mons, but that the reprefentatives of the laft branch of that power fhould be chofen, not by all the people indifcriminately, but by a certain number of them, duly qualified. Thofe who are thus qualified, elect the members of the houfe of commons. But thefe members, after being thus elected, are the reprefentatives, not of their electors or conftituents only, but of the whole body of the people. They are as really the reprefentatives of a man who is not worth a groat, or even of a pauper, as of the richest landed proprietor.' P. 212.

The reprefentatives in parliament may have a regard for the intereft of the non-electors, as a prince in an unlimited monarchy for various claffes of his fubjects; and, in both cafes, application may be made to the fuperior powers by petition: but the attention to thefe petitions will be very different from that which must be paid to thofe men, who in case of refusal can difinifs their trustees.

6

We are not furprised that our author fhould continue in the fame ftrain, and tell us, that the people have reprefentatives in the houfe of lords.' Various claffes of the people may have, and really have, great intereft in the house of peers: but it is the excellence of the conftitution, that the power, rights, and privileges of the three parts are well defined, and that it is the intereft of the whole to defend that of the nation. That intereft may not always be understood; and the rights of the people may be better protected by the lords than by the commons; yet the lords no more reprefent the people than the late monarch of France reprefented his clergy.

• What does it matter, though one district fend twenty or thirty members to parliament, and another only two or three; if, which is the fact, each member be a reprefentative of every individual in the kingdom, and the affairs of one part be as well taken care of as those of another? The public bufinefs of Scotland is as well taken care of as that of Cornwall; that of the counties of Perth and Angus, as that of the county of Fife; and Manchefter is in a more flourishing condition than Old Sarum.' P. 225.

None but a Scotchman could reply to this anfwer. They who are acquainted with the reprefentation in the fouthern part of the ifland know, that from the nature of man it muft matter a great deal. The reprefentatives of Cornwall and of Scotland cannot for a length of time have the independent fpirit of the members of the counties and large towns of England. But Mr. Thomas would do well to define reprefentation and equality; and he will then fee the abfurdity of his remark, that all the people are equally reprefented, though a part only choofe their reprefentatives.'

Our readers will eafily fee the tendency of the work, from the few extracts which we have given; and they perhaps will not be surprised at the vindication of abufes, or at a feeming defire of increafing them. On the subject of the test-act, the author thus fpeaks:

• We are all equal in being at liberty to choose our own religion: nor are any of the legal disabilities which any diffenter may lie under to be complained of. No man fuffers any pofitive lofs by fuch difability; no man is, by fuch difability, injured in his perfon, property, or good name; he is thereby only excluded from voting in election of members for the houfe of commons, and from holding certain offices under the crown: restraints, which can affect very few in comparison with the body of the people, and which are impofed on thofe few for the fafety and tranquillity of the ftate, that is, for the good of the whole. Dean Swift obferves, "that it is abfurd, that any perfon who profeffeth a different form of worship from that which is national, should be trufted with a vote for electing members in the houfe of commons. Because every man is full of zeal for his own religion, although he regards not morality; and therefore will endeavour to his utmost to bring in a representative of his own principles, which, if they be popular, may endanger the religion eftablifhed; which, as it hath formerly happened, may alter the whole frame of government." The fame or a fimilar reafon may be affigned for the other fort of legal difability the diffenters lie under. When thofe reafons ceafe, there is no doubt, that all restraints of this kind will be removed. But let it be observed in the mean time, that, with regard to the choice, and the innocent profeffion and practice, of our religion, we are all as free as thought; and, in this, we are all equal.' P. 166.

If the writer could produce no better reason than that of dean Swift for the legal disability of diffenters, he thould have been filent; for why should we be obliged to tell him, that the test-act does not prevent diffenters from voting in parliamentary elections?

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We feel great regret in pointing out thefe, as we could do feveral other inaccuracies; for every endeavour to make men pleafed with their fituation is laudable; and the author feems to have had that end in view. But he fhould also have conflantly kept in view his title, the cause of truth;' and should not have been tempted to deviate from it, by his zeal for the prefent fyftem. Some extenuation we might have excufed; but we cannot give fanction to mifreprefentation. Who, for inftance, can ferioufly approve the following pafLages?

Indeed, kingly government of fome fort is, perhaps, the only kind of government to which there is, in fcripture, a divine fanction given. Very far would I be from infinuating, that other forms of

government are illegal, when compared with the word of God, of that they are founded in what is unjust or wrong; but if we care fully perufe the bible, we shall find, that it is kingly government chiefly, perhaps only, which has there the divine fanction. At least, that fanction is there given to that form of government in a manner in which it was never given to any other.' P. 256.

It is a very curious and striking fact, that God fhould, in a fupernatural and immediate way, have established among his ancient people, a form of government very like that which he hath, in the ordinary courfe of his providence, established in this land. And, in this refpect, we, as well as they, are a peculiar people, a nation highly favoured of the Lord.' P. 276.

But, notwithstanding the ftrange notions with which the work abounds, fuch a vein of piety runs through it, that our readers will be pleased with the author, if they have a fufficient fhare of patience to give it a complete perusal.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE.

POLITICS.

РО

Confiderations upon the State of Public Affairs at the Beginning of the Year 1798. Part the Firft. France. By the Author of Confiderations, &c. at the Beginning of the Year 1796." 8vo. Rivingtons. 1798.

25.

