unlefs fomething be done to mitigate it, the most dire effects are cerainly foon to be apprehended.

SECOND PROPOSAL.

From the prefent produce and difpofal of the church-revenue, it is most earnestly to be defired by the parochial clergy, that government would take to itself the whole, as has lately been done in a neighbouring kingdom, and appoint from the exchequer fuch ftipends to the feveral orders, as in their wifdom might feem right. Thus annulling the tithe-claim in toto, would be no other than strict juftice to the people; fince, from the first principle of tithing, as well as of right reafon, all kinds of property and perfons were to pay tithes, though many of them have found ways and means to evade it. Let the clergy then be paid as the law-officers are; and thus would the burden be generally and fairly laid.'

In closing our brief fketch of the defign of this elaborate and animated tract, we must obferve to our readers that the work abounds with remarks and arguments, which cannot fail of attracting the attention of thofe (and their name is Legion,) who are more particularly interested in the fubject; and especially the promoters of the Farnham Hop-bill to which the author is extremely averfe, as tending to expofe the clergy to new fources of oppreffion.'

There is an appearance of petulance and acrimony in our author's ftyle, especially when he is attacking his hated adverfaries, the lawyers: but it is no part of our bufinefs to interfere in perfonal animofities.

POLITICAL.

Art. 37. Political Essays relative to the Affairs of Ireland in 1791, 1792, and 1793, with Remarks on the prefent State of that Country.

By Theobald McKenna, Efq. 8vo. PP. 226.

Debrett.

1794.

5s. Boards.

After an attentive perufal of thefe fheets, Mr. McKenna appears to us in the light of an advocate who, looking only to the intereft of his client, thinks those the best arguments which are most likely to render his caufe fuccessful, and therefore adopts them, while he ftudiously rejects others which, though ftronger in their nature, and founded on much broader and even inconteftible principles, he does not venture to employ; because, from certain circumstances, they might defeat instead of promoting his object. Had not this been the cafe, Mr. McKenna would not have descended so low as to reft the claim of millions of men to emancipation, on the miferable grounds of policy and expedience; he would have claimed as a conftitutional right what he confented to ask as a boon; he would have proved it to be an act of juftice, not of favour; a homage due to the conftitution, not a gratuity flowing only from bounty or liberality. He would have undertaken to fhew fomething more than mere error, in a judgment of attainder paffed not only againit a great majority of a whole nation, but against their potterity; an attainder fo much more cruel in its confequences than that which follows the conviction of an individual on a charge of high treafon, as that the iffue of the latter, though deprived of the inheritance of their ancestors, may acquire property, tranfmit. it as an inheritance to their pofterity, and, in common with the rest

of their fellow-fubjects, enjoy all civil rights and advantages, except fuch only as they might have derived from their attainted predeceffor; while the defcendants of the Catholics of the laft century were not only deprived of those constitutional rights which their ancestors once poffeffed, but without a crime on their part were rendered incapable of recovering them. He would have appealed to juftice, to Magna Charta, to reafon, and to the civil if not the natural rights of man. He would have challenged the title by which a handful of men vent tured to disfranchise feven-tenths of a whole nation, and fubje& them to difqualifying laws, to the enacting of which they were in no fenfe parties; and to the payment of taxes in the impofing of which the millions thus disfranchised could not be faid to be even virtually confenting, because they were exprefsly excluded from the right of fending reprefentatives to parliament, or fitting there themselves.

From the fample which the Effayift has given us of his talents, we are convinced that he could have purfued this line of argument with ability, if he had not been perfuaded that he could better ferve the cause of his friends by proving that the fyftem, by which the Catholics of Ireland were crushed, was impolitic, and injurious as well to the oppreffors as to the oppreffed. We believe that, in taking the courie which he has followed, he acted judiciously: but, at the fame time, we must lament that prejudice should have been fo rooted in the minds of the prevailing party in Ireland, that they could not bear to be told that their fyftem was at war with juftice; that they enjoyed no conftitutional advantages to which their disfranchifed fellow-fubjects had not, in the eye of reafon and fociety, as unquestionable a right as themfelves; and that they could not perfevere in keeping their Catholic brethren out of the pale of the conftitution, without trampling on the facred principles on which it was raised, and on which alone it can Rand. There can be no public mind in a country, in which the rulers may tell the people that a removal of a fufpenfion of the conftitution is a favour, which may be granted or withholden at the pleasure of thofe who can remove it. In England, a minifter is obliged to affign good reasons in fupport of a propofition for fufpending any contutional right of the fubject for a time: but he needs not affign any reafon at all for taking off the fufpenfion, because it is a matter of courfe, and of right, that the people fhould not be deprived of any one of their rights for a fingle moment after the neceflity for fufpending them has ceafed. There is this great difference, however, between the governments of England and of Ireland,that the former is administered under the eye and for the benefit of a great people, whofe rights no minister dares to difpute; while the latter has been conducted almost exclufively for the benefit of thofe who carried it on; who depended not on the people, and therefore difregarded them. Under fuch a fyftem, public opinion could have no weight; nay it was fcarcely poffible that any fuch thing as a public opinion could exift. We trust, however, that fuch a fyftem will no longer prevail in Ire. land. We are informed that it has ftill fome bigoted adherents there: but we hope that the day is paffed in which the voice of the few was every thing, and that of the many nothing; and confequently that the government of that country will attend as little in future to the REV. JAN. 1795. felfifh

