poife and influence. Such an one will readily, at first, acknowlege, that all political questions are infinitely complicated; and that there fcarce ever occurs in any deliberation, a choice, which is either purely good, or purely ill. Confequences, mixed and varied, may be foreseen to flow from every measure and many confequences, unforeseen, do always, in fact, refult from it. Hefitation, and reserve, and fufpenfe, are, therefore, the only fentiments he brings to this effay or trial. Or if he indulges any paffion, 'tis that of derifion and ridicule against the ignorant multitude, who are always clamorous and dogmatical, even in the niceft queftions, of which, from want of temper, perhaps ftill more than of understanding, they are altogether unfit judges.

BUT to fay fomething more determinate on this head, the following reflections will, I hope, fhow the temper, if not the understanding of a philofopher.

WERE we to judge merely by firft appearance, and by paft experience, we must allow that the advantages of a parliamentary title in the houfe of HANOVER are much greater than thofe of an undifputed hereditary title in the house of STUART; and that our fathers acted wifely in preferring the former to the latter. So long as the house of STUART reigned in BRITAIN, which, with fome interruptions, was above 80 years, the government was kept in a continual fever, by the contentions betwixt the privileges of the people and the prerogatives of the crown. If arms were dropt, the noife of difputes continued: Or if these were filenced, jealoufy ftill corroded the heart, and threw the nation into an unnatural ferment and diforder. And while we were thus occupied in domeftic contentions, a foreign power, dangerous, if not fatal, to public liberty, erected itself in EUROPE, without any oppofition from us, and even fometimes with our affistance.

BUT during these last fixty years, when a parliamentary establishment has taken place; whatever factions may have prevailed either among the people or in public affemblies, the whole force of our conftitution has always fallen to one fide, and an uninterrupted harmony has been preferved between our princes and our parliaments. Public liberty, with internal peace and order, has Aorished almost without interruption: Trade and manufactures and agriculture have increased: The arts and fciences and philofophy have been cultivated: Even religious parties have been neceffitated to lay afide their mutual rancor: And the glory of the nation has fpred itself all over EUROPE; while we ftand the bulwark against oppreffion, and the great antagonist of that power which threatens every people with conqueft and fubjection. So long and fo glorious a period no nation almost can boast of: Nor is there another inftance, in the whole history of mankind, that fo many millions of people have, during fuch a space of time, been held together, in a manner fo free, fo rational, and fo fuitable to the dignity of human

nature.

BUT tho' this recent instance feems clearly to decide in favor of the prefent eftablishment, there are fome circumstances to be thrown into the other fcale; and 'tis dangerous to regulate our judgment by one event or example.

We have had two rebellions during the florifhing period above mentioned, befides plots and confpiracies without number. And if none of these have produced any very fatal event, we may ascribe our escape chiefly to the narrow genius of those princes who difputed our efstablishment; and may efteem ourfelves fo far

fortu

fortunate.

But the claims of the banished family, I fear, are not yet antiquated; and who can foretel, that their future attempts will produce no greater diforder? THE difputes betwixt privilege and prerogative may eafily be compofed by laws, and votes, and conferences, and conceffions; where there is tolerable temper or prudence on both fides, or on either fide. Among contending titles, the queftion can only be determined by the fword, and by devaftation, and by civil war.

A PRINCE who fills the throne with a disputed title, dares not arm his fubjects; the only method of fecuring a people fully, both against domestic oppreffion and foreign conqueft.

NOTWITHSTANDING all our riches and renown, what a critical escape did we lately make from dangers, which were owing not fo much to bad conduct and ill fuccefs in war, as to the pernicious practice of mortgaging our finances, and the ftill more pernicious maxim of never paying off our incumbrances? Such fatal measures could never have been embraced, had it not been to fecure a precarious establishment'.

BUT to convince us, that an hereditary title is to be embraced rather than a parliamentary one, which is not fupported by any other views or motives; a man needs only tranfport himself back to the æra of the restoration, and fuppofe, that he had had a feat in that parliament which recalled the royal family, and put a period to the greatest disorders that ever arofe from the oppofite pretenfions of prince and people. What would have been thought of one, that had proposed, at that time, to fet afide CHARLES II. and fettle the crown on the Duke of YORK or GLOCESTER, merely in order to exclude all high claims, like thofe of their father and grandfather? Would not fuch an one have been regarded as a very extravagant projector, who loved dangerous remedies, and could tamper and play with a government and national conftitution, like a quack with a fickly patient?

