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temper, that we cannot but think that it must make a strong impreffion in favour of the addressers, on the mind of every candid and liberal Proteftant.

Art. 46. Rights of Citizens; being an Inquiry into fome of the Confequences of Social Union, and an Examination of Mr. Paine's Principles touching Government. 8vo. PP. 131. 2s. 6d.

Debrett. 1792.

One affertion made by this writer is, that he has thought on his fubject. It is evident that he has done fo. Accordingly, which he seems to fufpect many of his readers will not do, we have followed him patiently, page by page, to his conclufion. The refult is, that we are very ready to give him credit for much acuteness and fubtilty, though we cannot allow that he has, as he supposes, gone the whole way.' The foundation, we think, ftill continues firm, in fpite of all his digging to undermine it. Some, perhaps, may be of opinion that the lower parts of Mr. Paine's fuperftructure are a little fhaken but the foundation, which is not originally the work of Mr. Paine, but of nature, is immoveable.

The fubftance of this pamphlet is metaphyfical; and the author, after having proceeded fome way in it, fays: I fear the reader will give a thort yawn of acquiefcence, when I tell him we have had a good deal of up-hill work.' This poffibly will be the cafe with the generality of readers. Thofe, however, who have a taste for deep investigation, will be entertained, if not convinced. The fubject is dry but the writer is by no means dull. In general, he is profound; fometimes he is light and amufing; and now and then he is fuperficial and flimfy.

Under this laft defcription, we muft rank what he fays to prove that, in this country, the majority of the people may be reprefented if they will.' Having affirmed that a principal part of the national will is, with us, lodged in a majority of the people, he proceeds:

The national will, lodged in a majority of the people of England!-Yes-from the right of mediately legislating, (by electing reprefentatives,) the Conftitution of England excludes no man abfolutely; but on the contrary, tenders the right conditionally to all. To the Proteftant it fays, procure by your indufry a permanent property, to a certain fmall amount, and you fhall be an elector: (the French Conftitution in the fame manner requires the inhabitant to pay taxes to a certain amount:) to the Roman Catholic, &c. our Conftitution fays, become of the established religion, and be citizens. Comply with what the Conftitution requires, and enjoy the rights it confers. Mean time live unmolested: the force of the Conftitution fhall protect you from injury. The wealth your induftry acquires fhall be fecured to you. Such is the kind language which the British Conftitution holds to diffenters; this is that toleration which Mr. Paine defines to be the counterfeit of intolerance.'

This is little better than an infult on the unreprefented part of the community. It is the logic of the inquifition: the holy fathers of which have never gone farther than to fay to the poor perfecuted heretics,

heretics, become of the established religion, and be free from torture. Comply with what we require, and enjoy the comfort which we can confer: but is it fo eafy for a man to violate his confcience? or is it fo laudable to tempt him to it? Such arguments no more justify the present state of our reprefentation, than they would juftify a power vefted in the King to nominate every member in the House of Commons. In that cafe, it might, with equal truth, be faid, that no man was abfolutely excluded from mediately legiflating, but that the right was tendered conditionally to all. Become king, and you shall be an elector. Comply with what the conftitution requires, and enjoy the rights which it confers.

In the fame fuperficial way, this writer talks of the ufurped privileges of majorities.' I cannot perfuade myself,' fays he, to be a warm thickler for the rights of the many, whilst I remember that the virtuous are the few.' This is a fophifm, by which, fhallow as it is, numbers impofe on themfelves, or on others. It is certain that, if we were to divide mankind into two claffes, putting all those who were eminently virtuous, or eminently wife, or in any way remarkably diftinguished, into one clafs by them felves; and the rest of mankind into another by themselves; the former clafs would be few in number, compared to the latter :-but will any body fay that, when a point is propofed to be promifcuously decided by a body of people, they ever thus divide themselves on the queftion; collecting all the virtuous and wife on one fide, and leaving all the wicked and foolish on the other? On the contrary, does not the opinion entertained of the integrity of the virtuous and of the ability of the wife, generally draw the majority over to their party; unless there be fome very particular caufe for its being otherwife? Befide, where feveral men are nearly equal to each other in virtue and wildom, which is the cafe in fociety,-if one man decides a question in a certain way; is it not justly confidered as an argument that he has decide right, if a vast number of independent perfons agree with him in his decifion? and is it not a prefumption that he is wrong, if there be but a few of the fame opinion with himself? The uniform conduct of mankind gives the answer to the fe queftions. In all focieties, whether public or private, the greatest deference is conftantly paid to the voice of the majority; and to us it appears that the ground of this deference is the unanimous perfuafion, that the voice of the majority is always more likely to contain a greater quantity of wisdom and virtue, than the voice of any other part of the community. Whoever, therefore, would be a warm tickler for virtue and wisdom, must be a warm stickier for the rights of the

many.

