wafte of much blood and treasure to preferve them; the revolutionary mania, which has fhaken, if it has not overturned, every other throne in Europe; the heavy load of taxes, which the ftate of the world at large has compelled the government to impofe on the people; and the daring mifreprefentations of the tools of faction, have never for a moment deprived the Monarch of the affections of the nation. Could this have been the cafe had he openly and uniformly. difplayed his partiality to a faction? It certainly could not, whether that faction had been Whig or Tory.

Away then with the groundlefs fuppofition of a fecret council behind the throne, for the existence of which even this author acknowledges that no proof was ever produced. The fuppofition was made by the Whigs, only because they were deprived of the monopoly of places and power, which they had fo long enjoyed; though they cannot fay, nor indeed have ever faid, that fuch a monopoly was at any time conferred on the Tories.

Our author's account of the various changes of Miniftry which took place in the beginning of this reign is fair and candid, if due allowance be made for that bias towards his own party, from which no writer can wholly diveft himself; and his reflections on Mr. Pitt's refignation in 1761, which excited fo much clamour in the country, are perfectly just. After informing us by what means that great ftatefman came to the knowledge of the family compact, and of the preparations for war then making in Spain, he details the arguments which he urged in council, for our ftriking the first blow; but with his ufual candour admits that the members of admi niftration, who poffeffed not the fecretary's intelligence, might naturally diffent from his propofal. He then proceeds in the following words.

"The propofal for attacking Spain, while fhe was yet medi tating, but unprepared for hoftilities, being feconded in the cabinet by none of the members but Lord Temple, the fecretary's brother, Mr. Pitt determined to refign. He declared that this was the time for humbling the whole houfe of Bourbon, which, if allowed to flip, might never be recovered; and if he could not prevail in this inftance, he was refolved it fhould be the last time he would fit in that council. He thanked the minifters of the late King for their fupport. He faid, that he himself had been called into the miniftry by the people, to whom he confidered himself as accountable for his conduct, and that he would not remain in a fituation which made him refponfible for meafures he was allowed no longer to guide,.

"The

"The concluding word of this addrefs was offenfive; it implied a confcioufnefs of that irrefiftible power of his talents, of which it would better become another than himself to be the herald: he had indeed been the ruler, for many years, both of the affections and understanding of the greater part of the nation; their oracie in council; the very foul and fpring of their energy in the perilous crifi of wat But to talk of guiding any dignified affembly," where he only fwayed by the power of conviction, was an overbearing and proud expreffion. When we blame this great man, however, for the intemperance of a fingle fentence, it by no means follows that either his zeal for the Spanish war was erroneous, or his conduct exceptionable in refigning his feat in the cabinet. From an office fo important it was proper to retire when his colleagues acted upon different views. in remaining he muft either have obftructed the measures of others, or have facrificed his own conviction for the fake of unanimity. Contentions in ftate council muft always be attended with the danger of expofing ftate fecrets; fo that a minifter may often confcientiously believe himself to be doing a greater benefit to his country, in refigning the reins to others, who are unanimous, then, by the mixture of his own diminished influence and opinions, to produce indecifive, inconfiftent, and heterogeneous refolutions. Lord Grenville, the prefident, reprehended in council, the authoritative words of Mr. Pitt, but paid a due tribute of applause to his genius and integrity. P. 33.

These reflections do honour to the author's impartiality; but we cannot bestow the fame praife on what he relates of the conduct of the miniftry, with respect to the disturbance occafioned by the Falkland-Iflands, and the expulfion of Wilkes from the Houfe of Commons. Had all Europe been involved in war for the poffeffion of a barren rock in the Magellanick regions; a rock useless in time of peace, and which would have become a neft of pirates during war; what curfes would not have been poured on the heads of thofe ftatefmen, who are now cenfured for not having brought fuch calamities on the human race? With refpect to the final expulfion of Wilkes, and the finding of Mr. Lutterel duly elected, men of equal integrity and of equal knowledge of the conftitution have indeed differed in opinion; but if this author thought fit to deviate fo far from the path of an annalist as to introduce any of the arguments which were employed on that much agitated question, he ought furely to have quoted the arguments on both fides. He informs us (p. 200.) that

"In the courfe of debating this question, which the oppofition took up very warmly, Mr. Dowdeswell humouroufly obferved, that

5

a right

right of expulfion would leave minifters the abfolute power of the house. There is one wort man in the houfe, turn him out. Is there not now a worst man left, turn him out too.' In short, when will you ftop? You have turned out one for impiety and ob. fcenity. When half a dozen members meet over a convivial bottle, is their difcourfe entirely free from impiety, obfcenity or the abufe of government? Even in the cabinet, that pious reforming fociety, were Mr. Wilkes to be there adjudged, and the innocent man to throw the firft ftone, they would flink out one by one, and leave the culprit uncondemned.”

This must have been thought very fine by the author when he deemed it worthy of being repeated at the distance of now forty-years; but as he has not quoted the reply, and as the queftion of expulfion is not unlikely to be again agitated, we fhall fupply his omiffion, after bringing to the reader's recol lection that one object of complaint by Wilkes and his rabble, was the partiality faid to be fhown by the court to the Scots.

"It has been obferved, that vice is no proper caufe of expulfion, for if the worst men in the houfe were always to be expelled, in time none would be left. But no man is expelled for being the worst, he is expelled, for being enormously bad; his conduct is compared, not with that of others, but with the rule of action. But if this precedent be admitted and established, no man can hereafter be sure that he fhall be reprefented by him whom he would choofe. One half of the houfe may meet early in the morning, and fnatch an opportunity to expel the other, and the greater part of the nation may by this ftratagem, be without its reprefenta

tives.

