come, when every reprefentative of the commons fhail be able to fay, with the author of these meditations, (page 3) I am free, therefore, to confefs that I did not enter the houfe (the first day of the prefent feffons,) without an opinion; but it was felf-formed, and therefore flexible to better reafoners than myfelf: it was my own opinion, and therefore at my own difpofal; for I had built on no man's ground, nor borrowed from any man's abundance.' This gentleman (for the honour of the fenate we will not allow ourselves to look upon him as only an imaginary being,) did not fuppofe it became him to put his reafoning faculties into commiffion, and to appoint a minifter or the proprietor of a borough the commiffioner to think for him; he thought for himself; and, when every other member of parliament does the fame, our fenate indeed may err, being compofed of mere men,-but it will never do wrong from a corrupt motive; its judgment may be mifled, but its heart will be found in the right place.

The author of these meditations preferves confiftency through the greatest part of his work; in fome paffages, indeed, he is rather too animated for a man who is reasoning only with himself in his clofet, and who, not meeting with oppofition from a determined adverfary, might be prefumed to be out of the way of that collifion which produces fire: but, in general, he maintains the cool, collected, and unimpaffioned turn of mind which becomes a man who is in the act of reflecting, and whofe fole object is to discover what is right, and to purfue it.

There are points in which we do not agree with our author: but they are few in number; while, on the other hand,, his candour, his method, and the general foundness of his arguments, challenge our refpect and applause.

The following extracts will fhew the grounds on which he thinks it inexpedient to propofe terms of peace to France at this moment, (though he profeffes that nothing is nearer to his heart than a wish for peace,) and on which he builds an opinion that to fend an ambaffador to Paris for the purpose of terminating the war by treaty would, on the one hand, be abfolutely ineffectual, while, on the other, it would be highly difgraceful to this country:

"Give me peace with thofe, who are at peace with Heaven," fays the true philanthropift; to him therefore we will refer this fpecious propofition, that recommends a peace with France; and ask him, if the name of Heaven is yet in ufe with thofe, to whom the propofition is applied? Are the characters of the people, with whom we are at war, lefs unjuft than they were when they forced the war upon us? All Europe answers with one voice,-they are not: it is not therefore on the score of justice that we feek occafion to put an end to the war; for that, which upon just caufes commenced, upon the fame causes claims to be continued.

It is policy then, that perfuades us to the peace; but to peace with whom? with a people, whom we confess to be unjust, and whose injuftice to the conviction of all the world has known neither stop nor abatement; with a people, whofe deterioration of character has increased from day to day. But I will fuppofe the negotiator to fay, he has nothing to do with the morality of a nation; if in his morality he

includes

includes good faith, he will hardly fay fo much; or if he does ftill fay it, he will take efpecial care to bind thofe faithlefs parties in fuch fturdy fetters, as they fhall not break, but at their own immediate peril: from a Tippoo Saib we require fomething more than the folemnity of form, or the fecurity of perfonal honour; we demand for treffes in pawn, or hostages in hand; and those hostages shall be even the fons of the tyrant, in whom we can repofe no prudent confidence. But the democrats of France are faithlefs, they are tyrants; and what hoftages, what pledges fhall we demand of them? or rather let me say, what pledges are we in a fituation at this moment to demand, or they at this moment in a temper to concede? The defpot before alluded to delivered his fons at the gates of his capital: are we or our allies upon the road to Paris? how futile and evanid then is this propofition, which in its very premifes confutes itself, by prescribing that very movement to fpring from us, which can in no cafe warrant the conclufions drawn from thofe premises, till it fprings from them? Who talks of peace to a tyrant, till he has humbled him; and what terms of fecurity and advantage are to be expected from a faithless and inveterate enemy by gratifying his pride, and giving him to underftand you are not able, or willing to contend with him any longer?

But must we indeed go to Paris for a peace, and take these gentlemen's words for the neceffity of it? To whom fhall we go, and what defpicable fuppliant fhall we select from the dregs of human mifery, to bear the inftrument of fhame ? who has a foul fo mean as to accept a commiffion, which would ftamp the name of Briton with eternal infamy? who will bear the deed that belies all treaties, violates all faith and extinguishes all national honour? And whither muft he carry it, to whom muft it be addreffed, what mountain muft he invoke to fall on him and cover him? to the Convention he cannot ap ply, for they have excluded him by law, which denounces death on him, who dares to treat with us. What door will open to the beggar of Britain, when the owner, who vouchfafes to him the charity of a hearing, pays the penalty of his condefcenfion by the forfeiture of his head? to what tree of liberty fhall he cling for fhelter and protection; on what bloody altar erected to the genius of infidelity, fhall he offer up the blafted laurels of his nation? to what murderer fhall he refort for mercy, to which of the Atheists fhall he fly for Chriftian charity and compaffion? To the deified whore of the temple let him go, and kneeling at her feet, call from morning even until noon, faying, O goddefs, hear us!-and if there is no voice, then like one of the frantic prophets of Baal, let him leap upon her altar, and cut himself with knives and lances till the blood gushes out; but let him know for a certainty, there shall be neither voice nor any to anfiver, nor any that regardeth."

