none furely need to lament that the age of chivalry is yes gone, or that the fpirit of crufading is for ever departed from Europe.

THAT the British minifters have had the prudence to decline drawing the fword in behalf of this wicked and dangerous combination, muft give every fubject fincere pleasure. Had they fuffered the nation to have been drawn in, and plunged into hoftilities, for fuch a cause, from the biafs of their own judgment, the natural pro penuity of courts, from the abfurd fuppofition of its be ing the common caufe of crowned heads, or from any ine cautious and ill adjusted alliances with Continental powe ers, it may well be fuppofed, that the effects would have been alarming. Of all the wars ever undertaken on the continent, this would have been the most critical, the moft unpopular, and the most mifchievous. They will doul lefs feet their wisdom to perf in the fame pacifie fentiments, if they fhail not hereafter perceive an urgent neceffity, or fee! a generous inclination to befriend a peo ple who had ng dragged the most ignominious chains, who have firuggled hard for liberty, and are refolved to be free.

It would have been no lefs prudent, if the leading members of the adminiftration had been a little more on the referve with reference to the Revolution and proceed. ings in the neighbouring kingdom, and the principles from which they flow, inftead of coming forward, on more occafions than one, with their fevere and indifcriminate cenfures of the general fyftem, and with their loud piaudits and undiffembled gratulations of the fpeeches & writings of a certain celebrated orator on the subjects whofe writings may be confidered, as they were fitly ftyl ed, by a no lefs celebrated orator, and a more judicious and confiftent politician, a libel, not merely on the French, but on every free, conftitution. That fome er rors in the proceedings of the national Reformers of France, and fome confiderable defects in the new confti tution, were perceptible by them, was not at all surpris inge Thefe errors and blemishes were too numerous and glaring to escape any cool mind, or difcerning eye; nor could it be reasonably expected, that nothing of this kind

hould attend the operations of any body of mankind, in #milar circumitances. But it might have ben expected that leffer errors should have been overlooks in the greatnefs of the defign, and partial blemitnes indulgently viewed, a nidft the variegated beauty, and furpuffing luf tre of the new fabric. Some incidental evils and tempo rary diforders thould have been forgotten, from regard to the extenfive and fubftantial advantages attained, and in confideration of the many formidable dangers, and infuf ferable grievances happily removed. Such a charitable partiality in their favour, at least a treatment lefs harth, they had reafon to expect, in a land where political liberty, and the Proteftant reformation had long been dif playing their ftandard. On the other hand, if the faf cinating charms of diction, the beauties of compofition, the political fag city, the richness of moral fentiment, the knowledge of the world, and of the human heart,, the vast treasure of literature, the happy illuftrations, with other excellencies, to confpicuous in the writings alluded to, of which whoever is infenfible, may refign all. pretentions to genius, taste, and erudition) if thefe truck at once their mind, and extorted from them a sudden burst of applaufe, this too might have been excufed, if the acrimony and intemperate fpirit of the Reflections, the ill-defigned pleas for defpotifm, the laboured apolo gies for ancient prejudices and abuses, the writer's pallia tions of every established absurdity, his dangerous confounding of civil and ecclefiaftical polity, his blending with the effence of the British conftitution itfelf, the pe culiarities of a religious party in Britain, and certain corruptions of Chriftianity, which former arbitrary princes, or bigotted afpiring church-men, thought proper to force into a connection with it; his dark lefuitical reafoning, er rather fanatical declamation in behalf of a Popiit priefthood, hierarchy, and menkery, in fine, the dangerous poison they are calculated to convey,, and the unhallowed Hame of zeal they mean to kindle,had not altogether efcaped their animadverfion. It will be hard to find an Ecclefiaftico political tract, published within a century paft, of fuch a dangerous and inflammatory nature, and at the fame time one that hath had fuch an unbounded circulation and applaufe: an evident fymptom of the fad decay of falutary principles, and the genuine pit of Pro eftant liberty. From the day that the ministerial anders

with their faithful followers in parliament, indifcreetly proclaimed their fentiments, and declared themselves fuch warm partizans in the public difputes occafioned by the French Revolution, a great part, I hope not the worst, nor the factious part of the nation, felt much pain, and began to be filled with jealous apprehenfions. They thought they perceived a fpirit, bursting forth from its concealment, very foreign to that which is the characte riftic of British patriots: they thought it indicated no good to that portion of liberty and ecclefiaftical reformation which we had already attained, while it precluded the hope of enjoying that which all that have impartially thought of the fubject, will confefs to be farther needful. They dreaded the counfe's and measures which, in the probable course of events might enfue, upon fuch principles. They fecretly trembled for liberty and the public peace.

