We need only recur to a few particulars 
 Jo eftablifh and illuftrate this character of them. 
 
 IT is from perfons of this way of thinking that 
 we have heard the following curious obfervation ? 
 that " fo and fo, it muft be confefied, is not war- 
 Ai ranted by Law, but it is certainly a part of the 
 " Conftitution." To what illufions a man's mind 
 muft be a prey before he can be brought to ac_ 
 quiefce in fuch folly 1 and how loft muft he be 
 before he can have the boldnefs to vent it! I 
 always thought, that it was the difpofition of 
 Englimmen to require plain and defined fen- 
 tences for the Charter of their Rights and Liber- 
 ties 5 that they claimed to have known, written, 
 
 t ROGER NORTH on the Englifli Conftitution^ 
 
 and
 
 ( 47 ) 
 
 and exprefs Laws to govern them ; and that they 
 regarded high pretenfions founded on vifionary 
 and refined theories, as the air in which they were 
 built : and I thought, that the divine indefeafible 
 Right of Kings , with other fancies of former times, 
 were exploded principally, becaufe they were 
 pofitions that had no warrant from the known 
 exprefs Laws of the Land, but refted on general 
 reafoning, from topics not known to the ufage and 
 laws of the country : and I always believed, that 
 the fet of men who mod clamoured againft thofe 
 pretenfions, upon the very grounds here alledged, 
 were thofe who afterwards fet up this new fyftem. 
 
 Box it feems to me, that this new fyftem, giving 
 origin to pofitions like that above mentioned, and 
 fo carrying the mind beyond the bounds of law 
 equally with the other, is quite as abfurd as the 
 former, and differs from it only in being much 
 more mifchievous. For \vhereas the former at- 
 tempted to raife the imagination to fomething 
 above" us, which might footh and elevate the 
 fenfes ; the latter opens to us no fpace wherein 
 the imagination can exercife itfelf, but the very 
 gulph of Democracy, there to toil and turmoil, 
 without hope of reft or confolation. 
 
 BUT as the Conftitution was alledged, upon 
 this fyftem, to be fomething that differed from 
 
 the
 
 ( 48 ) 
 
 the Law and Government, it became neceflary to 
 have Profeffbrs and Do&ors to give refponfes 
 upon the nature of it, and direct our courfe in 
 thefe untrodden paths. There accordingly ftarted 
 up a race of men called Conjiitutional Lawyers. 
 I have heard it faid, that " fuch a perfon is not 
 " much verfed in the Law of Weflminfter-Hall, 
 " but he is neverthelefs a very good Conflitu- 
 " tional Lawyer." As far as my obfervation 
 goes, thefe Conflitutional Lawyers feem to be 
 divided into two clafies. One of them confifts of 
 Gentlemen who are bred indeed to the Law, but 
 whofe circumflances are fo competent that they 
 are not obliged to make a livelihood of it ; and 
 as thefe Gentlemen need not torment their brains 
 with the details neceflary for the practice of 
 Courts, they are at leifure to extend the fcope of 
 their reading, and at liberty to take only the cream 
 of their extended harveft. As there is no compul- 
 fion, no prefling ftimulus to thefe purfuits, they 
 are followed as it may happen ; and the principal 
 objects propofed to themfelves by fuch ftudents, 
 are ufually matters relative to the King and 
 Parliament. Such perfons often attain the cour- 
 tefy of being called Conftitutional Lawyers ; that is 
 if they were fentenced as feverely as I once heard 
 Gentlemanly Scholars., they are no Lawyers at 
 all. 
 
 3 TH.E
 
 ( 49 ) 
 
 THE other clafs are of a very different fort ; 
 they are really Lawyers ; poffefTed of learning, 
 experience, and parts, and, what is more, refolv- 
 ed to make the mofl of them. Such perfons, hav- 
 ing fecured their footing at the Bar, and being 
 tolerably certain of preTerving a lucrative prac- 
 tice, have nothing more to feek than preferment 
 and rank. Thefe attach themfelves to fome 
 Party in Parliament, ufually in Oppofition ; they 
 lend their name and credit to give (lability to 
 the pretenfions of their Party ; and they are too 
 often ready to maintain, with colour of Law, eve- 
 ry thing that needs fuch fupport ; and verily thefe 
 men ufually have their reward* 
 
 BUT the Revolution politicians are much 
 better able to explain their own do&rines than 
 any of their Conftitutional Lawyers. A Gentle- 
 man of fingular wit and conviviality, who from 
 accident and circumftances was, in fpite of his 
 nature, made a Patriot, could not refrain from 
 letting out the fecref. This Gentleman, I am 
 fure, ought to be looked upon as an authority ; 
 for he enjoyed a longer career of popularity, of 
 more violent heat and univerfality; and his name 
 was more frequently joined with Liberty, (even 
 to the becoming a by-word), than the beft of 
 them, be his pretenfions what they may. This 
 H Gentleman
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 Gentleman is faid to have favoured us with a de- 
 finition of that which had before puzzled fo 
 many ; he gave a definition of the Constitution. 
 He fays The Con/litutlon is every thing that is not 
 Law. And though he feems to have gone a 
 little too far, in confeffing for others, as well as 
 for himfelf, he has alfo given us his idea of the 
 clafs of Lawyers of which we have juft been 
 fpeaking: he frankly declared why he thought 
 his learned friend and colleague, who was a great 
 Conftitutional Lawyer, fo able and fo valuable : 
 " I think him," fays he, " the beft Lawyer in 
 " Weftminfter-Hall ; for he will make that to 
 " be Law which I want to be fo." And fo much 
 for Conftitutional Lawyers. 
 
