encrease the Expence of the Workman, and confequently the Price of our Manufactures.

Q. But as you have a Freehold, would you not be willing to be excused from paying two Shillings in the Pound by laying Excifes upon other Parts of our ConJumptions?

A. No doubt but every Landed Man would be glad to be free from paying Two Shillings in the Pound; but at the fame time I would not raife by another Tax Two Shillings in the Pound, nor One Shilling in the Pound for a Perpetuity. For Parliaments who have no more to give, may be difappointed in the Redress of their Grievances. Befides, I would not be deluded by an Impoffibility; for if my Tenant has any, new Tax laid upon him, I am afraid he will not pay me fo much Rent; fo that the new Tax muft ftill affect Land. Then it is utterly impoffible to raise Excifes that fhall be equivalent to Two Shillings in the Pound without the Ruin of Trade; for the Excifes which are fettled already, generally fpeaking, raife double the Duty upon the People of what they bring into the Government.

Q. How can' thou prove that?

A. By Experience of feveral Excifes, as of Leather, Candles, Soap, &c. Whatever is brought into the Public by thofe Excifes, is raifed double upon the People; therefore if a Million of Money, or what is equivalent to Two Shillings in the Pound, were levied by Excife, it would be Two Millions upon the excifed Commodities, which muft deftroy every Subject of Trade in Britain.

Q. Why deft thou infift, that a Knowledge of the State of the Country is a neceffary Qualification for a Parliament-man?

A. Becaufe this is a Qualification, of late, very much unheeded: I have heard that there are many Corporations that never faw their Members.

Q. Is then a Writ of Parliament only a Conge d'Elire for a Bishop, where the King nominates?

A. God forbid; the Crown is never to meddle in an Election.

Q. Why is affiduous Attendance fo neceffary?

A Because a Parliament man is entrusted with the Lives, Liberties, and Properties of the People, which have often been endangered by the Non-attendance of many Members; becaufè if Reprefentatives do not attend, I may have a Law impofed upon" me to which I had no Opportunity of giving my Affent.

Q Thou haft prudently and jufily refolved to promote, to the utmost of thy Power, the public Tranquillity; what are the Advantages thou propofeft from that?

4. All the Advantages refulting from Political Society depend upon the public Tranquillity: Befides, by public Tranquillity, Armies, which are the Mark of Diftruft of the Affections of the People, may be disbanded.

QWhy dost thou not love Armies in Time of Peace?

A. Because Armies, have overturned the Liberties of moft Countries; and all who are well affected to Liberty ever hated then; becaufe they are fubject to an implicit Obedience to their Officers, and to a Law of their own; because they are fo many lufty Men taken from Work, and maintained at an extravagant Expence upon the Labour of the Reft; because they are People in their Ca pline, efpecially i are to many more figning Minifters: never be denied

when it is necellany

ny Ways burdenfone to the

even under the beft DifciCitrics, because there

in the Hands of de

e the King will plaukth,

252 The Freeholder's Political Catechism.

Q. Thou rightly judgeft of thy Happiness in being a Member of a political Society, governed by Laws to which the People give their Confent: Thou haft been likewife well inftructed in the fundamental Laws of the Government, and art well aware of the wicked and abominable Practices that undermine, and are likely to overturn the Conftitution: Be thou likewife verily perfuaded that the equitable and fundamental Laws of a Nation are, in a found Sense, stampt with a Divine Authority; and that the good Order, Peace, and Happiness of the Society is firmly connected with a ftrict Obfervance of them. That the Profperity of Nations depends upon their Virtue, not only as an Effect upon its natural Caufe, but by the immutable Appointment of Divine Juftice, by which political Societies must receive their Rewards and Punishments in this World, fince they have no Being in the next; confequently the Threatenings and Promifes which occur in the Old Teftament are, in a proper Senfe, as applicable to other Nations as the Ifraelites, therefore thou and all the People of this Land may fuppofe that God Almighty fpeaketh to them as he spoke by Mofes unto the Ifraelites, Deut. xxviii. 1. And it fhall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the Voice of the Lord thy God, to obferve and do all his Commandments (that is, the Laws of their Conftitution) which I command thee this Day; that the Lord thy God will fet thee on high above all Nations of the Earth, &c. Verse 15. But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the Voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his Commandments and his Statutes, which I command thee this Day, that all thefe Curfes fhall come upon thee and overtake thee. Curfed halt thou be in the City, and curfed halt thou be in the Field. Curfed falt be thy Bafket and thy Store. Curfed fhall be

be

the Fruit of thy Body, and the Fruit of thy Land, the Increase of thy Kine, and the Flocks of thy Sheep. Curfed fhalt thou be when thou comeft in, and curfed fhalt thou be when thou goeft out, &c. be.

ΓΩΝΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ. Know Your felf.

W

HAT am I? how produced? and for
what end?

Whence drew I being to what period tend?
Am I th' abandon'd orphan of blind chance,
Dropt by wild atoms in diforder'd dance ?
Or from an endlefs chain of caufes wrought?
And of unthinking fubftance, born with thought?
By motion which began without a caufe,
Supremely wife, without defign or laws.
Am I but what I feem, mere flesh and blood;
A branching channel, with a mazy flood?
The purple ftream that through my veffels glides,
Dull and unconfcious flows like common tides:
The pipes through which the circling juices stray,
Are not that thinking I, no more than they :
This frame, compacted with tranfcendent skill,
Of moving joints obedient to my will;
Nurs'd from the fruitful glebe, like yonder tree,
Waxes and waftes; I call it mine, not me :
New matter still the mould'ring mass sustains,
The manfion chang'd the tenant ftill remains ;

And

And from the fleeting stream repair'd by food,
Diftinct, as is the fwimmer from the flood.
What am I then? fure, of a nobler birth,
Thy parents right, I own a mother, earth;
But claim fuperior lineage by my SIRE,
Who warm'd th' unthinking clod with heavenly fire:
Effence divine, with lifelefs clay allay'd,
By double nature, double inftinct sway'd;
With look erect, I dart my longing eye,
Seem wing'd to part, and gain my native sky;
I ftrive to mount, but strive, alas! in vain,
Ty'd to this mafly globe with magick chain.
Now with fwift thought I range from pole to pole,
View worlds around their flaming centers roll:
What steady powers their endless motions guide,
Thro' the fame tracklefs paths of boundlefs void !
I trace the blazing comet's fiery trail,
And weigh the whirling planets in a scale:
Thofe godlike thoughts, while eager I pursue,
Some glitt'ring trifle offer'd to my view,
A gnat, an infect of the meaneft kind,
Erafe the new born image from my mind;
Some beastly want, craving, importunate,
Vile as the grinning maftiffs at my gate,
Calls off from heav'nly truth this reas'ning me,
And tells me I'm a brute as much as he.
If on fublimer wings of love and praife
My foul above the starry vault I raise,
Lur'd by fome vain conceit, or fhameful luft,
I flag, I drop, and flutter in the dust.
The tow'ring lark thus from her lofty ftrain,
Stoops to an emmet, or a barley grain.
By adverfe gufts of jarring inftincts toft,
I rove to one, now to the other coaft;
To blifs unknown my lofty foul aspires,
My lot unequal to my vaft defires.

As