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felfish counfels of these monopolifts, as it did formerly to the fappli cation of millions to be admitted to the benefits of the constitution.

We must compliment Mr. M'Kenna much on the temper and moderation which distinguish his effays, and which it is not very easy for an oppreffed man to preferve when he is arguing with his oppreffor. His arguments, drawn chiefly from policy and experience, are forcible, and well calculated to remove the fears, to foften the afperity, to undermine the prejudices, and to conciliate the good-will of his opponents. His ftyle, indeed, is not elegant, nor his diction always grammatical: but it would feem as if he aimed only at being perfuafive: had he not ftudied eafe more than elegance, and attended more to things than to words, to fubftance than to ornament, no doubt his language might have been as remarkable for correctness and beauty, as it is for energy and found fenfe; for it is evident, in other refpects, that his education has been claffical, and his reading extenfive. His defign to explain the condition of the Irish Roman Catho lics, and to apply in their favour the principles of civil liberty,' certainly merits the grateful acknowlegements of every liberal reader, who confcientiously ranks under that denomination.

Art. 38. The Neceffity of continuing the War, and the Dangers of an immediate Peace. Tranflated from the French of Le Comte de Montgaillard. Svo. 29. Crosby. 1794.

This new work fets the author's principles in a fairer point of view than ary of his former publications. In his other productions, he inferted statements of what he called facts, but which, till he communicated them, were unknown at least to all those who were not refident in France. On those facts he grounded his advice to the confederated powers; who were the lefs blameable for not adopting it, as it was given by a man who addreffed them under circumstances that rendered him an object of mistrust. Now, all that he urges is founded on argument, which every reasoning man can understand, and which cannot be influenced by the name or character of the individual who uses it.

The author labours to prove that prefent peace with France would be attended with ruin to all Europe. The Convention, he fays, wishes for peace, only for the purpose of giving it to France, and taking it from the reft of the world, its emiffaries waiting only for an ambaffador to spread themfelves over the globe: its affignats will pour like a deluge on every furrounding nation, and the confequence will be that the fpecie of every ftate will center in France: for he obferves that, in a treaty of peace, the Convention will no doubt infift on inferting an article for binding the parties to allow the currency of this papermoney in their respective dominions. He next confiders what fecurity the allies can have for the obfervance of this treaty, and declares that he is unable to find any. For what he fays on this head we refer to the pamphlet; fee p. 37 to 40: but the matter is rather prophetic than argumentative. The Count contends that the establishment of a republic in France, under the circumftances which have accompanied its birth, must neceffarily prove the downfall of every exiting government in Europe. The weapon, which the French republicans are now preparing for the attack of every government not founded on “the rights of man," is the fvftem of education that they are adopting for

the rifing generation; a generation which, he fays, has already feen its 12th year, reckoning, we prefume, from about the period of the close of the American war, when the people of France began to confider attentively their political fituation, and to examine the principles on which the ruling authority of a state ought to be founded. On this fubject of the education of youth, which is a powerful engine in the hands of a ruler, our author makes many judicious remarks; as the reader will perceive from the following extract:

Education, which is fo effential a portion of governments, and which ought perpetually to continue interwoven with their principles, education has been dexterously feized upon by the Convention, and they have neglected no means whatever, for the purpose of rendering it formidable to Europe. So thoroughly does their vigilant attention, in this particular point, draw after it all the effects of tyranny, that even the parent who is the most attached to monarchy, becomes forced to fill the mind of his fon with republican principles. To little purpofe could monarchy take refuge amidst her interior establishments, because the love which infancy there clandeftinely imbibes for royalty is immediately destroyed, by impreffions from without. Kings are defcribed to youth as the enemies of their country; and it is at the feet of the ftatues of Brutus and of Mutius Scævola, that they compel them to fwear, that they will make the example of thefe Romans the object of their imitation.