 BUT all who talk upon thefe fubjedls do not 
 fee fo far, nor exprefs their difcoveries fo clearly 
 as this fingular Gentleman has done. I verily be^ 
 lieve, that among nine tenths of thofe who are 
 fo noify for The Revolution, there are hardly two 
 who agree upon the fame conception of it. Mofl 
 of them unite in repeating, " The Conftitution 
 " as ejlablijhed at The Revolution" But whe- 
 ther by this they mean the precedent then efta- 
 blifhed of removing one King and fetting up an- 
 other, which feems the mod worthy caufe for 
 extravagant joy; or fomething about the dif- 
 
 penfmg
 
 ( 5' ) 
 
 penfmg power, which however feems a little uniiru 
 portant for fo famous a thing as a Revolution ; or 
 fomething about Popery and Arbitrary Power, 
 which founds better, and is better for being gene- 
 ral and indefinite ; or whether it is not fomething 
 divided into chapters and feclions, detailing a 
 new fyftem of fuperfine texture, differing from 
 that which prevailed in the popifli and arbitrary 
 reigns of Charles II. and James II.: whether 
 any thing like tbefe, or what elfe has poflefled the 
 brains of thefe men, when they declare themfelves 
 friends of " The Revolution, and the Conftitution- 
 " then eftabli/hed" it is not eafy to collecl:, 
 
 BUT they will be very much furprized when 
 they are informed, that the matter about which 
 they make fo much ado, is fomething very diffe- 
 rent from what they expected and believed ; and 
 further when they fee ir, they will, I promife 
 myfelf, think as lightly of it, as men of morefenfe 
 than they have long thought. Be it known, 
 then, to all thofe who have taken their " Con- 
 " flitutional information" from Pamphlets and 
 Political Societies, that they have not yet looked 
 into the right place for the hiflory, nature, de- 
 fign, and principles of this fuppofed Revolution. 
 But if they will read over Statute the ift of 
 "Vyilliam and Mary, Seffion the fecond, Chapter 
 H 2 the
 
 ( 5* ) 
 
 the fecond, which is fhorter than any of the pa- 
 pers publimed by the Societies for making Revo- 
 lutions, they will find the whole fecret explained 
 to them ; to which, if they wifh a little more 
 light, they may add Statute the id of William 
 and Mary, Seflion the firft, Chapter the fixth, 
 which is flill fhorter than the other. 
 
 IT appears from the former of thefe flatutes, 
 that the Parliament, having placed King William, 
 and Queen Mary upon the throne, which King 
 James chofe to leave vacant by his abdication, 
 flipulated nothing for the people but upon 
 thefe points where King James had broken the 
 Law, or what was underftood by the generality 
 of men to be the Law of the Land. Indeed the 
 nature of the cafe demonftrates this j for, if 
 what he did had not been againft Law, he would 
 have broken no truft, and the Parliament would 
 have had no ground of complaint. There is 
 only one exception to this ; and that is, James 
 being a Papift : That certainly was not againft; any 
 Law; but it was againft the difpofition of the 
 Nation ; and it was now the pleafure of Parlia- 
 ment that the King on the throne mould be a 
 Proteflant ; which was accordingly in this flatute 
 provided for in future, 
 
 THE
 
 ( 53 ) 
 
 THE other points, which were twelve ic num- 
 ber, were, as I have f^id, known to be the Law 
 of the Land before, and were now declared and 
 fecured by exprefs definition in Parliament, only 
 that what had been recent caufe of alarm, what 
 was fo deeply imprefied on the minds of all, and 
 what might be thought, from late experience, to 
 be of a nature that required it fhould be folemn- 
 ly inculcated, might be held up for admonitioij 
 to future ages. 
 
 WHAT difappointment and difcomfiture it 
 muft be to theie idolizers of the Conftitution 
 fuppofed to be eflablimed at The Revolution, to 
 difcover at length that they have beftowed their 
 applaufe and affection upon the mreds and patches 
 of old date ; and that if they had lived in thofe 
 wicked reigns of Charles II. and James II. they 
 would have enjoyed in theory, though not in 
 practice (and theory, of the two, is more confi- 
 dered by modern Reformers), as good a Confli- 
 tution as they have had fmce, with the iinglc 
 exception of a Proteftant King. 
 
 BUT thefe vifionary zealots were referved for 
 a difgrace more mortifying than this, and from 
 a quarter where it was, to fay the truth, not de- 
 ferved, and not at all to be expected. We Jive 
 
 in
 
 ( 54 ) 
 
 in an age of Conjlltulions ; all the world' are writ- 
 ing and talking upon Conftitutions, and unfor- 
 tunately too many have had opportunities to fet 
 themfelves at work to carry their idle fpecula- 
 tions into practice. What mould have happened 
 in the natural courfe of thefe new events, when 
 other countries were becoming free like ourfelves, 
 but that the Englifli Conftitution, which had 
 been held out as the famous original, mould now 
 be placed at the fummit of its celebrity ; and that 
 the ingenious artificers, who had been working 
 upon it fo long to bring it to perfect polifh, and 
 had fo tortured their brain for topics to fet off 
 its excellence and beauty, mould be ranked 
 among the benefactors of Mankind? But be- 
 hold the perifhable fame of political theories ! At 
 this moment of culmination and triumph ; the 
 Conftitution-makers of France and America, 
 having arrived at fuch fkill in this trade as to 
 outdo their matters, turn fhort upon them, and 
 tell them, " The Englifh have no Conftitution 
 " at all !" and they follow up this aflault by at- 
 tacking The Revolution itfelf ; queflioning and re- 
 viling it in fuch terms as if they would infmuate, 
 that we had no more of a Revolution than of a 
 Conflitution.. 
 