THE advantages which refult from a parliamentary title, preferably to an hereditary one, tho' they are great, are too refined ever to enter into the conception of the vulgar. The bulk of mankind would never allow them to be fufficient for committing what would be regarded as an injustice to the prince. They must be fupported by fome grofs, popular, and familiar topics; and wife men, tho' convinced of their force, would reject them, in compliance with the weakness and prejudices of the people. An incroaching tyrant or deluded bigot alone, by his mifconduct, is able to enrage the nation, and render practicable what was always, perhaps, defireable.

In reality, the reafon affigned by the nation for excluding the race of STUART, and so many other branches of the royal family, is not on account of their hereditary title, (which, however juft in itfelf, would, to vulgar apprehenfions, have appeared altogether abfurd) but on account of their religion. Which leads us to compare the disadvantages above mentioned of each eftablishment.

I CONFESS, that, confidering the matter in general, it were rather to be wifhed, that our prince had no foreign dominions, and could confine all his attention to the government of this ifland. For, not to mention fome real inconveniencies that

1 Those who confider how univerfal this pernicious practice of funding has become all over EUROPE, may perhaps difpute this laft opini

on.

ftates.

But we lay under lefs neceffity than other

may

may refult from territories on the continent, they afford fuch a handle for calumny and defamation, as is greedily feized by the people, who are always disposed to think ill of their fuperiors. It muft, however, be acknowleged, that HANOVER is, perhaps, the fpot of ground in EUROPE the leaft inconvenient for a King of BRITAIN. It lies in the heart of GERMANY, at a distance from the great powers, which are our natural rivals: It is protected by the laws of the empire, as well as by the arms of its own fovereign: And it ferves only to connect us more closely with the houfe of AUSTRIA, which is our natural ally.

In the laft war, it has been of service to us, by furnishing us with a confiderable body of auxiliary troops, the bravest and most faithful in the world. The Elector of HANOVER is the only confiderable prince in the empire, who has purfued no feparate end, and has raised up no ftale pretenfions, during the late commotions of EUROPE ; but has acted, all along, with the dignity of a king of BRITAIN. And ever fince the acceffion of that family, it would be difficult to show any harm we have ever received from the electoral dominions, except that short difguft in 1718, with CHARLES XII. who, regulating himself by maxims very different from thofe of other princes, made a perfonal quarrel of every public injury.

THE religious perfuafion of the house of STUART is an inconvenience of a much deeper dye, and would threaten us with much more difmal confequences. The Roman Catholic religion, with its huge train of priests and friers, is vastly more expensive than ours: Even tho' unaccompanied with its natural attendants of inquifitors, and stakes, and gibbets, it is lefs tolerating: And not contented with. dividing the facerdotal from the regal office, (which must be prejudicial to any ftate) it beftows the former on a foreigner, who has always a feparate, and may often have an oppofite intereft to that of the public.

BUT were this religion ever fo advantageous to fociety, it is contrary to that which is established among us, and which is likely to keep poffeffion, for a long time, of the minds of the people. And tho' it is much to be hoped, that thể progrefs of reafon and philofophy will, by degrees, abate the virulent acrimony of oppofite religions all over EUROPE; yet the spirit of moderation has, as yet, made too flow advances to be entirely trusted. The conduct of the SAXON family, where the fame person can be a Catholic King and a Protestant Elector, is, perhaps, the first instance, in modern times, of fo reasonable and prudent a behavior. And the gradual progrefs of the Catholic fuperftition does, even there, prognosticate a speedy alteration: After which, 'tis juftly to be apprehended, that perfecutions will put a speedy period to the Proteftant religion in the place of its nativity.

THUS, upon the whole, the advantages of the fettlement in the family of STUART, which frees us from a difputed title, feem to bear fome proportion with those of the settlement in the family of HANOVER, which frees us from the claims of prerogative: But at the fame time, its disadvantages, by placing on the throne a Roman Catholic, are much greater than thofe of the other eftablishment, in fettling the crown on a foreign prince. What party an impartial patriot, in the reign of K. WILLIAM or Q. ANNE, would have chofen amidst thefe oppofite views, may, perhaps, to fome appear hard to determine. For may part, I esteem liberty fo invaluable a bleffing in fociety, that whatever favors its progrefs and

fecurity,

fecurity, can scarce be too fondly cherished by every one who is a lover of human kind.

BUT the settlement in the houfe of HANOVER has actually taken place. The princes of that family, without intrigue, without cabal, without folicitation on their part, have been called to mount our throne, by the united voice of the whole legislative body. They have, fince their acceffion, difplayed, in all their actions, the utmoft mildness, equity, and regard to the laws and conftitution. Our own minifters, our own parliaments, ourfelves have governed us; and if aught i has befallen us, we can only blame fortune or ourselves. What a reproach must we become among nations, if, disgusted with a fettlement fo deliberately made, and whofe conditions have been fo religiously observed, we should throw every thing again into confufion; and by our levity and rebellious difpofition, prove ourselves totally unfit for any state but that of abfolute flavery and fubjection?