The generation which is to invade and to defroy Europe has now reached the twelfth year of its age; it was born in the very midst of a revolution; it has feen all the epocha of this revolution; it has inhaled all its principles, and it has fucked in every poifon by which it was infected. Daily does the hatred which this generation has conceived against kings increafe; daily does its love for a republic experi ence an augmentation: it has not caft its eyes upon the monarchy, for, the monarchy had expired when this generation first started into birth; it has only juft glanced at it for the purpose of infulting it, being, as yet, too feeble to give it battle. Too miferable lot of infancy! this age is intirely within the power of its firft guides; and it is not alone its imbecility, but even its innocence, which delivers it up either to error or to criminality! Infancy will never learn in France, that the government of a fingle perfon is that which promifes to mankind the most abundant portion of welfare and of peace; it will have drawn in anarchy with its early breath; it will have grown with equality; it will have followed a triumph; then, it must have the world before it; for, its inclinations are to reduce it to fubjection.

Where is the treaty of peace which can constrain this rifing generation to renounce fo horrible a conqueft? We muft vanquish it, we must enlighten it, and we must render it happy, in order that we may ceafe from contemplating it with apprehenfions. Should the neceffity of establishing fo great an advantage be left to the Convention, we shall have reafon to tremble, left, after having rendered the French fo formidable, after having given to them all the plagues of liberty, the Convention fhould occafion them to taste the charms of flavery; then, will it be forced to relinquish it to the fpoils of the world; for, we muft, with the people, be during a long time pro

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Sperous,

MONTHLY CATALOGUE, Political.

fperous, unless we defire to be foon culpable. To the people, virtue fs in fortune, fidelity in fuccefs; nor are they brought to reafon but by fupplying them with abundance.

The government of France, therefore, would be obliged to conquer, both for its own particular fecurity, and even in confequence of the nature of thofe principles of liberty which its people may have imBibed; and, in proportion to the diminishing degree in which they may enjoy this freedom, will they endeavour to difturb the freedom of their neighbours. This will not prove repofe, but anarchy; this will not be equality, but defpotifm, which will force them to embrace ; and, more zealously affected to the dethronement of kings, than to the creation of republics, they would, in all quarters, favour licentioufhefs, and, in all quarters, protect fedition. Europe would have no governments; for, fhe is too corrupted to preferve republics. Thefe are formed by virtues and by poverty; and riches and corruption accomplish their deftruction. Rome drove away the Tarquins, and Rome refumed her freedom; the capital of the world beheld its mafter affaffinated, and fixteen emperors murdered; yet, it remained enslaved, becaufe liberty and corruption never met together.'

From this it is evident that the Count thinks that the evils, which threaten Europe, can only be averted by a profecution of the war: but he goes farther; for he fays that the whole nature and fyftem of the war must be changed, if we would not convert into an aggravation of our misfortunes the means which we employ to end them. His plan is for committing to French armies the task of pulling down the Convention: it is not, he obferves, by a few fcattered battalions of emigrants in the pay of different ftates that this great work can be accomplifhed, but by erecting the royal ftandard of France, placing it in the hands of a prince of the blood; who fhould be authorized to invite all Frenchmen, who are tired of tyranny and anarchy, to rally to it, in full confidence that it is not for the aggrandizement of other powers, but for the falvation of their country, that they are called to march under it. An explicit declaration on the part of all the allies, that they renounce all idea of enriching themselves with the spoils of France, he is convinced, would foon thin the ranks of the republican armies, and fwell thofe of the princes. The pride of Frenchmen, whether republicans or not, will not allow them, he says, to stoop to any foreign power, nor to fuffer their country to be difmembered: but this pride could not be hurt when, even in case of defeat, their conquerors fhould be their countrymen, and France not be in danger of being parcelled out between foreigners :- for the indivifibility of France

It may be afked, will the characters, public and private, of the Princes of the Blood contribute, as may be wifhed, to the fupport of fo great and hazardous an enterprize? Ought we not to be thoroughly Jatisfied with refpect to this circumstance? We afk merely for information, and are forry to find the Count fo referved in regard to their exemplary virtues, We do not wish to believe every report that may have been in circulation, on this head, in the public prints, on either fide of the water; for fuch, it is well known, feldom deferve credit.

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