 THIS was a blow that {hould only have been 
 felt by thofe who had fabricated thefe idols, and 
 
 dreffed
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 dreffed them out for their own worfhipping ; but 
 it muft be confefled that it ruffled many men of 
 a different way of thinking, who have ufed, as 
 \ve all have, the term Conftitution without an- 
 nexing to it any of the fanatical notions of its 
 nrfl inventors. It moved their fpleen to hear 
 that traduced and reviled, which they had fo 
 juftly elteemed as the model for others to imi- 
 tate ; and this by Americans and Frenchmen ! 
 the firft having formed Conftitutions that looked 
 like the mangled and degenerate members of 
 ours ; the latter propofing nothing to themfeives 
 but a wretched imitation of thofe mifhapen and 
 degenerate productions. 
 
 A LITTLE reflection, however, prepares us to 
 give an anfwer to thefe miferable but prefump- 
 tuous pretenders. 
 
 THE above writers on this fancied Conftitu- 
 tion had been employed to exalt its theoretical 
 perfection, and had worked up certain general 
 pofitions which they laid down as fundamental 
 principles of the Conftitution. When many ima- 
 ginations were engaged in the fame purfuit, a di- 
 verfity of fpeculations was to be expected : pofi- 
 tions were oppofed to pofitions, and terrible was 
 the conteft to fettle what were and what were 
 
 not
 
 ( 56 ) 
 
 not the true Principles of the Englifii Conftitu- 
 tion. When the Americans came to the bufmefs 
 of creeling a fettled Government, it was natural 
 for them to call to mind this controverfy in Eng- 
 land ; and to take warning from this fuppofed 
 defect in our Eftablifhment. They refolved 
 therefore, above all things, to guard againft the 
 like uncertainty in their own. They accordingly 
 began the formation of their Governments by lay- 
 ing down certain fundamental principles, com- 
 prifing a Conftitution in the abftract, antecedently 
 to their commencing the building in fubftance 
 and detail. The French have taken the fame 
 courfe in the regeneration of their Government. 
 Thefe men, therefore, might very well, though 
 not very handfomely, tell their matter-workmen 
 in this country that we had no Conftitution ; that 
 is, that thofe fundamental principles, which had 
 been fo long vaunted, were only the theories of 
 private men; had no authority, no public fane- 
 tion j and were all of them denied by one or other 
 amongft ourfelves j whereas, on the contrary, 
 they had a Conftitution which they could (hew, 
 drawn out into plain and clear pofitions, acknow- 
 ledged by every one, forming the bafis on which 
 the Government was creeled, and furnifhing an 
 unvarying regulator, by which the Government 
 
 might
 
 c 57 ; 
 
 might be fet right as often as it mould happen in 
 pra&ice to deviate from them. 
 
 BUT thofe amongft us who had never given 
 their minds to fuch reveries might, without yield- 
 ing any thing, have taken thefe Conftitution- 
 makers at their word ; and at once allowed that 
 we had no Conftitution in the fenfe in which they 
 underftand it. As many of them as were Englifh 
 and Americans had been told this often before ; 
 they knew well and long ago that their conceits 
 about Conftitutional knowledge were confidered 
 either as illufion or impofture, contrived to ferve 
 t^e temporary purpofes of a Party, and repro- 
 bated by moft men of fenfe in the Kingdom. 
 
 IN fhort The Government we know 
 and the Laws we know but the Conftltution 
 we know not. It is an unknown region, that has 
 never been vifited but by dreamers, and men 
 who fee vifions ; and the reports they make are 
 fo contradictory, that no one relies upon them. Yet 
 we can manage to fpeli out of them, that there is 
 refident there a great deal of faftion and fedition ; 
 envy and ambition ; and fomething that looks like 
 eternal warfare of Party. But the Englifh Go- 
 vernment is real and fubflantial ; we fee and feel 
 it; we can take its height and its depth j 
 \ and
 
 and we know its movements, becaufe they are 
 regulated by eftablifhed and known Laws. This 
 is the only Conftitution ever fuppofed or named 
 by men of fober minds and found underftanding ; 
 that is, the Conftitution of our Government, or the 
 Conftitution eftablijhed by Law. 
 
 HAVING faid fo much upon this fuppofed Revo- 
 lution, and the Conftitution faid to be formed upon 
 it, I cannot pafs over a Party amongft us, which I 
 have already named, and which had a confider- 
 able hand in the tranfa&ions we have juft re- 
 viewed. Of the Whig Party in general, and of 
 the whole of their conduct, I mould feel much 
 difficulty in giving an opinion. To fay the 
 truth, they are believed by many to have done fo 
 much fervice, and by many more to have done 
 fo much mifchief, I know not how to appreciate 
 them. But I have no other concern with their con- 
 duct than as they took a part in the defign which 
 has been carrying on fo many years, for corrupt- 
 ing the minds of men on the fubjecl: of our Go- 
 vernment and Laws, and in fomenting the difor- 
 ders that have been wrought by mifreprefenting 
 what they call The Revolution, and the Con- 
 fthuthn fuppofed to have been then eftablijhed. 
 
