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• Give me thy hand then (I faid) thou generous girl. You 'make me the happiest of men, and in return I swear by that

one, fupreme, tremendous power I adore, that I will be ⚫ true and faithful to thee, till death diffolves the facred obliga⚫tion. Twice do I swear by the great spirit, in whofe dread 'prefence I am, with your right hand now locked faft in mine,

across this table, and call on him as witness to our vows, 'that neither time, nor chance, nor aught but death's inevi⚫ table hand, fhall e'er divide our loves. Mifs Melmoth faid, • Amen.

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Early the next morning, the third of August, we rid to Eggleston, where we breakfafted, and proceeded from thence to Mr. Fleming's houfe, up Stanemore hills, where we arrived ' at nine o'clock in the evening, and had beds there that night. My friend Tom and his brother Jemmy, were gone to a fair; but the eldest brother, the francifcan fryer, was at home, ⚫ and entertained us very well. We took him with us very early the next day to Orton Lodge, which we reached at eight in the evening, and found the house and garden in good order. My friend, Mr, Fleming, had done every thing poffible, to make it a convenient and comfortable place. He had • made near the lodge two little rooms for fervants, and had 'put a bed in the green-house in the garden for a friend. He • had likewise sent there a couple of cows, fome sheep and lambs, ducks and geefe, cocks and hens, and every necessary he thought we might want there. Good Tom Fleming! • There never was a better man, or a kinder friend, to his • fmall power.

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We had likewife fifh in abundance, in the waters at the foot of our hills, and goats and kids, and plenty of wild fowl. Few things were wanting that reafon could defire; and for us, who thought that happiness, that is, pleasure and repose, did not precariously depend on what others think, or fay, or do; but folidly confifted in what we ourselves did feel, and relifh, and enjoy, there could not be a more delightful ftation difcovered on this globe.

To conclude, the best things that Orton Lodge afforded, were ordered to the fire, and before they were brought on the table, the man of God threw the fillet or ribband over

' our

✦ our hands, according to the Romish manner, and pronounced
the nuptial benediction on us.
Husband and wife we fat
* down to supper.

Thus did the stars preflde with friendly rays,
* And bid me hail at laft the happy days,
• When sheltered within this wild retreat,

Above the scorn, below the rage of fate;
Bleft in a wife, a friend, and books, alone;
To this mad world, and all its plagues unknown;
The smooth-pac'd hours did fweetly pass away,
And happy nights ftill clos'd each happy day.

We will not trouble our readers with any more extracts from Mr. Buncle's very furprising performance, but conclude this article with a character of him, drawn up in his own choice words and phrases, as they occur in various parts of his work.

Mr. John Buncle, then, the lepid ruralift, is, without all perad venture, the most doleful jumble of miscellany thoughts, replications, and hairing staring diábolism that was ever posited in the fenfory of a man's head; and whatever opinion he may entertain of his motive power, unless this theologer will turn reform, he must continue the moft fcelerate of all authors; because though he may be confidered by his own fodality, as à thinking bloom, and militates ftrongly with churchism; yet as writing is a province which, in spite of his ngachical language, he was never chalked out for, he cannot poffibly rife even to a half-merit, and confequently his lot, as a writer as well as á man, will prove but á fwarthy one.

ART. III. INSTITUTES of NATURAL LAW. By T. Rutherforth, D. D. F. R. S. Vol. II. 7 s. Thurlbourn.

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H E fécond volume begins with an inquiry into focieties in general, where all the members are equal. Having explained the reasons for which the minority ought to submit to the majority in the determinations of a fociety, he very justly obferves that in the trial of a criminal, when votes are equal, the prisoner is not acquitted, as Grotius fays, because

in fuch a cafe the milder opinion ought to prevail; but, be cause, when the judges are equally divided, there is nothing done, the perfon being tried, but not found guilty; therefore he is acquitted of courfe. He obferves that in some cases,, where there is an equality of voices, the favourable opinion is rejected for example, in the university of Cambridge, if a perfon petitions, the fenate for a degree, and the houfe fhould. be equally divided, the petition is rejected. He had no degree when he petitioned, and as an equality of votes does nothing, he continues in the fame ftate. He demonftrates what natural. majority is, and how it is to be reckoned; confiders the nature of voting in a joint flock company, where the proprietors have different fhares, and. afcertains the right of voting by proxy.

