.3 Art. 24. A Letter to Dr. Hawker, on his pretended Reply to Mr. Porter's Defence of Unitarianism, by the Author of that Defence, 8vo. 1s. Johnfon. 1793. Mr. Porter attacks Dr. Hawker on the new ground which he has POLITICAL and COMMERCIAL. If the anonymous writer of this letter flattered himself that he fhould conciliate the good will of any one defcription of politicians in this kingdom, he most probably will find himself mistaken. Those who think that the war was unneceffary, and unprovoked, will not coalefce with a politician who is ready to allow that the assistance we fent to Holland, in the moment of her danger, was not only a wife ftep, but a measure of neceflity:' while thofe, who are of opinion that the existing circumstances call for a vigorous prosecution of hofti lities, cannot agree with the writer who would not confent to follow up the fucceffes of the Allies, by pursuing the fugitive French into their own territory, when they were driven out of the Netherlands.If we understand him right, he would have advised minifters to halt our army on the borders of the French territory, but not to recall it. Now of all the fyftems which have been fuggefted fince the rupture with France, this appears to us to be the least fit for England to adopt, because it would entail on the country, for an indefinite time, that species of war which ought most to be avoided, a defenfive war: a war attended with an expence that exhaufts the public ftrength, without cheering the nation with the atchievements of brilliant exploits, which excite ardour, and give the idea of glory, at leaft, to the people, in return for their money. If our troops were recalled when the French were driven home, what would have prevented the enemy from renewing the attack on Flanders and Holland? Indeed we find that, even with the affiftance of 30,000 men in the pay of Great Britain, the allies are scarcely able to cover the Netherlands. What then would be the cafe if this force were withdrawn? The conqueft of Holland, which this writer thinks we ought to exert all our strength to prevent, would moft probably be the confequence. If, then, it would be proper to retain our troops on the borders of France, would he keep them, and for what length of time, lying on their arms, doing nothing; or, which is much worse than nothing, exhaufting the refources of England? The writer, by wishing to concede fomething to every party, entangles himself in labyrinths of inconfiftencies. Had he condemned the war from the beginning, or approved the general principle of it, without minding what were the opinions of the great leaders of par ties in and out of parliament, he would have freed himfelf from those embarrassments : embarraffments: but, by endeavouring to please all fides, we will venture to say that he has pleased none. At the fame time, we are ready to allow that the compofition is not without merit; the ftyle is eafy and befpeaks the gentleman; and the fentiments are those of candor and moderation. ᏚᏂ . Art. 26. War with France the only Security of Britain at the prefent momentous Crifis: fet forth in an earnest Addrefs to his fellow Subjects. By an old Englishman. 8vo. pp. 39. 15. Nicol. 1794. The perufal of this little addrefs has afforded us fame pleasure. The author, unlike to Mr. Playfair, (fee Art. 27.) is not for eternal war; he thinks war neceffary at this crifis; he knows it to be an evil, and engages in it not from hatred and refentment, but from a conviction in his own mind, which must be a law to him, that, by avoiding this evil, he should be fure of bringing on himfelf a greater. His object, in framing this addrefs, is to unite the people in defence of their country, and to fpirit them up to a manly refiftance in cafe of a French invafion. The inducements to union he draws from the conduct of the Convention, one part of whofe ways and means of carrying on the war is the confifcation of private property, acquired by the condemnation of individuals. He treats thefe topics in an able manner; and, though he fometimes endeavours to intereft the paffions of his readers, he more frequently appeals to their understanding, evincing that he poffeffes the happy talent of blending a clearness of expreffion, fuited to the comprehenfion of the lower orders of society, with the language of the fcholar. It is our fincere wish that his labour may not be loft, nor his object defeated; for whatever may be our opinion on the question whether the war might or might not have been avoided, there furely can be but one line of conduct for Englishmen to purfue when their country is invaded: THEY MUST DEFEND IT. On fuch an occafion, there can be but one mind through the whole nation. Let the invaders be who they may, flaves or freemen, civilized or barbarians, humane or cruel, they must be oppofed, they must be repelled. We wish to fee Frenchmen free; we wish to fee all mankind free: but we ardently hope that the day may never come when any but Englishmen shall own the foil, or give the law to the people, of England. We want not to monopolize liberty: but, as Englishmen, we trust that the prefent inhabitants will monopolize the poffeffion of the land of this country, and entail it on their latest posterity. Art. 27. Peace with the Jacobins impoffible. By William Playfair. 8vo. Is. Stockdale. 