 THIS,
 
 ( 59 > 
 
 THIS, like every other Party, may be viewed 
 in two lights. In the firft place, they were a fee 
 of men who agreed to make a common caufe, 
 and ftand by one another in public affairs ; and 
 the fingle object they propofed to themfelves 
 was, to force the prefent holders out of power, 
 and to force themfelves in. But this would not 
 go down with people of fenfe who looked on ; 
 and as they had a great fway, though not always 
 feen, in balancing the weight of Parties, they 
 mud be won by fome profeflion of principles 
 that founded well, and promifed fomething for 
 the benefit of others than the profeflbrs of them. 
 Every fet of public men mud, therefore, in the 
 next place, have a fet of public principles. Upon 
 thefe principles they very liberally and frankly 
 declare, when out of office, they mean to act ; 
 and it is taken for granted they will adhere to 
 them when pofiefied of power. A party thus 
 furnifhed with principles, fets out in its purfuit 
 of power, and opens that fcene which is daily 
 rehearfmg in this country, to the annoyance and 
 mifery of all, both actors and fpectators. I ve- 
 rily believe there is not a partizan, who in his 
 clofet can review the planning and plotting, the 
 clamor and ftruggles, the (hifts and artifices, of 
 the day, without compunction and fhame. There 
 is not a man of Good Senfe in the Kingdom but 
 I 2 has
 
 C 60 } 
 
 has been fo fickened with the difappointments 
 from great undertakers in Party, as to be brought 
 to regard the pretenfions of public leaders little 
 otherwife than as the ftrutdng and fretting of fo 
 many Players upon the Stage. But this belongs 
 to all of them, and is not peculiar to the 
 Whigs. 
 
 WHEN the Government was fettled on King 
 William, the Whigs had very juft title to con- 
 fideration ; for though they were not the princi- 
 pal perfons who brought about that event, the 
 fcale being turned by another defcription of per- 
 fons high in Church and State, yet they were the 
 firft who fuggefted the meafure : they had begun 
 it by the Exclufion-Bill in Charles the Second's 
 time; they had never cealed driving on the fame 
 defign till it was accomplifhed ; and therefore, 
 bendes the merit of activity, they had that of 
 forefight; having fo long ago predicted that 
 James would not be borne on the Throne, and 
 that the only meafure was to exclude him from 
 it. The memory of what was pad gave weight 
 and importance to the Whig Party, and they im- 
 mediately gained an afcendancy, which, by one 
 means or another, was more or lefs maintained af- 
 terwards for many years. 
 
 4 ALL
 
 ALL this was not compafied without the aid 
 of certain public principles, which were made the 
 creed and teft of the Party. What fo natural for 
 Whigs as to conceive a fet of principles fuggefted 
 by the recent event in which they had fuch a (hare, 
 and took fo much pride ; and what more likely 
 to be well received, and become generally po- 
 pular, than opinions that were to make the Na- 
 tion fatisfied with what had juft been done, and 
 mew that the Settlement then made, and the prin- 
 ciples on which it proceeded, were founded in 
 the cleared reafon and vvifdom ! Having fo ftrong 
 an intereft in keeping the eyes of the Nation 
 fixed on that event, they went great lengths for 
 the advancement of thefe opinions. Hurried on 
 by the heat of party and of the argument from 
 one topic to another, they at faft entangled them- 
 felves in theories and fpeculations which did not 
 properly belong to them, and which they could 
 not view with fatisfaclion. They were, probably, 
 precipitated into thefe difficulties by the dange- 
 rous politicians before defcribed, who were re- 
 ceived into the Party, and who, by thefe means, 
 under the name of Whigs, were, in all their writ- 
 ings, promoting their darling object of a 
 Republic. 
 
 THERE is too much facility in all Parties to 
 .admit among them any one who will join in the 
 
 cry,
 
 ( 62 ) 
 
 cfy, and contribute in any way to fupport the 
 caufe. Whether the Whig Party held themfelves 
 out more than any other for receiving partizans, or 
 their principles were more congenial with thofe 
 who were prone to hazardous experiments on the 
 Government and Laws of this Country; per- 
 haps both thefe might operate in producing the 
 effect ; but certain it is, that the Whig Party 
 has contained in it fome of the mod dangerous 
 men, and produced fome of the moft peftilent 
 writings, that have appeared. No man, however 
 averfe to our Government, but has had the con- 
 fidence to call himfelf a Whig ; no writing fo 
 mifchievous and feditious, but the Writer of it 
 has juftified it upon the principles of a Whig* 
 and the principles of The Revolution. 
 
 s 
 
 BUT, notwithftanding the exceptionable parts 
 of fome of thefe Writings, it is certain that the 
 conftant hammering of the fame matter had the 
 effect of producing a great deal that pafled cur- 
 rent in the world. The principles of the Whig 
 Party being very comprehenfive and loofe, fome 
 approaching to one extreme and fome to the 
 other, could not fail of gratifying a variety of 
 palates, and by the force of one or the other, the 
 Party made a number of friends, and grew to be 
 very' powerful in every refped, 
 
 THEY
 
 ( 63 ) 
 
 THEY were aided, however, by fometrnng 
 as powerful as opinions and political theo- 
 ries. The acceffion of the HANOVER FAMILY to 
 the Throne firft gave this Party a decifive fu- 
 periority over their rivals : and this is a circum- 
 ftance in the hiftory of the Party that deferves to 
 be remarked ; for notwithflanding they met, up- 
 on the whole, with little countenance from their 
 Hero King William, and indeed fuffered a rebuff, 
 that, with their expectations, mud have been a. 
 great difcomfiture to them, and certainly funk 
 deep into their minds ; and although, during the 
 reign of Queen Anne, they were never entertained 
 by her but againft her will, fo that they never 
 eftablifhed themfelves completely as a reigning 
 Party till the time of George I. and after they 
 had once got that footing, they were permitted 
 to retain it for a great length of time : I fay, 
 confidering all this, it is remarkable that, in their 
 Commemorations, they mould have nothing more 
 to beftow on the Hanover Succeflion, than what 
 I had occafion before fo notice, and that they 
 fhould keep all their demonftrations of regard 
 for King William alone. 
 
