be cleanfed of thofe impurities which it might have contracted by too close a minifterial intercourfe, back to its original fountain; the representatives have received it in a ftate of vigour and unadulteration; in that ftate we expect that it should operate, and that the fame regard to the favour of the people, by which they were actuated as candidates, fhall continue to direct the reprefentatives in their capacity of legislation. An opinion I know, has, been creeping in upon us for fome time, that during a parliament, that is, during a temporary delegation of the power of the people, this power is unconditionally vefted in the representative; and, that he owes no refpect whatsoever to the judgment of his conftituents, a doctrine no lefs abfurd, but perhaps more fatal in confequence, than that of uncontroulable power in kings; we therefore fee the most capable men of the houfe, lord C-re, for inftance, and many others, men fuppofed to know, and attend to the fpirit of the conftitution, who know that the democratick part of our conftitution does in reality form the basis of it, and that the other parts are but fecondary, contributing only to convenience and ornament; we fee them confulting the people upon every important occafion: For can there be any thing more ridiculous, than that a man whom I have trusted but for a given time, should have a power by the difference between the monofyllable aye, or no, to ruin me and my pofterity to time everlasting; and that I fhall not prefume to remonstrate upon what he is about to do? Is it confonant to law, natural or municipal, that a truftee without my privity, fhall out of his own head make an abfolute conveyance of my eftate, and by one rafh or difhonest act, bring ruin upon me and my family? Shall that which is but formed fubfervient to convenience, become through mifapplication fubftantially deftructive and pernicious? And shall I all this while look on in patient filence? Many houses of commons have, it is true, agreed to many extraordinary things, and the dutiful acquiefcence of the people under thefe agreements, have given them almoft the fanction of precedent; they have fuffered the spirit of the act of fettlement to evaporate, by permitting a fplitting of places to the great enlargement of courtinfluence; they have loft fight of triennial parliaments, and reconciled as nearly as poffible, the minds of the English to the idea of fanding arnsies but acquiefcence under grievance is no renunciation of the right of redress, when occafion fhall prefent itfelf, and the long duration of an evil is rather an argument for putting an end to it, than for giving it a further continuance; except lawyers, all will think fo, I'm fure. A county chufes two gentlemen to reprefent them in parliament, not

that

that they conceive thefe gentlemen to have gathered into themfelves the effence of the whole knowledge and integrity of the whole county, but becaufe in the great council of the nation, two can speak the fenfe of the county, when ten thousand cannot; and becaufe fuch an uninterrupted and confidential intercourfe is fo neceffarily fuppofed between conftituent and reprefentative, that they are confidered in law as moving but by the fame foul, the law will not fupport the leaft jarring, and should they materially difagree, common fenfe points out to which opinion the law muit give the preference. Whilft therefore the reprefentatives fhall retain a becoming refpect for the collective body, good humour will prevail, harmony fubfift, and the ends of reprefentation be fully answered; but should the contrary be the cafe, it is much to be feared, that the people may raile their voice to a didactic tone, and affume to themfelves the province of inftruction.

With what fate convulfions the wrefting of power out of thofe hands which have once griped it whether justly, or unuftly, has been attended, our hiftory abounds with inftances; liberty has, however, whether from virtue or from accident, been hitherto triumphant: Nor fhall the late firings upon an anarmed multitude in George's Fields, perfuade me, that an English army will be guilty of the parricide of cutting off their own liberties; I fhould indeed fear it from a ftanding army of mercenary Scots; but never from an army of English. Thofe mercenaries who have been brought from poverty and defolation, into the fertile and happy plains, of England, who from rags or nakedness, have jumped fuddenly into breeches and laced regimentals, who have luckily exchanged the paftoral ftaff for the efpontoon or truncheon, and whe from their attendance upon half ftarved flocks, have now the honour of commanding well fed Englishmen, fenfible of obligation to their powerful coun tryman for this reverfe of fortune, will readily prostitute both foul and body for his fervice, and hed without reluctance the blood of that nation, whofe happinefs they at all times envied, and whofe glory it was their ambition to thwart; but Englishmen will never become the unlawful executioners of Englithmen, nor fhould the success of one horrid maffacre be an encouragement to those who hope to deftroy our liberties by means of an army. When Sylla wantoning in cruelty, in open defiance of the laws of his country, had refolved upon difpatching a great number of his profcribed enemies, whom he had got into his power, within hearing of the confcript fathers, at a place not farther from the Senate-houfe, than St. George's-fields from Westminster

Hall

Hall, the brave legionaries refufed to act; left I fhould run the hazard of anachronizing, I will not fay this bloody fervice was performed by Scotchmen, but if I recollect rightly, for I write from memory, the mercenary Cretan Archers, were the butchers upon that occafion; and Roman virtue had been long upon the decline before this event. Which proves that corruption muft fink very deep into the minds of a people, before they can be prevailed upon to imbrue their hands in the blood of their innocent, unarmed, unrefifting neighbours and countrymen.

