pen to make known in them a merit, which otherwife would have lain concealed. If this known merit acquires for them confiderable favour and powerful friends, they would injure themselves if they had not preferred, through complaifance, the pleasures they loved lefs to that they loved moft. The corruption of the age has made of Card-playing a fort of trade and bufinefs; and fome have even reduced it into a fort of fyftem, and fomething worse. At leaft, let us grant to the fhame of our times that we make a wretched commerce of it. Be therefore exceeding circumfpect that it ferve merely as matter of amufement to you. If you fuffer it to rife into a paffion, it will foon run to madnefs. A gamefter by profeffion, who expofes to the chance of a die or card the patrimony he has received from his ancestors, who hazards the fortune of his wife, and whatever nature has appropriated to the benefit of his children, befides being a burden to himself, will quit the ftage of this life loaded with obloquy and fcandal. You will never fee the well-meaning man, the man that is mafter of his paffions, facrifice the pleafures of a fine day, and of a peaceful night, to the foolish hopes of a fort of fortune which is feldom made, and never made without giving a deep wound to honour. Can a rational being dread any thing more than to begin by being made a dupe of, and to end by becoming a knave? I am fatisfied that in general one may be a deep player, an honeft player, and a noble player; but this character is as rare as that of a profeffed player is dangerous. Yet what should hinder playing for a small matter, where neither the hope of gain, nor the fear of lofs can enter; where the chearful mind is always of the party, and feeks only to banish care by focial intercourse. It is faid, that a man is not so well known in other occur rences of life, as over his bottle, and at play. This is not always a fure decifive manner, yet I cannot think that he who betrays emotion on meeting with a rebuff, or regrets loft money, is out of play liberal and pacific. Uneafinefs fhews a narrow fpirit, and anger or avarice a meannefs of heart. If one has fufficient ftrength and prefence of mind to hide his faults and vices, on fundry occafions the tart and covetous man will appear by reflection mild and generous; but if he does not fupport this kind of hypocrify in play; if a reverse of fortune happens to discover his littleness and brutality, then one has a right to believe of him, that his natural difpofition is laid open, and his foul unmasked. We judge more furely of his character by the first emotion that efcapes him, than falfe and ftudied virtues, and he lofes in a moment what he had had been long in acquring, by not fhewing himself fuch as he was. All the horrours one may be a witness of, even in moderate playing, may foon confirm him in opinion, that it is very dif ficult for a man to retain his integrity intire in deep play. It is an immediate occafion for going headlong into all vices. The ftock foon fails; it must be reinftated, coft what it will. At length, ufury and injuftice come in with their affiftance, or friendship lends on pledges and mortgages; the fatal refource of deep players! And then what can be a more poignant affliction than to see a family-eftate loft for ever; or can the Gamefter furvey the spectacle, fhocking indeed, with dry eyes, and without a heart-ach? I cannot make you more fenfible of what I think of gaming, than by propofing to you the contraft of two forts of fituations in refpect to Card-playing. Enter for a moment those coffee-houfes in the politer part of the town, and you will see all new comers, young, and of opulent fortunes, prodigiously carefied, their wit and fenfe applauded, and precedents given them on most occafions, purposely to draw them in. There fittings are held for whole days and nights, without ftirring. Hunger perhaps, and want of fleep, are reputed as nothing, dejection and ghaftly countenances fhew the image of death; and agitation, complaints, diftorted features, and blafphemies make a picture of hell. This is drawing after nature a pourtrait of our deep players. Take from these fame actors, perfons perhaps otherwife of fingular merit, who groan under the yoke they have impofed on themselves; take from them, I fay, that dangerous goad that eggs them on, that defire of gaining, and that fear of lofing, the neceffary confequences of a madness for gaming; place them in the midst of a felect and genteel company, who have learned to ally pleasures with virtue: propofe to them perhaps a party at whift to go before an elegant yet frugal collation; then what fentiments and what thoughts! how many pretty things! The heart and mind mafters of themfelves, make themselves masters of pleasures; and they who were furies become again men. In both places there is Cardplaying, but we find a great difparity in the perfons; and thence we may be fenfible of the pernicious effects of too headftrong a paffion, and the pleasing resources of innocent amuse ment. Let none be guilty of any trick at playing; it favours of the cheat, and is quite infamous: yet there is a fort of knowledge in play which is admiffible. This fcience which some tupid people readily take, and which often escapes the inge * nious, may be called the spirit of the game; and it confifts principally in attention and practice. 