To the EDITOR of the POLITICAL REGISTER. SIR, The following is an accurate copy of a genuine letter, the fubject of which having very much engaged the public attention, you are at liberty to lay before your readers. SIR, I Am commanded by the k- to acquaint you, that his m--, upon a confideration of the difpatches lately received from V, thinks it neceffary for his fervice, that his gonernor of that colony fhould immediately repair to his government; and at the fame time to exprefs to you the high opinion his m- has of your ability to ferve him in that fituation. But it is not the k's intention to prefs you to go upon that fervice unless it fhall be perfectly agreeable to your inclination, as well as entirely convenient to you. His mdoes not forget that the government of Vferred upon you as a mark of royal favour, and as a reward for the very great fervices you have done for the public, fo much to your own honour, and so much to the advantage of this kingdom, and therefore his m is very folicitous that you should not mistake his gracious intention on this occa 'fion. was con If you chufe to go immediately to your government it will be extremely fatisfactory to his m; if you do not, his Im wishes to appoint a new governor, and to continue to you in fome other fhape, that emolument which was, as I have faid before, intended as a mark of the royal fenfe of your meritorious fervices; it is a particular pleafure to me to have the honour of expreffing to you thefe very favourable fentiments of our r-m- To add any thing from myself, would be a degree of prefumption, I will therefore only requeft the favour of your anfwer as foon as may be convenient and take the liberty to affure you, that I am, POLITICAL MANEUVRES. October 15. This day the earl of Chatham refigned his poft of lord privy feal. Having found in a variety of late inftances, that his advice was difregarded, and his influence in the state at an end, he chofe to refign-The principle now adapted and pursuing with respect to America, is faid to have been been one cause of his refignation. And, amongst many others the following are added, the plan now forming by the united houfes of Bourbon and Auftria, to deftroy the peace and liberty of Europe, being looked upon with indifference, and treated as an idle chimera by thofe who call themselves minifters. The high language lately held by the British minifter at Paris upon the invafion of Corfica by the French, and the ftrong contradiction by authority given to it here. The memorial of a fouthern potentate, once the natural and firm ally of Great Britain, (but now neceffitated to bow with humiliation to France and Auftria for fecurity, and fubmitting to take an annual ftipend from France, as an equivalent for a territory, fecured to him by treaty, the great object of his wishes, and the recompence for his fervices and fufferings in the common caufe) reprefenting the danger to Great Britain, as well as to himself in the fuffering France to acquire the empire of the mediterranean, these are his words. The family compact beginning to operate in its utmoft, and moft dangerous extent; and not one effort made by Great-Britain to check its progrefs. Mr. Lynch appointed minifter to the court of Turin, contrary to the refigner's recommendation, which was in favour of the earl of Tankerville. A general officer of unfpotted character and unsullied honour driven from the fervice of his country, and banifhed into obfcurity, left his abilities, or his bravery fhould contribute to prevent the approaching diftrefs. Public business has for fome time been at a ftand; or what is worfe, it has been executed only by clerks. Men of profligate character, whofe fortunes. have been diffipated in fcenes of lewdnefs and debauchery, placed in the great offices of honour, truft and emolument, with no other view but to aggrandize themselves at the expence of the public; and who knowing that their own date in office cannot be longer than while the fhadow of peace is preferved,are daily dilgracing and debilitating the state by the most infamous practices. Corruption at a height the most alarming and enormous, and practifed in the most open and daring manner, to the danger both of the public liberty, and of the property of every individual in the kingdom. And to crown all, beyond their incomes, they are known to have accepted of an annual scel. out of the minifter's private rocket book, under the denomination of fecret fervice as the reward for betraying their country, or rather, as it were, to plunge the fatal dagger into the vitals of her exiftence; the arch.fiend of corruption is now performing the part of locum tenens to the abfent favourite; a wretch, who upon his legs in a certain affembly had once the hardiness to defend the principle and the prac practice of corruption, and to add that the public bufinefs could not be carried on without it. * Is it not alarming to fee fuch a man again trufted, and confulted; and is it not the bigheft impeachment of the public juftice that his former conduct is fuffered to fleep without enquiry? At the death of the late king, he was faid to be worth at least a million fterling; and how much more hath he amaffed by the peace and October 21. In confequence of lord Chatham's refignation the earl of Shelburne refigned the feals of his office (fecresary of ftate for the fouthern department) into his majefty's band in the clofet at St. James's. other jobs fince? He remember'd Argyll, What he did ere while, And he followed that ftep of his grace's That there must be a war, Refign'd his command and his places. October 22. The earl of Rochford, who had been fent for from France, was made fecretary of ftate. Lord Weymouth was removed to lord Shelburne's office, and lord Rochford fucceeded lord Weymouth in the northern department. No ambaflador to France is appointed, though our affairs with that court are in a fituation the moft critical. No lord privy feal is appointed, though the perplex'd and diftrefs'd condition of the British government, call daily for the affiftance