Satisfied that the prefent houfe of Commons will never enter into a ftruggle for exercifing a power totally independent of the opinion of thofe who have returned them; it is our duty to make the ciofeft obfervations upon the times, and whenever we perceive the fmalleft ipeck in the Political Hemifphere, to point it out to our reprefentatives who will difperfe it ere it fall gather into a tempeft; but alas, their power of doing good is clogged and embarraffed; favouritifm has almoft unthreaded the nerves of legislature, the rays of royal countenance, equally diffufed, communicate to every part of fociety a genial invigorating warmth and energy; but collected into the focus of favouritifm, whilft it produces the unnatural immaturities of pride, over-grown wealth, infolence and oppreflion in one part, chills and fterilizes thro' every other. Previous therefore to the removal of small evils, this rand evil muft be neceffarily removed; nor is the bare removal of his perfon fufficient, tho' mountains and occans fhould interpofe, for he will be virtually in London, whilst those wretches who have fubmitted to his domination fhall continue in office; for my part I look upon myfelf entitled, as an Englishman, to judge, to cenfure the officers of the crown when they deferve it, and to applaud the meritorious; for I fhall not fay with Marcus Terentius in Tacitus-Non eft noftrum eftimare quem fupra cæteros et quibus de caufis extollas, tibi fummum rerum dii dedère, nobis obfequii gloria relicta; this indeed, he spoke upon a different occafion as an apology for his having ever maintained a friendfhip with the fallen Sejanus, whereas, I do from my foul fincerely deteft the exalted earl of BUTE, whom I confider as the author of every wrong ftep which has been taken, fince that fatal hour in which he firft feized upon the reigns of adminiftration.

Το

To the EDITOR of the POLITICAL REGISTER.

SIR,

Having received a letter relative to an election for members to represent the greateft county in Ireland, which fhews the fpirit which the Octennial Law has called up in that kingdom, I fhall take it as a favour that you infert it in the Political Register. Your's, &c.

Dear F

ΤΗ

HE conteft is now at an end, victory has declared against us; our fall however has not been inglorious, and like the old giant, we fhall I hope get ftrength from the touch of mother Earth. Hercules, indeed, that old warrior, by not fuffering Antæus to fall, by holding him a great way off the ground, that is in the modern phrafe by separating him from the landed intereft of his country, did at length foil him, our Mock-Hercules has it not, we blefs God, in his power to do fo, to strip us of our estates. The nice canvafs made upon the late happy occafion furnished by the auspicious Octennial law has made us thoroughly acquainted with the ftrength of our county, and a future election will fhew whata well-concerted, determined, opulent affociation, in support of liberty fhall be able to effect.

You, my dear Sir,have told me that the unnatural influence obtained by the father of the prefent lord Sulkey wantonly exercised in raising his creatures to infolent importance, was what drove you, feveral noblemen, and many others of good fortunes, left you fhould be expofed to thofe mortifications which gentlemen often meet from wretches of the low kind, to refide in England; by which the confumption of your rents was all loft to a kingdom, the fertility of whofe foil, and the labour of whofe poor inhabitants did actually produce these rents; give me leave to fay you have been therefore chargeable with pufillanimity and ingratitude. You fled your country and fuffered a tyrant to lay without interruption the foundation of that vaffalage under which we who ftayed behind have long groan'd; and after all, who and what was this mighty perfon, but the fmall fcarce difcernible fibre of a family poffeffed, it is true, of a great property in the kingdom but of a new one, and acquired the firft lord of the family beft knew how. For when the English adventurers. during these times of blood and confusion in the reign of Q.

Elizabeth,

Elizabeth, were employed in conquering the forfeited eftates of the traitor Definond, when we meet the Raleighs, the Browns, the Norris's, and other refpectable perfons in arms, no fword was known, to do honourable grace to the hand of any of that name, which has fince infolently prefumed to ufurp the domination not only of our county, but of the whole kingdom-No, they lay by and flily picked up the eftates of the unfortunate, whether friends or foes, without diftinction; and like thofe who attend upon armies with a view to plunder, grew fuddenly rich without either toil or hazard of a family, the opulent branches of which, ever fince the settled ftate of this kingdom would admit them to draw away their rents, did spend them in that country where you feem difpofed to spend yours, and left their tenants to the hungry ravage of devouring agents and receivers You were all routed by a man of trifling property, little parts, much cunning, deep diffimulation, of courage barely problematical; He indeed once had the good fortune to bully a blafted coward; but in general, all his battles were fought by a few of his defperate underlings nor can I fay his champions were always happily chofen; but to make up for that, he had always thefe headlong fons of proftitution, the clergy, to bray at his fide, which they, you know, have the privilege of doing with impunity. A man who, marrying with the almost fuperannuated and defponding fifter of his noble relation, became entitled thereby to the truft of his boroughs in this kingdom, which he afterwards, moft fcandaloufly betrayed, and upon the ruin of his lordship's intereft would fain have erected his own; who had the craft by falling in with the humour of the times in the reign of George the firft, by drinking deep to the glorious memory, and affuming the appearance of revolution principles, to place himself at the head of the Whigs of this county, but who has fince proved himfelf incapable of thofe generous fentiments which liberty infpires; for in public character he has been the spoiler of his country, and in private, the bafe deceiver of his confiding unfufpecting friend, whofe family (and that helplefs fex which it is moft criminal to injure) he has robbed of their patrimony, and left expofed to poverty, diftrefs and mifery.

native your

Such was the man who drove you, Id S, Id E 1d B- and many others from and country, fo ftrange are fill the infatuations of fome people, it is to the intereft of the fon of fuch a man, that we hear many express a ftupid furprize at feeing any oppofition made; your VOL. III.

X

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