the voice of the people was heard on the fide of a junto, who complained of their being deprived of a power, which they had already engroffed but too long. A frequent change of hands is a thing always to be defired for its own fake merely. And a free people ought ever to be jealous of power too long poffeffed by any one fet of men whatever. Some of the free ftates of Italy, accordingly, elect their magiftrates feveral times in a year. Whoever will take a view of the history of the enslaving of nations, will find, that it is always the great, who have oppreffed their refpective countries, where the lofs of liberty has not been owing to conqueft by foreign enemies. Ought we not then to fear every thing, that may tend to the establishment of oligarchy in this free country; ought we not to wifh to fee power as much diffufed, and as little engrossed as poffible?

AGAIN, has it not always been allowed, that the moft effectual method for diffolving parties, is to take off, either by kind or severe means, their leaders? Are there, or are there not, in the nation, any of those hot-brain'd mortals formerly called Tories? If there are none, the pretended grievance, of Tories placed in ftations of power and truft, is chimerical. If there are

Tories, and if it were to be wished there were none, whether is it the most promifing scheme, for this purpose, to keep up the enmity by fetting them at defiance, or to win them by kindness, to a more reasonable way of thinking? Or are we indeed fo fhallow, as not yet to know, that a Tory (if any fuch being exists) out of place, is a Whig, or what the court pleafes, in place? Was not then, the measure in queflion, viz. of employing men of different parties, pre

cifely

cisely what we should have approved of? If it be faid, We expect better things from one fet of men than from another, I should think Dr. ARBUTHNOT's anfwer on his death-bed, to his anxious valetudinary friend, defiring him to recommend to him a phyfician, very applicable to the prefent point: "Send," fays the good doctor, "for the next apothecary." Which, turned politically, will run, mutatis mutandis, as follows; "Employ either a Whig or a Tory, "for one is as bad as the other." But to proceed:

WILL it not be hereafter fufpected, that the mo. ral fenfe was oppreffed by a temporary lethargy, when we carried our zeal for the good caufe fuch lengths, as to overlook the groffeft vices in thofe, who took what we called the right fide in the political controverfy, as well as the most univerfally-acknowledged virtues in those, whom our fancy ranged on the oppofite? Does then political orthodoxy make a faint of an open adu!terer? Is every person, who differs from us in politics, a mifcreant? Are we not more fure of the ruinous tendency of exemplary vice, than we can be of the truth of any political creed whatever? Is there any method fo effectual for bringing our own party into difgrace, ‘as opening our arms to receive perfons of publicly infamous characters? What integrity in political conduct is to be expected from the man, who lives openly in the breach of the most folemn of all vows? Every shameleis violator of the laws of decency, is one, who fets the general opinion, nay, and his own confcience, at defiance. What hold have we of fuch a man?

PERHAPS it may be objected, "If thofe, who "take the right fide, will difclaim all connexion with "openly

B 12

A

openly vicious men, they will have few to ftand by " them;" I answer, if they should, thofe few will be worth a multitude of reprobates. Wherever a good man appears, he cafts a glory round him. wicked man, like a foul fiend rifing, makes the place hideous. If it should be faid, "There are men of as im"moral characters in one party as in the other :" what can I answer, but, "O virtue! O my country (2) !" To proceed,

WILL it not hereafter feem to the impartial, unaccountable, that, when a perfon, from whofe education and understanding common decency at least might have been expected, thought proper, publicly, in print, to give the direct lye to Majefty feated on the British throne, and addreffing the whole united legislature, with all the eyes of Europe on him; fo many among us fhould approve of fuch elegancy of behaviour? Was there any thing queftionable in the Speech? A member of parliament had it furely in his power to move the boufe, that it might be taken into confideration. What occafion for an open attack, in papers circulated among coffee-houses and ale-houses, upon a young and gentle Prince, who, himself, never treated the meaneft perfon in fuch a manner? The pretence, "That the "blame fell wholly on the ministry, who are fuppofed "to frame the fpeeches," is frivolous; and no person of candor can, I think, avoid feeing the effential difference between what the King takes wholly upon himself, and what is counter-figned by a minifter.

BUT

[p] ADDISON.

Bur let me add, What did the miniftry gain-by meddling with the offender? Did they not know, that, in England, whoever is punished is pitied, be his offence what it will? Would a British government shew, along with a conduct unexceptionably difinterested, a magnanimity fuperior to the cavils of the difcontented, they would foon render libelling as harmless as railing on the Thames. How fevere was the check given by the Spartan Ephori to the embaffadors, who had bedawbed the benches, on which thofe magiftrates fat! Those grave fenators only ordered the cryer to publish, That no body should reftrain the embaffadors from behaving themselves, while they flaid at Sparta, in whatever manner they might, in their great wisdom, think fit. Would the ferving them with a fecretary's warrant, or an attachment, have fhewn their levity, or the Spartan gravity in a light fo ftriking? But to return,

WHERE (will it not be faid by and by, when we come to cool ?) was our juftly-boafted English generofity, when we fuffered a fet of riff-raff railers and rhymefters to abuse, in the most illiberal manner, our respectable brethren the inhabitants of the northern provinces of this united ifland, merely because a minifter, against whom we had, perhaps juftly enough, taken offence, happened to be connected with that part of the kingdom, as well as with this? If Sir RICHARD STEELE thought the North Britons in his times deferving of the appellation of a nation of heroes, how much more would he have honoured them, had he feen them fend out, as they did in the late war, almost three times their quota of men; had he feen thofe men engaged in every scene, where danger appeared, or glory was to be

won by deeds of valour; and pouring, without meafure, their best blood in the common caufe? And was this a proper time to fall upon them in a manner, that But I reftrain my pen: for I mean not

to widen the breach.

I CANNOT with certainty foretell how this matter may appear by and by: but I can tell what will fhew more wisdom in us than we have exhibited by railing at the people of North Britain (which is, at best, to much the fame purpose as a scolding match between husband and wife, who had better fpare themselves the trouble of falling out, as they muft at any rate make it up again) I mean, our endeavouring to imitate them ; to imitate their wife method of instructing their children [9], and principling their vulgar. I am fo fully perfuaded of the ingenuous temper of my countrymen, that I will add no more on this disgraceful affair, concluding, that their own sense of their error will more than fufficiently punish it.

WILL it not fome time hence be thought a little particular, that it should ever become a fubject of public debate, whether the very Perfonage, who, not many years ago, had the natural expectation of being at this time Qu. of Br. should be one, among others, in a Régency? Yet how many, among the independent peo· ple, exulted, on feeing One in this manner difgraced, who was, for twenty years together, the idol of the virtuous, and the unreproached pattern for a whole fex to copy after! We may, I fhould think, at any time, carry our party-rage to a competent pitch of

extra

́[9] SIE Mr. LOCKE's letters to Mr. MOLINEUX.