Art. 47.
The Political Crifis; or a Differtation on the Rights of
Man. Second Edition. 8vo. PP. 132. 2s. 6d. Jordan.

1792.

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A defultory attack on Dr. Tatham, an author who is more zealous than just, and who feems to be forgotten,'-a few commonplace flourishes in favour of liberty-and a repetition of fome of Mr. Paine's doctrines, almoft in his own words, compose the fub

ftance

ftance of this pamphlet. It is one of those productions which, in the prefent plentiful harveft of politics, might very well have been fpared. Should any one here add, "And fo might Dr. Tatham's pamphlet too," we have nothing to fay in arreft of judgment. If it pleaseth the public, let them (to ufe one of our author's phrafes,) ⚫ progrefs forward' fide by fide to the land of oblivion. We know not that any great lofs would be fuffered by such an event. Art. 48. A Letter to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Chefler, on the Removal of Poor Children from their respective Settlements to the Cotton and other Manufactories at Manchester, &c. By a Friend to the Poor. 12mo. PP. 40. 1 s.

1792.

Faulder.

The rapid progrefs of manufactures is ever giving rife to new expedients; and that of applying to diftant parishes for poor children to fupply them with hands, has lately been tried; too lately perhaps for a prefent decifion on the future confequences of it. This writer, in the character of a friend to the poor, has, however, taken up the subject, and, after urging the cruelty of diffolving the ties between parents and children, by fuch removals of the latter, he gives the following account of the modes of their employment and

treatment:

They are taken away, many of them, at feven years old, or earlier. They are employed in that fort of work, which, if not Jaborious, is yet unnatural to children; because it is utterly incompatible with that neceffary reft, which their tender age abfolutely requires, in order to their advancement to a vigorous maturity. Their time is for the most part divided, as I understand, into two equal parts, twelve hours of labour, and twelve hours of intermiffion. The hour of relief, I believe, is generally eight o'clock: the child, who, after a little refreshment, is fent to bed foon after that hour in the evening, I can eafily conceive, enjoys uninterrupted reft, till he or she is roufed in the morning to prepare for the labour of the fucceeding day; at which time the other little labourers repair to the fame bed; and they are at liberty, if it so please them, to remain there till the evening: but active fpirited children, whofe time is their own, are much above paffing it in torpid indolence: no; the first call of nature being barely fatisfied by a very fhort repofe, they difdain their beds, defpife that refreshment, that neceffary fupport, which it offers to their tender frame, prefer play before fleep, and return jaded, instead of being invigorated, to their defined tafk at the appointed hour in the evening. I need not point out to your Lordfhip the almost unavoidable confequences: I need not obferve what a fure foundation is here laid for hectic difeafes, and a fpeedy death. In the mean while, what have they acquired? a mere daily fubfiftence, which, if they could not have earned at home, their parents were, by every tye of nature, duty, and of law, obliged to fupply by their own industry; and which being now become lefs neceffary, when the objects of their care are removed from them, it is but too probable will be proportionably relaxed on the part of the parent; or if not, the produce of his

8

labour

labour will be in great danger of being wretchedly mifapplied to the purposes of intemperance and excess.

But fuppofe thefe children, my Lord, to be enabled by the ftrength of a good conftitution, and the care of a gracious fuperintending Providence, to ftand their ground for a certain term of years in this cafe the principal manufacturer finds himself conftrained once more to address himself to his agent in town, on the fubject of an exchange of young labourers. He writes him word, that these children are now no longer of any ufe to him; that they are advanced to fuch an age and fuch a fize, that their maintainance and clothing are more expenfive than their labour is productive. He begs him therefore to make another fweep of 12000 more, remit them by the earliest, and fafeft, and cheapest conveyance, and, on receipt thereof, he will send back fuch as remain of those which he had formerly collected and fent.