The author lofes fight (page 43, and in the 8 or 9 following pages,) of the seriousness and gravity with which he had hitherto meditated on the important objects under his confideration; and, indulging in a vein of humour, he fixes on the only perfon in England who could, with fafety to himself, undertake the arduous task of nego ciating at Paris; the only perfon whom this country could, with credit to herself, employ at prefent in fuch a business, and in every refpect the fittest to treat with the Sans Culottes; this perfon, he says,

is the worthy gentleman, who fuftains with fo much dignity the profeffion of a tailor, and exhibits fo much wit without the aid of brains, in the celebrated drama of Harlequin's Invafion: this decapitated perfonage having nothing to lofe by the experiment, being endowed withal with the happy gift of ventriloquy, is a trunk, as I may fay, cut out for the very purpose.'-Into the mouth,-we beg pardon,-into the belly of this ventriloquist, our author puts a fpeech addreffed to the "Moft High and Mighty Mountain," replete with humour in fome paffages, and with very cutting fatire in others. Sh. Art. 20. The Speech of Earl Stanhope, in the Houfe of Peers, on his Motion to acknowledge the French Republic, January 23, 1794. 8vo. 6d. Ridgway.

A word not quite in feafon.-The rejection of the motion is well known.

Moy

Art. 21. Short Hints on a French Invafion. By John Ranby, Efq. 8vo. 6d. Stockdale.

The hints of this very fenfibie writer are well calculated to banish, from the minds of our countrymen, thofe alarming apprehensions refpecting a French invafion which have lately been fo unaccountably excited: we fay unaccountably, though many of our politicians are decidedly of opinion that the delufion may, in truth, be easily explained on political ground. However this may be, Mr. Ranby gives us, in a fmall compafs, a manly and rational difcuffion of the fubject; and his conclufion (which feems to be perfectly juft,) is, that an invation of this country is not to be expected; that it is highly improbable, if not totally impracticable: but that, on the whole, fuppofing that fomething of the kind may poffibly be attempted, yet, if we act with common prudence, firmnefs, and fpirit, the only confequences will be ravaging a few miles of country, and a few vib lages on the fea coaft, and a speedy deftruction of the French army.' Art. 22. The Contraft; being the Speech of King George III. at the Opening of his Parliament 1794, and the Speech of Prefident George Washington, at the Opening of the Congress of the United States of America, December 3, 1793. 8vo. 68. Symonds.

The nature and defign of this publication are fufficiently explained by its title-page. The contraft is certainly great. S.R Art. 23. A Friendly Addrefs to the Reformers of England. 8vo. 6d.

Evans. 1794.

The fpecimen of abilities given in thefe few pages is fufficient to convince us that the author is fully equal to an undertaking of much greater extent; and that, were he to allow his powers a wider range, the confequences would be no lefs beneficial to the public than reputable to himself. His object in this fhort addrefs is to reprobate, with the most indignant feverity, any and every appeal, which reformers may have the cruel thoughtleffness to make either to the Arong paffions, the weak and depraved judgments, or the groundless and unreasonable furmifings of a populace, ignorant only from our indifference to, and vicious only from our neglect of, their moral inftruction; and who, of neceffity, must be alike deftitute of the ability and

inclination

inclination of forming the leaft notion, or of making the leaft diftinction (fo requifite in all cafes where the public tranquillity is concerned, to be made) between the falutarinefs of order, and the madnefs of anarchy.'