THE greatest inconvenience attending a difputed title, is, that it brings us in danger of civil wars and rebellions. What wife man, to avoid this inconvenience, would run directly upon a civil war and rebellion? Not to mention, that fo long poffeffion, fecured by fo many laws, muft, ere this time, in the apprehenfion of a great part of the nation, have begot a title in the houfe of HANOVER, independent of their prefent poffeffion: So that now we should not, even by a revolution, obtain the end, of avoiding a difputed title.

No revolution made by national forces, will ever be able, without fome other great neceffity, to abolifh our debts and incumbrances, in which the intereft of fo many perfons is concerned. And a revolution made by foreign forces, is a conqueft: A calamity with which the precarious balance of power very nearly threatens us, and which our civil diffenfions are likely, above all other circumstances, to bring fuddenly upon us.

ESS A

Y

XIV.

IDEA OF A PERFECT COMMONWEALTH.

OF

F all mankind, there are none fo pernicious as political projectors, if they. have power; nor fo ridiculous, if they want it: As on the other hand, a wife politician is the most beneficial character in nature, if accompanied with authority; and the moft innocent, and not altogether useless, even if deprived of it. 'Tis not with forms of government, as with other artificial contrivances; where an old engine may be rejected, if we can discover another more accurate and commodious, or where trials may fafely be made, even tho' the fuccefs be doubtful. An established government has an infinite advantage, by that very circumstance of its being established; the bulk of mankind being governed by authority, not reafon, and never attributing authority to any thing that has not the recommendation of antiquity. To tamper, therefore, in this affair, or try projects merely

upon the credit of fuppofed argument and philosophy, can never be the part of a wife magiftrate, who will bear a reverence to what carries the marks of age; and tho' he may attempt fome improvement for the public good, yet will he adjuft his innovations, as much as poffible, to the antient fabric, and preserve entire the chief pillars and fupports of the conftitution.

THE mathematicians in EUROPE have been much divided concerning that figure of a fhip, which is the most commodious for failing; and HUYGENS, who at laft determined this controverfy, is juftly thought to have obliged the learned, as well as commercial world; tho' COLUMBUS had failed to AMERICA, and Sir FRANCIS DRAKE made the tour of the world, without any fuch discovery. As one form of government must be allowed more perfect than another, independent of the manners and humors of particular men; why may we not inquire, what is the most perfect of all, tho' the common botched and inaccurate governments seem to serve the purposes of fociety, and tho' it be not fo eafy to establish a new government, as to build a veffel upon a new plan? The fubject is furely the moft worthy curiofity of any the wit of man can poffibly devise. And who knows, if this controverfy were fixed by the univerfal confent of the learned, but in fome future age, an opportunity might be afforded of reducing the theory to practice, either by a diffolution of the old governments, or the combination of men to form a new one, in fome diftant part of the world? In all cafes, it must be advantageous to know what is moft perfect in the kind, that we may be able to bring any real conftitution or form of government as near it as poffible, by fuch gentle alterations and innovations as may not give too great disturbance to fociety.

ALL I pretend to in the prefent effay is to revive this fubject of fpeculation; and therefore I fhall deliver my fentiments in as few words as poffible. A long differtation on that head would not, I apprehend, be very acceptable to the public, who will be apt to regard fuch difquifitions, both as ufelefs and chime

rical.

ALL plans of government, which fuppofe great reformation in the manners of mankind, are plainly imaginary. Of this nature, are the Republic of PLATO, and the Utopia of Sir THOMAS MORE. The OCEANA is the only valuable model of a commonwealth, that has as yet been offered to the public.

THE chief defects of the OCEANA feem to be thefe. First, Its rotation is inconvenient, by throwing men, of whatever ability, by intervals, out of public employments. Secondly, Its Agrarian is impracticable. Men will foon learn. the art, which was practifed in antient ROME, of concealing their poffeffions under other people's names; till at last, the abufe will become fo common, that they will throw off, even the appearance of reftraint. Thirdly, The OCEANA provides not a fufficient fecurity for liberty, or the redrefs of grievances. The fenate must propofe, and the people confent; by which means, the senate have not only a negative upon the people, but, what is of infinitely greater confequence, their negative goes before the votes of the people. Were the King's negative of the fame nature in the ENGLISH conftitution, and could he prevent any bill from coming into parliament, he would be an abfolute monarch. As his negative follows the votes of the houses, it is of little confequence: Such a difference is there in the manner of placing the fame thing. When a popular bill has been

debated