1794. What a ftrange little animal is man! his body fills but a small fpace; his life is but as a moment; and yet his enmity or his refentment is to be unbounded, bidding defiance to all limits of time and place. If the unqualified propofition of Mr. Playfair be well founded, that peace with the Jacobins is impoffible', then muft our war with them last not only during our own lives, but be handed down to our children as an inheritance; unlefs we fhould have previously fucceeded in exterminating the whole race of thefe enemies, No man can execrate more ftrongly than we do the crimes and exceffes of the Jacobins but still we would not be so abfurd as to wage eternal war REV. FEB. 1794, with D.° with them. We might fay, we will try the fuccefs of a campaign er two, and be determined by the event whether it would be more advifable for us then to go on, or to propofe a termination of hoftilities:-but we could never think of faying, without any qualification whatever of the expreffion, that peace with the Jacobins is impoffible'. It might not be expedient at one time; it might become neceffary at another; and therefore we would never bar the door against it. Every civilized country detefts the principles and system of the ftates of Barbary, which live by piracy; yet every civilized nation in Europe not only treats with them, but is glad even to purchase, if not their friendship, at least their forbearance from plunder. No man of fenfe ought to lay down a propofition amounting in effect to this-that at no time, under no circumstances, fhould peace be made with the Jacobins; and we rejoice that fuch a doctrine has not been broached by any man either in parliament or in the cabinet, however forward he might be, at prefent, to go on with the war. A paffage in page 10 of this pamphlet would lead us to fear, if there were not ftrong proof to the contrary, that Mr. Playfair had himself a little dafh of the Jacobin in his compofition; that is to fay, that he was a little tainted with their humanity. Our allies (fays he) were attacked abroad, and the bafis of our government at home; to thofe who difpute this laft, I can but anfwer, that none are fo deaf as thofe that will not hear; and it is only a matter of regret, that those who undermine our government cannot be treated a la Françoife, fince it is the French fyftem that they have taken for their model.' A powerful ftream of the milk of human kindness flows through this fentiment of regret that the guillotine cannot be fet to work, in this country, on thofe who do what? Betray their country? No, for they are already liable to the penalties of treafon, and to a death infinitely more painful than that which is produced by the guillotine. Who adhere to the king's enemies? No, for they are in the fame predicament. Who by overt acts attempt to overturn our government? No, for that alfo is treason. Whofe heads then are thofe which the national razor should shave in England, if the pious with of Mr. Playfair could have effect? The heads of thofe who undermine our government-an expreffion not known to our law, and of course not to be found in the index of the criminal code. We may prefume, then, that the perfons here meant are those who believe that peace might be made with the Jacobins; who approved the French revolution; and who think that fome fentences, which have lately been pronounced, do not err on the fide of mildness and humanity. Would it remove the caufe of Mr. Playfair's regret, if, for the punishment of fuch perfons, we were to have in every town a permanent guillotine, and an ambulatory one for lowering heads in every village? No, we are fure that his humanity would revolt at the idea which could be agreeable only to a Jacobin. We mean to take up but little more of the time of our readers with remarks on this production, which refembles most of the loyal pamphlets of the day, as much as one regimental coat does another belonging to the fame corps: but we cannot overlook one part of it, which is certainly original, and meets with our most cordial approbation. bation. Mr. P. calls on the rich to contribute largely to the fupport of a war which has for one of its main objects the prefervation of property. We will here quote his own words, and then take leave of him; wishing at the fame time that his call may be attended with the defired effect, and that the rich will advance their money fo liberally, as that there may be little occafion for laying on taxes which principally affect the poor. Thus it is that Mr. P. treats this subject: As upon the event of this dispute depends the happiness of all Europe, and the prefent order of things, and although the day-labourer, who is not a proprietor, would greatly lofe by the change; yet it is certain, that the proprietor and the rich man has more to fear than the poor, because he is at prefent better in his affairs. It is then at this time that the rich should contribute largely to fupport a war so just in itself, and upon which the exiftence of their fortunes depends. Patriotifm fhould be fpurred on by private interest, and the reprefentatives of the nation fhould diftribute the new burthens neceffary in fuch a manner, as to make riches and luxury contribute moft. • Proprietors of lands, nobles, merchants, and monied men of all defcriptions, confider, that though you have the fame right to enjoy your thousands that the poor man hath to his small earnings, yet you play a deeper game-you profit moft by the prefent order, and fhould pay the most to preferve it.' Sh. Art. 28. Peace and Reform against War and Corruption; in Anfwer to a Pamphlet written by Arthur Young, Efq. entitled "The Example of France a Warning to Britain." 