 BUT if this conduct has net fhewn their grati- 
 tude, it has fhewn another thing, namely, that the 
 profeffion of Party principles is thought by them 
 a more firm dependence than the obligations of 
 
 per-
 
 perfonal attachment; and that they have been men 
 fo wife in their generation, as to prefer what they 
 thought was mod to be relied on. 
 
 BUT during the reigns of George I. and 
 George II. the Whigs, for the mofl part, had 
 an unbounded and uninterrupted fway ; and 
 during all that time it was impoffible but thofe 
 termed Whig Principles fhould have the afcen- 
 dency. All other Parties were at that time under 
 iufpicions or out of credit j Loyalty and Whig- 
 gifm were like fynonimous terms ; and who could 
 difpute the foundnefs of opinions that were 
 named from the men who were entrufted by their 
 Sovereign, and bore fway in all parts of the 
 Kingdom ? Added to this, a certain conceit had 
 obtained, that Political and Civil Liberty depend- 
 ed upon the very principles profefled by this Par- 
 ty ; that they were neceffary conclufions from the 
 enlightened philofophy of the times ; that they 
 were upheld and illustrated by the writings of the 
 mod eminent among the fearchers after Truth ; 
 and that they were likewife in unifon with all the 
 bed times of Roman and Grecian literature, whofe 
 remains were the ftudies of our youth, and the 
 ornament and delight of our riper years. 
 
 ALL thefe ftrong inducements, whether from 
 the power of the Party, or the dazzle of their 
 
 principles
 
 principles united, concurred in giving great au- 
 thority to any thing that bore the name. The 
 Whig Party was the receptacle for all thofe who 
 belonged to no other Party, or had not given 
 themfelves the trouble to prefer one fet of poli- 
 tical opinions to another, and yet did not like 
 to belong to nobody : in the fame manner as 
 thofe who are of no fed, and have not bufied 
 themfelves about religious opinions, are fuppofed 
 to belong to the Church of England. Time was, 
 that a man of a quiet fpirit, who did not like to 
 expofe himfelf to cavil or quedion, would be 
 afraid not to profefs himfelf a Whig : it mud be 
 fomething wrong in the head or the heart that 
 could induce a man to think otherwife than as a 
 Whig! 
 
 BUT the empire of opinion, like others, will 
 have its end, and when things are come to the 
 extreme, a change mufl be expecled. Men 
 who were contented, as times went, to pafs for 
 good Whigs, did not like to be refponfible for 
 all the fophiflicated opinions that were imputed 
 to the Party ; and many caft about to find fome 
 decent way of alleviating the yoke they were 
 under, without flying out into open revolt againft 
 their old friends-. Some of thefe difcovered the 
 diftin&ion of Conflitutional Whigs, by which they 
 K did
 
 ( 66 ) 
 
 did not mean the Conflitution in the fenfe of the 
 Whigs, which would have been to exprefs idem 
 per idem, and would have been a diftin&ion with- 
 out a difference, but the Conftitution in the fenfe 
 in which all other men have ever underft cod it ; 
 and it was the fame as if - they had faid " We 
 " are Whigs, it is true j but we do not mean 
 " other wife than well towards the antient Go- 
 " vernment and Laws of the Land." 
 
 THIS diftinction of Conjlitutional Whigs made 
 an opening for a terrible fchifm in the 
 Party. It afforded an opportunity of feparat- 
 ing the good from the bad. But this could 
 not be expedted to work exaclly in fuch a man- 
 ner. No man will write Rogue or Rebel upon 
 his forehead; and why mould he pafs under 
 fufpicion, when it may be removed by a name 
 that nobody can prevent his affuming? Accord- 
 ingly, as the Republicans before had no fcruple 
 to call themfelves Whigs, fo now not a Whig of 
 them but called himfelf a Conftitutional one ; 
 and, confidering that Conftitutional had two fen- 
 fes, it fuited the latter as well as the former; 
 and, beirjg of their own invention, it cannot be 
 denied, of the two, they had the bed title 
 to it. 
 
 4 BUT
 
 BUT the principles of the Whigs were never 
 fo much put to the teft as when they came into 
 the Administration of the Government. It is a 
 well-known complaint of them, that " the Whigs 
 "in place always afted like Tories." This is 
 certainly a jufl remark, and in the nature of 
 things it could not be otherwife ; nothing 
 can better fhew than this comparifon, how un- 
 juftly the Party of Tories have been run down 
 and exploded ; and, on the other hand, that the 
 pretenfions of the Whigs are founded in no- 
 thing but their own imaginations, and -were 
 totally incompatible with our Government and 
 LaVs. 
 