'Tis true that too much attention marks fomewhat of too great an attachment, which must be a vice of the mind; yet a perpetual inattention, which occafions the playing very ill of a game, which can afford no pleasure but when it is played well, is an evident proof of a wandering difpofition, or an evaporation of the mind. Whatever you do, do it well: it is a juftice and pleafure to yourself and others. Madam Tumultuofa at Lady Bafto's rout, makes herself one of the most infipid creatures living. She would fain appear the beautiful and young thing, but is neither. Her whole talent lies in fcandal. Incapable of the leaft reflection, the is quite tiresome at the card-table; yet without cards fhe would not be able to live out the day. Sometimes her diftractions are fo ftrange at whift, as to ask every moment, whether the herself has played, who has, and what; and to justify this extravagance, the fays that attention is only fit for a gambler. On the contrary, Sophonifba, who fometimes appears at the fame rout, has the presence of a queen with a thoufand external but he has ftill more virtues than graces, graces; all which the fupports by the nobleft manner. She is famili arized to pleasures, and loves them, but loves reafon infinitely She is feen with a hand of cards, in the midst of a numerous and brilliant company, to divide her attention with fo much juftnefs, as to make all fenfible of her politeness and goodness of heart, yet without committing the least fault at play. Whence I conclude that a man deftined for the commerce of the world, ought to be intelligent in play, without loving it too much, and ought to play well the game he fits down to, and above all play it nobly. more. Play not too indolently, yet likewife let no troublesome uneafiness, no filly joy, no debafing fear be difcernible in you. Take to the middle between too much attachment and inattention. Strive to make yourself fenfible, that if Card-playing dishonours those who make a fhameful commerce of it, if it difpays in full light their avarice and brutality, it is not lefs for the good man an infallible means to fhew without oftentation the integrity of his fentiments, the juftnefs of his mind, the politeness of his manners, and the evenness of his temper. The most obnoxious part of the Miniftry's Conduct in the Affair of the Royal Marriage Act, explained. Ν IN Mr. every act properly planned, there is a fpecifick penalty to be inflicted on those who tranfgrefs it. Accordingly the last clause of the act in queftion runs thus: " And be it enacted by the authority aforefaid, that every perfon who shall knowingly and wilfully prefume to folemnife, or fhall affift, or be prefent at the celebration of any marriage with any fuch defcendant, or at his or her making any matrimonial contract without fuch confent as aforefaid firft had and obtained, except in the cafe above-mentioned, fhall, being duly convicted thereof, incur and fuffer the pains and penalties ordained and provided by the ftatute of provifion and pre-munire made in the 16th year of the reign of Richard the Second." When the expediency of this claufe was debated, Mr. Vaughan got up, and with great judgment afked the crown lawyers how offenders under this act were to be profecuted? Was it by information? Was it by indictment? Was it before a jury, or before the privy-council, where no jury is admitted? Thurloe, the attorney-general, arofe with his ufual folemnity, and with an oracular voice, declared that offenders were to be profecuted by indictment before a jury. This happened, if I mistake not, on Wednesday; and fo the matter refted. On Friday Mr. Vaughan, having examined the ftatute, and enquired into the manner of profecuting under it, called the Attorney General, and the rest of the miniftry, to account, and proved very clearly to the Houfe, that, if the words of the Royal Marriage Act continued in their prefent form, all offenders against that act must neceffarily be tried and punished in a fummary manner by the privy council. He conjured the House therefore not to fuffer themselves to be imposed upon by this artifice, nor to let the subject be deprived of the ineftimable, and indeed unalienable privilege, of being tried by his peers; nor to fuffer a star-chamber inquifition to be again inftituted, but to preserve the ancient conftitution inviolate, and in this refpect to tranfmit it unimpaired to their posterity, as they had received it. He pleaded in vain. Numbers prevailed. Though Thurloe and North had nothing to fay in defence of the claufe, and were therefore filent, no alteration or amendment was made. They would not even enter upon a discusfion of the matter; but voted roundly and in the lump for the whole. Thus are the people of this realm rendered by this act fubject to the difcretion and defpotifm of the King and his council. The framers of this act knew the poison that lurked under under this infidious claufe, and were therefore cautious how they explained their intentions. Hence the obfcure manner in which the penalty is intimated to the public. Inftead of explicitly naming the penalty, they quote an old, unknown and obfolete law of Richard the Second. Had Mr. Vaughan, whofe fagacity and spirit on this occafion were confpicuous, been properly fupported, the bill might perhaps have been rejected. But the minority are but irregular, undifciplined troops, without any leader; while the majority are trained bands under an expefienced commander, and, what is more, well and duly paid, Veterans will at the long run always defeat raw foldiers. WHE war. ORIGIN of JURIES. THEN the Anglo-Saxons had fettled themselves in their conquefts, they derived from toil and induftry the fubfiftence which they formerly drew from depredation and An idea of property arofe among them; and it was fucceeded by a fear of public invafion and of private injuftice. They found a bulwark against the firft, in their valour: they obviated the inconveniencies of the fecond by civil regulations. Their mode of domeftic policy was, at the beginning, as fimple as their method of carrying on war. They owed their fafety at home to their general ideas of natural juftice: and their renown abroad more to valour than to their address in the field. Courts of justice were prior in their inftitution to legislative affemblies. Nature has implanted the principles of equity in the human mind; and laws are rather the declarations of the community against injuftice, than definitions, which fionftitute, by explaining the nature of, crimes. Though the Anglo-Saxons, in their progrefs towards the fouth, loft the reverence of their ancestors for kings, they retained their principles of internal police and government. Each tribe, as foon as it obtained fettlements, divided its territories into small diftricts, for the convenience of civiljuftice, as well as for the fudden demands of war. The people finding it inconvenient, upon every trivial occafion, to convene in a body for determining upon controverfies by the plurality of voices, devolved their authority upon a judge chofen annually by them felves.* This * Judicis, ut et magiftratus omnis, olim penes populum electio erat, confirmatio penes regem. Stiernhook de Jure Sueonum et Gothorum vetufto,lib. i. |