"He that fees all this, fees very far. But I can tell him, of, greater evils yet behind. There is one poffibility of wickedness, which, at this alarming crifis, has not yet been mentioned. Every one knows the malice, the fubtilty, the induftry, the vigilance, and the greedinefs of the Scots. The Scotch members are about the number fufficient to make a Houfe. I propofe it to the confideration of the fupporters of the bill of rights, whether there is not reason to suspect, that these hungry intruders from the North, are now contriving to expel all the English, We may then curfe the hour in which it was determined, that expulfion and exclusion' are the fame; for who can guess what may be done when the Scots have the whole Houfe to themselves *?"

Johnfon's Falfe Alarm;-a Pamphlet in which the jurifdiction of the House over its own members, is difcuffed with fuch ability as excites our furprife that no bookfeller has at prefent republished it.

Rev.

Like

Like every man of his party, the author is a very zealous advocate for the liberty of the prefs, and God forbid that we fhould ever fee it fettered; but there is a difference between liberty and licentioufnefs; and when the newspaper reporters of the debates in either Houfe of Parliament, report falfely and maliciously the fentiments and language of the members, they certainly deferve punishment. We cannot therefore with the prefent author confider thofe as real weil-wifhers to the Jiberty of the prefs, nor their triumph as rational, who hailed the enlargement of Crofby the Lord Mayor of London, and Alderman Oliver, who had been juftly fent to the Tower for committing to prifon the Meffenger of the Houfe of Commons, becaufe in the difcharge of his official duty he had taken into cuftody the printer of a libel on the Houfe. The Whigs, when in office, are as liable to forget the liberty of the prefs as the Tories; and we believe it would be found, on impartial enquiry, that more men have been punished for libels on public characters, fince the revolution, under the adminiftrations of the fupporters of the Bill of Rights, than under adminiftrations denominated Tory.

This annalist next deviates from the path, which, by affuming that title, he had chalked out for himself, by making a fenfelefs attack on fubfcription to the thirty-nine articles, or indeed, to any defined fyftem of faith. This he does in fupport of the Feathers Tavern petition of notorious memory; but very candidly acknowledges that the faid petition was opposed not only by Lord North and Mr. Burke, from whom, being churchmen themfelves, fuch oppofition was to be expected, but alfo by Mr. Fox, who had now commenced his parlimentary career under Lord North's aufpices. The petition was rejected, as it deferved to be, by a great majority; and no reader, who can diftinguish between the rights of toleration and the privileges of an establishment, will be induced, by this author's fhallow fophiftry, to call in queftion the rectitude of their decifion.

He makes a more refpectable appearance when relating the origin and progrefs of the war with America, than when he is detailing the difputes between rival statesmen, and the infidious attacks made on the established church. With great candour he exhibits the Americans as a factious people, meditating a revolt from the Mother Country, as foon alinoft as they had been fet free from all apprehenfions from the French in their immediate neighbourhood. Inftead of gratitude for the blood and treasure which had been wafted in their defence, they had difplayed little elfe than fymptoms of growing difcontent from the Gigning of the peace of Paris in 1763; and it appears

in

in this work, as indeed it is univerfally known, that the duty on tea and the Boston Port-bill only haftened that revolt, on which the colonies had long been determined. He exposes the knavery of Dr. Franklin in the discharge of his duty as deputy poft-mafter general for the colonies, which brought on him the philippic, in which it was faid, that he deferved the Roman appellation of Homo trium literarum; and candidly acknowledges, that the war, though undertakeh against the opinion of Lord Chatham, Mr. Burke, and other diftinguifhed ftatefmen, was the war of the nation as much as of the court. He cenfures, and juftly cenfures, the fluctuating counfels and conduct of the various administrations with refpect to the colonies; blames the Rockingham miniftry for the declaratory act, which ought undoubtedly to have been more accurately expreffed, or not paffed at all; and talks much, in the ftyle of his party, of the violation of the natural and chartered rights of the colonies.

We do not mean to follow this author through the hiftory of the war, or to examine the truth of his obfervations on the principal actors in it. On all hands it is agreed, that the British Miniftry exhibited feeblenels at its commencement, and through the whole of its progrefs; that their mea fures were thwarted by a powerful oppofition, and,, as it was alledged at the time, their counfels betrayed to the enemy: and that fome of the Generals, to whom the conduct of the war was committed, carried it on without zeal, and neglected to follow up the victories which they had dearly gained. Happy certainly would it have been for Great Britain, and perhaps for the colonies themfelves, had fuch a force been fent at first to Bofton as would have over-awed the whole continent, and prevented the infurrection of the colonifts; or happier ftill would it have been, if Dean Tucker's propofal had been adopted, and the thirteen colonies declared independent states, and left to themselves, the moment that it was known that they had fent deputies to a general congrefs. They had not then completely forgotten what they had fuffered fo lately from the French and the Indians; and the dread of being again expofed to fimilar fufferings unaided and unprotected, would probably have made them glad to acquiefce in the measures of Government. At any rate we fhould have enjoyed their trade as long as we could fuppy their wants more effectually, and on easier terms than the other commercial ftates of Eu rope; and we fhould have been freed from the enormous expence of protecting them from foreign enemies.

S

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVI. SEPT. 1810,

It