 FOR. when the Whigs came, into office, they 
 found at Whitehall nothing of the Conjiitution, 
 and the Revolution principles, with which they 
 had been ufed to amufe themfelves. They were 
 to conduct a Government that had been formed 
 long before their Party or notions were heard 
 of; and they were to conduct it by the Laws 
 of the Land, and the rules of office, that had long 
 been the guides of practice, and could not fafely 
 be changed or abandoned. For it is a fad truth 
 to be told to thofe Gentlemen who are running 
 the career of Oppofition with great eminence of 
 talent and difplay of ability, that the objeft they 
 K 2 propofe
 
 C 68 ) 
 
 propofe to themfelves, as the reward of all their 
 toil, is one of the dulleft affairs in the world. 
 When they are in office they muft have done 
 with mere words, and muft come to things ; 
 they muft fet down to work by line and rule ; 
 muft fearch Laws, hunt precedents, examine 
 minutes of proceedings, confult and difcufs, and 
 purfue a detail ; often fubmitting themfelves 
 to the advice of fubordinate perfons, who, though 
 never heard of, do more perhaps to keep the 
 machine a-going than their principals. 
 
 THIS is but an humble employment for a 
 perfon who has been ufed to work wonders with 
 a fpeech, or a pamphlet, grounded onthe/>n'- 
 ciples of the Con/iitution as eftablijhed at The 
 Revolution. But this, among other proofs, mews 
 the truth of what has been contended, namely, 
 That the Government and Laws are different 
 from the vifionary Conftitution of which we have 
 heard j and further, that this Government is fo 
 compacted in all its parts, that. every conceit of 
 politicians muft vaniili before it ; and that their 
 authors, in fpite of all their theories, muft con- 
 form to the Eftablifhm.ent defcended from their 
 anceftors. 
 
 HAPPILY
 
 HAPPILY for us it has been found that, gene- 
 rally fpeaking, all Parties aft on the fame prin- 
 ciple when in office: this is well known, and 
 the cant of the time has been, to impute it to 
 tergiverfation and corrupt impreflions. But the 
 current of experience has been too uniform not 
 to difcover the true caufe of this. The govern- 
 ment and Laws are too ftrong for any Party, and 
 all Parties muft conform to the eftablifhed order 
 of things. In the adminiftration of Government, 
 Party-principles are nothing, but perfonal qua- 
 lification is every thing. Where there is more 
 underflanding, more attention to bufmefs, and 
 more honefty, there, and there only, will the 
 Adminiftration be diftinguiflied from others, and 
 the Country feel the difference. 
 
 THIS way of thinking has gained ground 
 much of late years ; and there has grown more 
 coldnefs than there ufed to be towards men who 
 meant to recommend themfelves principally by 
 their Party connexions. This change in the 
 public fentiment has had a confiderable influence 
 on the fortunes of the Whigs. They have long^ 
 funk in confideration as a Party, and the princi- 
 ples going under their name have become lefs 
 in vogue. At this time I doubt whether it is 
 
 more
 
 C 7 ) 
 
 more reputable to be thought a Whig, than foine 
 years ago it was to be thought a Tory. 
 
 BUT the finiming blow to all Party diftin&ions, 
 and to the credit of all political principles that 
 had no reference but to Party diftin&ions, feems 
 to me to have been ftruck in the latter end of 
 the year 1792. At that time an alarm for the 
 fafety of the Conftitution as eftablifhed by Law, 
 which feemed to be threatened by the Republi- 
 can party from within, affifted by the French 
 Republic from abroad, roufed the Nation as one 
 man. All Party confiderations immediately va- 
 ni(hed before that of the common intereft of us 
 all. From that time the attention of all fober 
 men has been fixed on the prefervation of the 
 Government and Laws ; all former diftinctions of 
 Party are thrown afide, and the illufion of their 
 principles is forgotten. There are now no divifions 
 in the Nation, but that of the Friends to the 
 Conftitution as eftablimed by Law, and' that of 
 the Republicans, who are lying by for an op- 
 portunity to level every thing to the Equality of 
 a French Democracy ; and there are no political 
 opinions by which men are diftingurdied, but 
 thofe that are in favour of the Conftitution as efta- 
 biilhed by Law, and thofe who are againfl it. 
 
 THUS
 
 ( 7' ) 
 
 THUS have I brought to a conclufion this Hif- 
 tory of the Attempts to corrupt the old Englifii 
 Conftitution of Laws and Government. They 
 began and ended by the introduction of French 
 principles. We have feen how the Puritans, 
 educated in the fchool of Calvin and other 
 French Proteftams fettled in Geneva and the 
 Low Countries, fet out by queltioning the Supre- 
 macy of the Crown, and the Government by Bi- 
 fhops ; and, contending for a Democratic Govern- 
 ment in the Church, taught the like principles 
 for the Government of the State ; inculcat- 
 ing the Natural Equality of Man, the Origin of 
 all Power from the People, and the Right they 
 have to call their Governors to account. We 
 have feen how thefe Puritans, under other names 
 of Patriots^ Prefbytfrians, Republicans, and Sec- 
 taries, in the time of Charles the Firft, overturned 
 the Government in Church and State. We have 
 feen how they preferved their principles after 
 they had art opportunity to mingle with the 
 Whig party > and pafs under that denomination; 
 and laftly, we have feen how a new fet of Repub- 
 lican notions have been lately *poured in upon 
 us from France^ whence have been kindled new 
 flames of Democracy, which it is now the em- 
 ployment Q every fenfibls man to keep under 
 and extinguish. 
 