Let not our readers mistake either us or the author, nor fuppofe us capable of any inclination to that fyftem which would treat the people as a fwinish multitude;" from the people all authority flows, as certainly as that all authority, without the power of the people to fupport it, would be nothing. To them inftruction is due ; it is an obligation on government to procure it for them; and, if they be ignorant and uninformed, the author lays the blame not on them, but on their rulers, who are refponfible as well for the defects as for the abuse of a national fyftem. That the penner of this addrefs is a true friend to the liberties of all mankind appears from many paffages, but particularly from page 4, to which we refer the reader. He laments that he should be under the neceflity of taking it for a datum that the people are uninformed: but he thinks that they are fo in fact, and he confiders it as being as lamentable as it is true. He therefore condemns the forcible appeals made to them by the reformers, and obferves that the unlettered head and the unprincipled heart can have little occafion for any extraneous temptations' to mifchief. He fays that it is much easier to difturb than to restore public quiet; and therefore he most earnestly entreats the friends of reform to beware how they fet in motion a body which may afterward baffle all their efforts to check or refrain it. He expreffes his fears that even annual parliaments and univerfal reprefentation would prove an inadequate remedy for the cure of corruption; and he ftrengthens the grounds of his fears on this head by the authority of Mr. Archdeacon Paley, who goes fo far as to doubt whether the influence fo loudly complained of can be deftroyed, or even much diminished, without danger to the ftate;" adding that " many wife and virtuous politicians deem a confiderable portion of it to be a neceffary part of the British conftitution to be that, indeed, which gives cohesion and felidity to the whole." Whether this be a libel on human nature, or on the constitution, or on both, we will leave it to the feelings and judgment of our readers to decide; our author fpeaks of it in thefe forcible terms- A forrowful reflection this, gentlemen, that the edifice of English liberty, which we vainly trusted had been founded on the rock of ages, fhould be indebted for its prefervation to the very nuifance we have fo long wifhed and fo repeatedly endeavoured to exterminate! When I behold fuch a temple polluted by fuch a reptile-fuch a glorious conftitution debaled, and at the fame time confolidated by fuch a ftain on its integrity, in the energetic language of Mr. Burke, I feel all the pride of power fink, and all prefumption in the vifdom of buman contrivance melt and die arvay avithin me.

For our part, we have always reprobated the doctrine" that the end fanctifies the means"; we have ever confidered it as a departure from the law of morality; and we are very much difpofed to pro....

lonies,'

Speech on moving his refolutions for conciliation with the co

nounce that end not to be good, which can be attained only by wicked means. Could we bring ourselves to believe with Mr. Paley, that the British conftitution cannot be maintained without corruption, we would rather wish for its annihilation, than to fee it a living monument of the corrupt nature of man, triumphing over every moral obligation but we think better of human kind, and of our own countrymen in particular, to admit for a moment that, deaf to the voice of honour, reafon, and duty, they would refufe even to do good without the inducement of a bribe; and therefore we reject with indignation the affertion that the British conftitution is to be kept together by corrupt influence only.

Our author, with all his abilities, and they are certainly very powerful, does not appear to be entirely free from inconfiftency; for, though in page 17 he endeavours to imprefs on the minds of the friends of reform the melancholy but ufeful apprehenfion, that even annual parliaments and univerfal representation may prove an inadequate remedy for the cure of corruption,' yet he afterward exhorts the reformers (pages 26-27) to state the extent of their object, to fhew that it is virtuous, that its accomplishment is poffible In the purfuit thereof (fays he,) be firm, be cautious, be persevering, and you must carry your point at last. We wish to know of what use it would be to them, or to the public, to fucceed in carrying through parliament a measure that might prove inadequate to the cure of the diforder which it was its object to remove. The affociated Friends of the People, whom the author has principally in view, have repeatedly declared that the end, to which they directed their attention, was the deftruction of corruption in the house of commons; and the means by which they hoped to attain it-a reform of the reprefentation of the people in parliament. If fuch means cannot lead to fuch an end, and if the deftruction of corruption would be followed by the downfall of the British conftitution, why fhould he call on men to perfevere in a purfuit which has for its objects, the annihilation of former, and the falvation and ftability of the latter?

We will conclude our review of this addrefs, which is unquestion, ably a piece of good writing, with a fhort extract; in which the author deprecates, in terms equally energetic and patriotic, every meafure which by poffibility might lead to civil war in this country:

England, Gentlemen, looks up to you with an imploring, but a fearful eye. She requests you to preferve her freedom, but the forbids you to disturb her peace." Stand forward, my fons," the exclaims," in defence of my juft rights-ftem with determined vigor the baneful flood of corruption-fhew a noble firmnefs in refifting oppreffion-fupport with patient and perfevering refolution freedom of enquiry, the liberty of the prefs, and all thofe conftitutional and inestimable privileges which have raifed me high above the nations of the earth-But, my fons! as you regard my welfare-as you value my bleffing as you deprecate my curfe-beware how you wound me through the humbleft of my children! beware how you advance me to glory by fpilling the blood that, not shed in my defence, is hed to my dishonour."

ᏚᏂ . Art.