8vo. pp. 160. 25. 6d. By Daniel Ridgeway. 1794. Stewart. It is faid of an once eminent Barrister, not very famous for reading his briefs, and who was afterward raised to the peerage, that, being engaged in a cause in Westminster-hall, he had proceeded for fome time to enforce with very great cloquence and ability the cafe of A, when the attorney who had given him his brief, pulling him by the fleeve, whispered to him-" Sir, you will undo us! you are retained for B against A, and you are pleading the caufe of the latter." The lawyer, with furprising fang froid, went on a little longer in the fame ftyle, and then addrefled the Judge in the following manner: "My Lord, I think I have thus anticipated all that ingenuity could oppofe to me in favour of A; I fhall, now pray your Lordship's attention, while I prove that every argumant which I have anticipated is fallacious, and that my client B is entitled to your Lordship's judgment.' The confiftent lawyer then dexterously changed fides, and refuted all his former reafonings. Mr. Arthur Young is exhibited to the public by the writer of this pamphlet in a character fimilar to that of the lawyer; he is oppofed to himfelf; and the refutation of the political tenets, which he fupported for twenty years, is extracted from his own work, his late celebrated Palinodia, "The Example of France a Warning to Britain*:" Who pulled Mr. Young by the fleeve, and told him that he had miftaken his fide; whether it was Pan, who creates alarms and scares men out of their wits; or Plutus, who infpires them with a due fenfe *See Review, New Series, vol. xi. p. 111. of the value of property; it is not for us to fay: but any person, who will bestow half an hour's confideration on the performance now before us, muft be convinced that the charge of inconfiftency is irrevocably fastened on this gentleman; who, as the experimental agriculturist, is made to appear as different a perfon from the fecretary to the board of agriculture, as Mr. Burke in his Reflections on the French Revolution is from Mr. Burke in his doctrines respecting the American war, and in his bill for regulating the civil lift and curtailing the expences of the King's household. When Mr. Y. undertook to defend the Conftitution, he ought to have been aware that his political recantation would draw on him a hoft of enemies, who would not fail to charge him with inconfiftency. Among thofe enemies, the author of the prefent pamphlet is the moft formidable that we have yet seen. It is impoffible for us, limited as we are in point of room, to go much at large into an account of a work which embraces many objects, and treats each fomewhat diffufely; we must therefore content ourselves with a short analysis of it. It fhews that Mr. Young is at variance with himself when he deems fix months a fufficient time for trying by the teft of experiment the French Conftitution, and allows that eighteen years are too fhort a period for experiment, when applied to the Constitution of America :when he condemns the French for dealing fo much in theory and fpeculation, and yet speaks of America merely as a theorift and fpeculator, predicting what will happen there, not pointing out what has happened :when he afferts that "if the Houfe of Commons of England were fuch reprefentatives (as in France) they would be guided by the folly, madness, and paffions of the people;" and, feven pages farther on, overturns this affertion by a counter declaration that " Reprefentation deftroys itself, and generates with infallible certainty an oligarchy of mobbish demagogues, till of all other voices, that leaft beard is the real will of the people :"-When he infifts that "a parliament conftituted on perfonal reprefentation can act no otherwife than by the immediate impulse of the people," and afterward contradicts this very pofition in the following paffage:" A word, however, might be faid on the point of perfonal reprefentation, rendering the will of the people fupreme. The futility of the idea is demonftrated, in the affemblies fo chofen in France; their firft merit, on Jacobin principles, is, that of fpeaking the fovereign will of the people, by which expreffion, is always understood the majority: but, fo truly abominable is this fyftem of Government, that there has not been a fingle inftance of great and marked importance, in which the minority, and commonly, a very small minority, has not, by means of terror, carried all before them."-Thus, he at one time affirms that the will of the people "would guide" perfonal reprefentatives, and yet, that among fuch reprefentatives, the will of the people would be "least heard."-That perfonal reprefentatives" can act no otherwife, than by the immediate impulse of the people," and that every instance, of great and marked importance, in France, has, by means of terror, been carried by the will of a very small minority !-Thefe contradictions are fatal to all that Mr. Young has written, and are a just illuftration of the whole fairness of his book.? 6 Some |