 BUT
 
 ( 7' ) 
 
 BUT though Party is deftroyed, Faction will 
 remain ; and Whiggifm is not of a nature to lie 
 quietly in its grave ; its ghofl ftill haunts us, 
 hovering round the fcenes of its former exhibi- 
 tion, and attempting, as well as it can in its pre- 
 fent unembodied ftate, to aft over again thofe 
 parts in which it fo much delighted when in life and 
 vigour. The only vifible appearance of the Par- 
 ty is in the Whig Club, which is the mere RUMP 
 and refufe of the original ; and, fuitably with 
 its prefent contracted and diminished ftate, it con- 
 fines its operations principally to the keeping up 
 of an Ele&ion-intereft in Weftminft er. 
 
 I KNOW that moft of the individuals of it 
 compofe another Club, which holds certain Com- 
 memorations exprefsly with that defign. In fuch 
 employments have terminated all the former 
 importance of the Whig Parly ; and, to make 
 their fall ftill more confpicuoufly difgraceful, 
 they have now a tail tacked to them of followers 
 from the rout and rabble of Democracy ; men, 
 who have rendered the bed things odious by 
 their corrupt contact j who have made the friendly 
 appellation of Citizen a badge of feparation and 
 enmity ; and the very name of Liberty fufpecled 
 to the ear of an Englifhman. Yet they have 
 admitted thefe men to cover the empty benches 
 
 at
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
 at their meetings, and to partake in that com- 
 munion of friendmip, their eating and drinking, 
 which is the flrongeft teft of approbation that 
 can be given. This mixture of Whigs and 
 Democrats mud exhibit a finking picture of 
 the combination of Parties ; to fee the pride 
 of the Ariftocrat and the pride of the Democrat 
 brought into feeming union, yet each determined to 
 deftroy the other, if the crifis for it mould ever 
 arrive ; to fee the equality that prevails among 
 fo many difcordant and imperious fpirits ; the ap- 
 parent confent and confederation of all in one 
 common caufe ! and then, in the fame room, to 
 hear a fpeech from a man, on whofe lips the 
 afiembled wifdom of the Nation has hung with 
 delight for hours, and afterwards to hear another 
 from a Citizen, who comes from the Meeting of 
 Democrats in the open air in St. George's Fields, 
 to teach thefe Statefmen and Members of Par- 
 liament what true Liberty is ! * 
 
 THE defigns of thefe Democrats have been 
 fully expofed to the public view, on the trials 
 of fome of them lafl year for High Treafon ; 
 they were then indeed acquitted by a Jury, but 
 they have fince been found guilty by their Coun- 
 
 * At the Shakefpeare Tavern, Oft. 10, 1795. 
 
 L try,
 
 ( 74 ) 
 
 /ry, on the evidence of the proceedings at the 
 trial, which are in the hands of every-body. 
 
 THIS new fet of Reformers pretend to have no 
 other object than Univerfal Suffrage and Annual 
 Parliaments : and they have chofen this pretence, 
 firft, becaufe they muft profefs fome principles, that 
 do not quite fpeak rebellion; fecondly, becaufe this 
 fpecific project has been vented by fome men, 
 not of the lowed confideration in any thing but 
 the article of GOOD SENSE; and by others, not of 
 the higheft in any thing but in their wealth and 
 rank ; thirdly, becaufe they knew (and we know 
 too) that mould they fucceed in carrying this 
 point, the deftruction of Monarchy muft inevi- 
 tably follow ; and a levelling Republic may then 
 be fubftituted according to the imaginations and 
 will of this rabble. 
 
 BUT who are trie actors that are moft diftin- 
 guifhed and forward in carrying on this defign r 
 In truth they are of a defcription, that in other 
 times would render them too contemptible to be 
 the objects of dread ; but in thefe days, when 
 every thing debafed is to be extolled, and every 
 thing noble and excellent is to be vilified and 
 contemned , and when this has been actually ex- 
 emplified among our neighbours, who promife 
 3 aid
 
 ( 75 ) 
 
 aid to propagate this fubverfion among us ; under 
 fuch circumflances, the very meannefs of the 
 caufe conftitutes the magnitude of the apprehen- 
 fion. The confidence we fee in them, cannot be 
 without great confcioufnefs of flrength j and, 
 when the progrefs is all under ground, we may 
 hear the explofion before we have any knowledge 
 of the miners. The attempts of thefe Reformers 
 are all among the clafles of fociety, with which 
 we have necefiarily too little intercourfe. Arti* 
 fleers and handicraftfmen, journeymen and 
 apprentices in great manufacturing towns, are 
 wrought upon by furmifes of grievances, and re- 
 prefentation of remedies, which iet them a mad- 
 ding after politics and public affairs : this, with 
 an idea of their own importance, infpired by the 
 do&rine of unalienable Rights and the natural 
 Equality of Man, makes them uneafy in their pre- 
 feut circumftances, and ready and on fire for any 
 change. This fever is kept up by their Clubs 
 and Affiliated Societies, in the Jacobin fafhion ; 
 and by inflammatory publications, that are given 
 away or fold at a trifle, and that are difperfed 
 with incredible affiduity and in great numbers. 
 One principal object with them has been to feduce 
 the foldiery from their duty, by painting to them 
 thsir peculiar fituation in every way that could 
 L 2 poffibly
 
 ( 76 ) 
 
 pofiibly generate diffatisfaftion and infubordi- 
 nation. 
 