And now, my Lord, fuppofe them, if you pleafe, returned to their respective parishes; having been for feveral years employed in a fort of work of no more use to them in their present fituation, than if they had been fo many years employed in picking ftraws.

The parents, if they have lived to fee them returned upon their hands, having almost outlived the remembrance of them; and having perhaps transferred their affections to other children born fince the emigration of the former, look upon them with an eye of coldnefs and indifference: upon examination they find them altogether unfit to render them any fervice, and likely rather to prove a burthen than an help to them: and they find their minds fraught with ideas fo diffimilar to thofe which they would have imbibed if they had continued at home, that they feem more like the inhabitants of another hemifphere, than like the indigenous plants of the foil to which they are brought back.'

It is certainly to be fuppofed that manufacturers, taking parish children for profit, will, in the fpirit of trade, make the most that they can of them; and if we are to accept this for a true reprefentation, the removal of helpless children, in fuch numbers, into fuch fituations, to be fo returned, ought not to be countenanced; it has too much resemblance to a flave-trade:-but, on the other hand, the mode of feasoning this addrefs to a right reverend palate, is fufficient to expofe the motive of the whole to fome fufpicion. Some of these manufacturers may chance to be Diffenters! Hinc illa lachryma!

Happy fhould I be, were I enabled to add, that the most important article of the covenant above mentioned had been generally and faithfully fulfilled. When enquiry is made concerning their improvement in learning, the progrefs appears to be very inconfiderable indeed; and, which I am fure is a circumftance that will forcibly frike your Lordship's mind, a very great majority of them are found to have been withdrawn from the fervice and difcipline of the Church of England, to have imbibed the prejudices of Diffenters from the established church, and to be filled, if not with an un

qualified

qualified diflike of that worship to which they would have been trained, if they had remained at home, yet at least with a perfec indifference whether they turn to the Church on the right hand, or to the Conventicle on the left.'

It is indeed fufficiently alarming that these poor innocents should be expofed to the danger of exchanging the virtuous orthodox principles inculcated by the paftoral care of their parish clergy, amid the rags and penury of their fond parents, or in those pious wellregulated receptacles, their parish workhoufes; for the refractory notions of a parcel of dirty mechanics, who are heterodox enough to expect people to earn the bread which they claim, by fulfilling their obligations. This danger might be effectually obviated if the parish minifters, from whole protection fuch children are taken, would recommend them to the attention of the bishop of the diocese, or to the minifters of the refpective parishes to which they are transferred; who on fuch information, would doubtlefs gladly accept the trust, and, we apprehend, might affert their right to fnatch them from the hands of heretical teachers, and train them within the established fold. This is the natural fecurity that our ecclefiaftical conftitution provides, and is rather more becoming than fhuffling off the obligation, and throwing the task on the manufacturers by bonds and fecurities, as this writer propofts.

Would the established clergy, instead of idly lamenting the progrefs of fectarists, become Diffenters themfelves, fo far as to emulate their confcientious vigilance in the various paftoral offices, they would meet them fairly on their common ground; and fuch a noble rival. ship in doing good could not fail of making falutary impreffions on the general mafs of the people; who have natural common fenfe enough to make comparisons, and draw inferences.

Art.

49. Memoirs of Hildebrand Freeman, Efq. or a Sketch of the Rights of Man. A recent Story founded on Facts and written by himfelf. 8vo. pp. 66. Is. 6d. Edwards. 1792.

'Squire Freeman confiderably impairs a good fortune because he is a friend to civil and religious liberty; and he alters his opinion of the French Revolution, condemning what he before approved, becaufe he makes a trip to Paris to fee things as they really exift ;and all this is founded on fact. If it be, it is not on any of those facts which are of daily occurrence; and which directly contradict this gentleman's theory of caufes and effects.

Art. 50. A candid Inquiry into the Nature of Government, and the Right of Reprefentation. 8vo. pp. 2:0. 3 s. Owen. Piccadilly. 1792.

No; not a candid inquiry. Candour never can confift with reprefenting the advocates for reform as men with whom every kind of means, however bafe, however vicious and unfair, is jullified by the end' nor with faying, that, Perverfions of fact; fuppreflion of truth; wild, factious, and favage calumaies; what Chriftianity forbids and honour revolts at; are among the arts by which, under the mask of religion, confcience, and humanity, thefe hypocrites

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