of all the great officers of ftate. The * One of the favourite's advocates fpeaks thus of the union between them. "Of all the indifcretions which are to be imputed to his lordship, that of leaguing with a hardy veteran, long hackney'd in the ways of corruption, was the moft fatal and the most inexcufable. By this imprudent affociation, he, in fome meafure, put it out of his power to do the good he meditated. He might have been fenfible, that fuch a colleague, would gain him no confidence with the public; that the intereft created by his well-known mode of influence. was not only incompatible with his lordfhip's avowed intentions, but that in the hour of need, it would defert him, as it had abandoned his predeceffor. If he had not intended to remedy the abufes of former adminiftrations, he fhould not have a cepted the high office he filled: As he propofed to redrefs then nothing could be more prepofterous than to unite with the very man, who principally contributed to extend, and dared openly to avow, that corrupt fyftem, which his lordship profeiled to reform." Confiderations on the prefent dangerous crifip, page 13, published in 1763. The earl of Egmont has been frequently applied to, both before and after lord Chatham's refignation, to take a department in the state; but he has prudently declined to dance upon other people's wires, though ready to take a share of the public burden when joined with men of abilities. For the POLITICAL REGISTER. TRANSLATION of a MEMORIAL prefented April 25, 1768, by the Portugueze nation, to the royal board of Cenfure, (Cenfura) appointed by his most faithful Majefty to examine and revife all books, and to permit the printing, publishing, reading, and felling them in the kingdom of Portugal and its dominions. SEARCH the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me, faid our bleffed Saviour to the Jews, who, as they thought the Scriptures contained what was neceflary to obtain eternal life, he reafonably afked, why they did not fearch them, as they teftified of his coming, and that he was the true Meffiah foretold by the prophets? The application is as proper to the Jews of the prefent age permitted to refide in this country, and under the protection of a mild and happy government, and who in this free nation, have both the means and the power to fearch and examine them, and are without excufe if they do not. Wo unto you feribes and pharifees, hypocrites; for ye fhut up the kingdom of Heaven against men; and ye neither go in yourfelves, neither fuffer ye them that are entering to go in; was a particular application by our bleffed Lord to the fcribes and pharifees, who were the great doctors among the Jews, the teachers and interpreters of the law of God; who under a pretence of interpreting the fcriptures had perverted them, and kept the knowledge of them from the people, especially thofe prophecies of the Old Teftament which concerned the Meffiah, and by this means the kingdom of Heaven was fhut against men, and they not only ejected the truth themfelves, but by keeping men in ignorance of the true meaning of the Scriptures, they hindered many from embracing our Saviour's doctrine, and entering into the kingdom of Heaven; and in the prefent age, or for fome hundred years paft, it may with justice and reafon be applied not only to the Jewifh doctors, but particularly to the heads and goverpors of the church of Rome, the Pope and his councils; VOL, III, Nn whe A who, as far as their power extends, lock up the Scriptures and the fervice of God from the people in an unknown tongue: What is this, but in effect to forbid men to know God and to ferve him, to render them incapable of knowing what is the good and acceptable will of God, of joining in his worship, or performing any part of it, or receiving any benefit or edification from it? and what is, if this be not, to fhut the kingdom of Heaven against men? this is fo outrageous a cruelty to the fouls of men, that it is not to be excused on any pretence whatever; this is to take the fureft and moft effectual way in the world, to deftroy thofe for whom Chrift died, and directly to thwart the great defign of God our Saviour, who would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. This tyranny that church have exercised over those of her communion for several hundred years; it grew upon them indeed by degrees, for as by the inundation of barbarous nations upon the Roman em pire, the Romans loft their language by degrees, fo the governors of that church ftill kept up the fcriptures and the fervice of God in the latin tongue, which at last was wholly unknown to the common people; and about the ninth and tenth centuries, when by the general consent of all their own hiftorians, grofs darkness and ignorance covered this part of the world; the Pope and the Priefts took away the key of knowledge, and did (as may be faid) put it under the door for feveral ages, 'till the Reformation fetched it out again and rubbed off the ruft of it. Hardly any, thing in the world was ever more astonishing than this uncharitable and cruel ufage of the people in the church of Rome. And who can tell which to wonder at most, the infolence of their governors in impofing upon men this fenfelefs way of ferving God, or the patience, if it may be fo called, of the people in enduring to be fo intolerably abused? Why fhould reasonable creatures be treated at this rude and barbarous rate? As if they were unworthy to be acquainted with the will of God, and as if that which every man ought to do, were not fit for every man to know; as if the common people had only bodies to be prefent at the fervice of God, but no fouls; or as if they were all diftracted and out of their wits, and it were dangerous to let in the light upon them. It maft give true fatisfaction to all pious and good chriftians, to find that in moft parts of Europe the errors of the church of Rome, are much inquired into, it's to be hoped with a defign to rectify them. The Portugueze, who for many years, as by the conteflion of the memorial hereto an |