ftrength from the events which had happened in France. In that devoted country, the proscription of the Nobility and the Clergy, the fubverfion of the established fyftem of Government, and the deftruction of the established Religion had afforded a glorious theme for exultation, and, what was deemed of much greater confequence, promifed to operate moft powerfully, as an example, on the minds of the people of this country.

A regular communication had been opened between the difaffected of both nations, and Addreffes had been prefented by the British Patriots, at once calculated to ensure the affiftance of the Gallic Rebels in any place which might be felected for hoifting the Revolutionary Standard in Great Britain, and to found the difpofitions of fuch part of their own Countrymen whose fentiments on the fubject of Reform, or, in plain English, Rebellion, they had had no opportunity of afcertaining.

With a view to forward the general plan, an interchange of Emiffaries had taken place, and itinerant patriots of the respective countries fet out, the one, like zealous Miffionaries, intent on the mighty bufinefs of Converfion; the other, like pious pilgrims, to drink of the pure ftream of Democracy at the fountain-head. The depofition of a benevolent Monarch, and the confequent establishment of a Republic, amidst a scene of maffacre and carnage, fuch as no civilized country, Christian or Pagan, had ever before exhibited, were the alluring circumftances that called, in a more peculiar manner, for the hearty and beart-felt congratulations of the British Roundheads to their worthy Brethren at Paris. Elate with the fuccefs of this glorious plan, they anticipated a fimilar feftival on their native. foil. They hoped to repeat, and with more fatal effect, the blow which their Emigrated Chief, Dr. Priestley, acknowledged to have aimed at the Church of England; they, rioted by anticipation, in the "fall of that Hierar

chy, equally the bane of Christianity and rational Liberty," which the Doctor had predicted in his addrefs to his pupils in the Nurfery of Difaffection at Hackney; they enjoyed, with a favage fury peculiar to the SECT, the hoped-for repetition of that tragedy which was exhibited in France on the twenty first of January, 1793; a memorable day, still celebrated, by legislative authority, in the virtuous Republic of France, and, from patriotic enthusiasm, by the moderate Reformers of England.

Their joy, however, had experienced a temporary interruption from the eftablifhment of the Loyal Affociations whofe vigilance and activity were employed to expofe the views and to thwart the machinations of the SECT and this wife measure, together with the publication of the Profpectus for the BRITISH CRITIC, ftaggered them not a little, and foon after ftimulated them to the exertion of that wily prudence which they are

known to poffefs in fo eminent a degree, and to the adoption of a fyftem correfpondent therewith. The grand engine on which they placed the greatest reliance for ensuring fuccefs to their schemes, was, as I have before obferved the PRESS; the immenfe importance of which had been too fatally exemplified in their favourite land of anarchy, FRANCE; where it had destroyed the Throne, the Altar, the Laws of the State, and the Morals of the People. To fay nothing of their Political Catechisms or Manuels of Rebellion, they had, at this period, the abfolute command of, at leaft, three-fourths of the periodical publications, and of all the regular Reviews; so that their influence was truly formidable, and; had their great Lexicographical Syftem of Democracy appeared without detection, it is not poffible to fay what effect that influence might have produced.

Independently of the pofitive advantage which refulted to the cause of Truth and

Virtue, from the publication of the British Critic, another benefit, merely temporary indeed, was derived from its appearance, which had not been expected; for it occafioned an alteration in the language and spirit of the moft diftinguished Advocate and Agent for the oppofite cause, the Monthly Review, that aftonished all who obferved it. The fact is, that the change was not imputable to any newly-acquired moderation in its Conductors; but folely proceeded from motives of worldly intereft. Review was soon found to be materially affected by the competition it had to encounter; and it was therefore deemed expedient to adopt a new tone, or at least, so far to moderate the old one, as to render it more conformable to what was now found to be the taste and principles of no very inconfiderable part of their readers. But no fooner had the dimunition of the fale reached that point beyond which experience fanctioned the belief that it would not proceed, than the Mask, which, for the short time it had been worn,

For the circulation of the