 THESE are the loweft orders in this herd of 
 politicians; and as they are the corrupted and 
 mifled, they call, perhaps, more for our pity than 
 fevere condemnation. But the corruptors, thofe 
 Ttfjio are the profeffbrs and miflionaries of Sedi- 
 tion, are of a different clafs. Thefe are men of 
 a better ftation in life, but of a worfe condition 
 in mind ; who, feeling nothing but difcontent 
 and turbulence in their own bofoms, would wil- 
 lingly light up a general confufion around them ; 
 men bankrupt in their purfe or their character, 
 who cannot be worfe circumflanced than they 
 are, and fee no hope but in a Revolution ; whofe 
 parts have been meliorated by education and 
 fharpened by neceffity ; able to perform much, 
 and ready to undertake any thing ; knowing the 
 world and the ways of it ; with activity, and the 
 gift of fpeech j agitators, always in action or 
 preparing for it. 
 
 WHAT may not be accomplifhed by the mif- 
 chievous induftry of fuch inftruments, employed 
 upon fuch materials ? The topics to which they 
 refort for jperfuafion, might miflead and captivate 
 
 thofe
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 thofe who had better underftandingsthan^/'raudi- 
 tors ; indeed thefe profeflbrs declaim till the very 
 orator is deceived himfelf. To tell men, that they 
 are by nature equal to their fuperiors, and that the 
 prefent inequality between them is brought about 
 by oppreffion and tyranny ; to lay down, that 
 the people may make and unmake the Govern- 
 ment, and to tell the populace that they are the 
 People ; in the hearing of the poor and neceffi- 
 tous, to cenfure and vilify the rich and opulent; 
 to difparage thofe put in authority in the prefenceof 
 the evil-doers, to whom they mould be a terror;- 
 to make fport of the perfon and office of the King- 
 himfelf; and train the minds of men to a con- 
 tempt of his authority and the Government they 
 live under ; thefe are topics that are too con- 
 genial with the felf-Iove, the malice, and light- 
 nefs of fome minds, not to be heard with 
 approbation and applaufe ; and they cannot long 
 and repeatedly be declaimed on, fometimes in 
 Political Clubs, and fometimes in Public Lectures, 
 to a numerous auditory, without warping the beft 
 difpofed to an habitual diflike for the Govern- 
 ment, and a difpofition to attempt, or concur in 
 any change that mail be propofed ; more efpe- 
 cially if the change is to place them, as they be- 
 lieve, in a fituation to become their own Legif- 
 Jators and Governors. 
 
 SUCH
 
 SUCH is the defcription of the new Democrats 
 who at prefent infeft the Country ; a fet, who in 
 the meannefs of their perfonal character, in the 
 danger of their principles, and in the open pro- 
 feffion of them, exceed every thing we have yet 
 bad in the nature of Party ; a fet, that are not a 
 Party, but a Confpiracy ; a band of Catilinarians, 
 that look only for plunder and bloodfhed, general 
 confufion and anarchy. 
 
 AND thefe are the men with whom the Refufs 
 of the Whig Club have fraternized to make a 
 common caufe ! the dregs of the upper clafles 
 of fociety mingled with the dregs of the lower J 
 This union cannot be viewed but with difguft 
 and deteftation. If one of the parties meant to. 
 acquire patrons of their caufe, they are not to be 
 blamed; and the getting into fo much good 
 company is certainly an ornament that they needed. 
 As to the others, the bed motive that can be 
 afcribed to them is, that they meant to make ufe, 
 of thefe as partizans for (lengthening their op- 
 pofition to the Adminiftrators of the Government. 
 But this is a traffic that mufl lofe them in character 
 what they will never, by thefe means, recover in, 
 numbers. Whatever political men may think of 
 fuch condefcenfions, they may allure themfelves, 
 that difhonefty and impofture will not procure con- 
 
 fidence
 
 ( 79 ) 
 
 fidence to public men any more than to private ; 
 and that mean and unworthy connexions, formed 
 upon no band of union but the bafe gains to be 
 made by them, are equally difgraceful in public 
 and in private life. And they mould be told 
 further, that fincerity and plain-dealing is ftill fo 
 well liked, that I doubt whether, with all their 
 mifchief, the political principles of one of thefe 
 parties make them fo odious, as the moral prin- 
 ciples of the other : men may hate the one, but 
 the others they will defpife. 
 
 BUT I will not detain your attention any longer, 
 at prefent. To exhibit the Conftitution of the 
 Engtim Government in its true form; to feparate 
 the corrupt gloffes and conftru&ions that have, 
 from time to time, been impofed upon it ; to ex- 
 pofe the pretexts of Parties ; to take off the mafk 
 from Patriots and Reformers ; and to purfue the 
 machinations of the Jacobins ; thefe make an 
 employment to which I mail return in due time : 
 and fuch further Thoughts I (hall addrefs to you. 
 Thefe are matters, above all others, that call for 
 the confideration of thofe amongfl us, who are 
 friends to order, love QUIET, and are poflefled of 
 the GOOD SENSE by. which Englifhmen are ufed to 
 be guided. 
 
 AT
 
 AT the prefent moment, YOUR attention will 
 be fixed on an objeft of more immediate con- 
 cern. The Parliament is now affembled. This 
 is a fcafon when your fuperintending influence is 
 mod needed, and, weufually fee, jt is then mod 
 happily predominant. But it is a feafon, when 
 the fpirits of men, whether good or bad, are mofl 
 in motion; and all YOUR prudence is wanted to 
 preferve us from folly and wickednefs. You, 
 therefore, YOU at leaft, WATCH. 
 
 Qftcber 29, 1795. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST LETTER,
 
 ANGELES 
 
 University of California 
 
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