The fame. Part II. Upon the Inftructions of his Majefty's Plenipotentiary at Lifle, and the Indemnity of Great Britain at the Peace. Is. 6d.

The fame. Part III. The Domeftic State and General Policy of Great Britain.

25.

IN the first part of these confiderations, the author endeavours to throw fome light upon the affairs of France, for the purpose of confidering her ulterior means of injuring this country, and the probability of the eruption of a civil war in her own bofom. The patience of the people, in fubmitting to the late violations of the constitution, is a strong argument against the latter; and there is no other fafe and honourable way, he thinks, of confidering the French at this period, than as the most powerful nation in Europe, placed under the control of the moft defpotic government. -government, he affirms, is hoftile to peace for the fake of perpetuating its exiftence. With regard to the internal state of France,

he maintains, that population has greatly decreased, though he does not specify in what proportion; that agriculture has failed, and that the fpecie which the French have been obliged to pay to other nations for grain, has diminished the capital in money, although what has accrued from the conquered countries may have in fome measure fupplied this deficiency; that their commercial capital is almoft totally loft, either feized and expended by themselves, or poffeffed by this country; and that their foreign relations are of no moment, with an exception of those territories in which the terror of their arms and the corruption of their principles have unnerved and diffolved the energy of the human character. These are the points upon which he wishes to fix the attention of the Britifh public; and upon thefe, he thinks, we cannot reflect without feeling all thofe proud and confoling fentiments which ought to make us bear patiently our fhare in the general calamity entailed on mankind by the ambition of France.

In the fecond part, we meet with a tedious declamation againft the projet of peace offered by lord Malmesbury at Lifle.

If (fays the writer) we examine the project which has been rejected at Lifle, we fhall find that there exifts no longer in any cabinet of Europe a bafis or defign of peace, that is not founded in the complete abandonment of its ancient fyftem, or that is any thing elfe than a new plan for its divifion and fpoliation. Even England, the generous and impartial arbitrefs of its fate, and the protectress of its liberties fo often, appears there in the character of one of its plunderers; meek indeed, and moderate, and felf denying, and declining ftill the invidioufnefs and the full reward of a crime of which she more than divides the meannefs and the guilt,' P. 8.

He thus writes, we may suppose, to vindicate his impartiality, and prove that he neither courts popularity nor favour,' and that he fpeaks the language of no party. He muft, however, have fome opinion of his own; and, from the following paffage, we may judge of his fentiments.

Could we have reftored the antient limits of Europe, we would seek no aggrandizement; could we maintain the balance of power, we would defire no other strength nor fecurity-; could we preferve a single certain alliance on the continent, we would trust even to the chapter of accidents; could we bring back France to the ftatus quo, we would not go out of it ourselves This is a peace that we will buy at any price; we will pay the confidera¬ tion of it for all the world.'

P. 66.

As an apology for the disgraceful projet offered by our ministers, it has been faid, that they despair of the public spirit, and doubt the refolution of the people under the inevitable hardships and preffure of a prolonged state of war. To this he answers, in the first

place, that they have it not in their power to terminate the war; and, in the next, that the state of public fpirit is not fo properly their excufe as their fault. He afks, with great juftice, whether any care has been taken to fatisfy the public mind upon the enor mous expenditure of public money, and whether the quota of income, fubfcribed by perfons in the highest stations, has been fuch as could encourage a liberal contribution from private fortunes.

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The obnoxious negotiation is refumed in the third part; and we are afterwards brought to the voluntary fubfcriptions, which our politician allows to have been liberal and patriotic,, notwithstanding the late and niggardly return from those whofe duty it was not only to be generous, but to give the example of generofity, and in fpite of minifterial and noble avarice which clofed the floodgates of national liberality.' Here he afks, Was this a time to affert the divine right of pluralifts in their offices, and the facred tenure of fees and emoluments? Was this a time to difpute of metaphyfcal freeholds, and deny the power of the public over the public purfe? &c. This is bold language from one who is a ftrenuous fupporter of the prefent administration. Yet who firft made ufe of it? Who endeavoured to procure to the people a fatisfactory account of the expenditure of their money? Who called upon placemen to contribute to the public exigencies? Thofe very members of oppofition, whom our author ftigmatifes as men who would precipitate the ruin, revolution, and fubjection of the empire.

The remainder of this part is employed in complimenting the people on their fpirit, and recommending a fyftem of economy in all departments of the flate. At the conclufion, the writer gives a fummary of his opinions; and this is the moft valuable part of his labours. If we have tranfcribed lefs from thefe pamphlets than their feeming importance demanded, it is because we found it very difficult to fix upon any extract in which the fentiment was not fo oppreffed with a redundancy of words, that the paffage would have appeared a fpecimen of the ftyle only. After allowing that the author's great merit is an inceffant flow of words, fometimes elegantly chofen, but frequently familiar and inaccurate, we are compelled to add that no writer in our time betrays a greater portion of vanity. Egotifm predominates through the whole; the confequential I fometimes provoking ridicule and fometimes difguft; and it is not easy to decide whether the affected humility or pert arrogance of the pamphleteer be moft ludicrous. Thinking that the whole world has an eye upon him, he apologises where no complaint preceded, and promises where no performance is expected. In his pamphlet which appeared in 1796, he spoke as prefident of the council. In these pieces, he counfels king and minifters as fubmiffive pupils who will patiently take his cenfure, and grant to him what they have refufed to no inconfiderable body of the reprefentatives of the people.