AMONG the early and moft noted fruits of these opini. ons, may be reckoned, the keen and strenuous oppofition made to a late motion intimated to parliament for a reform, and the Royal proclamation against feditious writings; measures which are by no means calculated for fetting the minds of thofe at eafe, who before were under apprehenfions. Not fatisfied with enjoying, or publicly declaring their own fentiments on thefe fubjects, his Majefty's advisets give reafon to fufpect, that they mean to make them the univerfal standard for every man in the nation; to employ the terror of criminal laws to enforce them, and to fupprefs all free difcuffion of the fubject of general politics, or that of the French Revolution, or of the British conftitution in particular The royal muft be annexed to the parliamentary VETO, to crush any propofal that may be made by individuals, or the body of the people, for reforming the conftitution, or changing any of the prefent laws of Great Britain. For a cabinet of minifters, or parliament itself to aim at any of these, if it doth not imply great wickedness, must betray at least great weakness and folly.

THE fupreme authority in a nation ought but rarely, and very warily, to interpofe for fettling opinions, and deciding difpute among the fubjects. The name of Majeity, in particular, ought seldom to be employed in com

manding, threatening, and over-awing the minds of a free people: nor will enlightened politicians often have recourse to fuch ineffectual and dangerous measures, where the neceffity is not apparent, and the ufes obvious. - To employ them unneceffarily, or for purposes for which they are inadequate, is to expofe them to contempt. When threatening edicts and proclamations are haftily emitted, in doubtful cafes, or when they are so denounced against certain abuses or evils in the commonwealth, as that they may equally operate to prevent fome neceffary good in it, when they cannot with certainty reach evil minded perfons, or difturbers of the public peace, without expofing alfo many dutiful and peaceable fubjects to the fame hazard, they must be unwife and highly improper. To have recourfe to these for the purpofe of inftructing or convincing men's minds as to the belt fyftem of govern ment or religion, or for compelling them to an uniformity of fentiment, either about civil or ecclefiaftical politics, about which men in all ages have differed, is a method fo exceedingly abfurd, that we fuppofed it could not at this time, have needed a ferious refutation. It will tend rather to enflame the difpute which it proposes to allay, and where alienation or difcontents prevail, muft encrease them ten fold.

IN times of defpotic rule, proclamations were a ready and powerful engine of oppreffion. They ftood in the place of law, or ferved notably to pervert it, or to give life to thofe parts of it that were molt grievous. No jarring of opinions, no war of words, or licentiousness of writing, could ever have produced one half of the trouble, difquiet, or dangers, to the public, which thefe occafioned. The reign of Charles II. and of his brother, may ferve as a perpetual memorial, to the inhabitants of North Britain in particular, how pernicious thefe may prove to the liberty, property, and lives of fubjects,, under the direction of an arbitrary court, and in the hands of wicked minifters. The abufe of royal edicts was condemned and reftrained at the Revolution; they can no longer have the force of laws, nor infer penalties for difobedience. Yet may they ftill be employed for bad, as well as good purposes. They may impofe a confiderable biafs on the public mind, check the freedom of enquiry, and the pro

grefs of improvements, and put an engine of terror in -motion, under the colour of enforcing the laws, hostile to the fpirit and interefts of a free Proteftant ftate: for there are not wanting abundance of laws, either dormant (or alive, which either from the letter of them, or the con struction which, may be put upon them, by a fet of igno rant or venal lawyers, may caufe no small alarm and fuf fering: and there are none perhaps more futed for fuck an effect than the laws refpecting libels and feditious writings.

MR. Pitt reprefents the late proclamation, as a fatherly admonition to the people to guard against dangerous doce trines, and an exhortation from the fountain of magiftra cy, and executive power, to fupprefs and punish theme -but furely he will not pretend, that he whom he tering the fountain of magiftracy, is alfo the fountain of under tanding, and the rule of our faith too: or that Chriftians are bound implicitly to admit his word, or even the laws themselves, framed by a few individuals equally lia ble to error and prejudice with any who are now alive, as the teft of right and wrong, in a religious, as well as a civil constitution, or else be criminal, as the proclamation feems to import. If it were fo, we could not be faid greatly to have improved onr condition by our feparation from Rome; and it would be more fair, that Proteftants fhould be no longer mocked with the name and phantom of liberty, efpecially, that most valuable part of it, lie berty of confcience.

HAD we merely exchanged a human spiritual dictator to the mind and confcience for a temporal one, and ec clefiaftical inquifitors for civil ones, our condition, in fome refpects, would rather be altered to the worse. The powers of the old Popish perfecutors, were not always equal to their will. As they did not directly poffefs the means for enforcing their flavifh doctrines, or their cruel acts, thefe might often be defeated by the fu perior temporal power. The Papa at Rome, with his fubordinate officers and judges, could only find the hered fy, but did not claim the power of reaching directly men's lives, liberties, or eftates. As the ecclefiaftical monarch pretended not to weild a fword himself, he was always.