The fecond chapter treats of the nature and origin of civil. fociety. Having defined civil fociety and defcribed the motives which lead men to form fuch focieties, he proceeds to describe the manner in which they are formed. He obferves that the claim of civil fociety, upon the individuals that compose it, cannot be reconciled with the natural rights of mankind, unlefs each individual has, either by exprefs or tacit, by expliciet or implicit confent, parted with fuch rights: this claim therefore can extend no farther than fuch individual had a power of binding himself, or of alienating his liberty. Now each individual who joins himself to any civil fociety, is under a prior obligation to obferve the laws of nature, and to make them the rule of his conduct towards all mankind: and as he has not the liberty of tranfgreffing thofe laws, he cannot alienate a liberty which he never had: and confequently he cannot give the fociety a right to require him to tranfgrefs them.This being the cafe, the individuals of any fociety are not bound to obey the orders of the fociety, in doing any thing. that may injure mankind. The foldiers therefore, of a prince who goes to war without juft caufe, if they are confcious of the injuftice of the quarrel, are, by the law of natural equity, bound to reject the order of their fovereign.

The next enumerates the occafions of forming civil focieties ; and proves by reason and experience, that they generally fubfift by pact and agreement, without any natural or any di

vine right of preheminence vefted in any particular member of the community.-We recommend this part to the perufal of those who are advocates for the jus divinum regum.

In the fixth and seventh fections, he enquires how men become members of civil focieties; and whether or not a member has a right to leave the fociety, without the consent of the public.-Among the cafes ftated by the doctor, we wish he had taken into confideration, that of an individual of fuperior talents, who finding himfelf depreffed by faction, or neglected from ignorance and indifference, in the fociety of which he is a member, withdraws himfelf into another country where his genius and ability meet with due encouragement. We with Dr. Rutherforth had declared how far fuch a perfon has a right to withdraw himself, after having in vain offered his fervices to the public.

The fubject of the third chapter is civil power confidered as legiflative and executive. He affirms that the confent or agreement of mankind, by which they form themselves into focieties, muft neceffarily be the principle from whence civil power is derived. By the legislative power, laws are made, altered and repealed; penalties are enacted, and taxes imposed: but the legislative power has no right to take the whole, or any part of the property of individuals causelessly and arbitrarily. The preservation of each man's property, is one of the ends which he propofed to himself in entering into civil fociety and it is abfurd to fuppofe he would give up the whole of his property for the fake of preferving it.

Having obferved that executive power is either internal, when it is exercifed upon objects within the fociety; external, when it is exercifed on objects out of the fociety, that is, in protecting the fociety from external injuries; or mixed, as in the function of magiftrates, who exercise both occafionally; he explains prerogative in this manner: If we continue to fpeak of the legislative and executive power in the abstract; it will be difficult to explain rightly, what is meant by prerogative. It cannot properly be called difcretionary executive power; because the executive power in the nature of the thing is not difcretionary in any part: wherever it acts at discretion, this privilege, unless it arifes from the neceffity of the cafe,

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as in the heat of military action, comes from the legislative either by original establishment, or by long ufage and cuftom, or by occafional permiffion. We fhall be better able ⚫ to understand what prerogative is, if we speak of the legislative and executive power, not in the abstract, but as lodged or entrusted by the ftate in the hands of fome one or more ' perfons. Where the perfon, fo entrusted with the executive power, is left by the legiflative to act in any inftances, at ⚫ his own discretion, to direct by his own understanding the public force, which is naturally under the direction of the public understanding, fuch a discretionary power in him is called prerogative. Thus in penal cafes, if the legislative ⚫ forbids the public force to be put in motion for the punish⚫ment of any action, till the fact itself is proved to the public understanding in such a manner as the law appoints, and then will not fuffer this force to be used but under the conduct of the law, so as to inflict only the legal penalty; thus ⚫ far there is no prerogative or no difcretionary power in him, ⚫ who is entrusted with the executive. But then if the legiflative, instead of reserving to itself the right of judging, ♦ whether fuch legal punishment is to be fufpended, or whether the criminal is to be wholly pardoned, leaves it to him to pardon or not, as he thinks proper, fuch a discretionary power entrusted with him is called prerogative. In cafes of ⚫ external jurisdiction; if the society makes war or peace, as ⚫ he thinks convenient, if it is bound by fuch leagues or conventions, as he engages it in; if its military force, when appointed and established, is under his command, and is to act as he directs; thefe are inftances of a difcretionary power and where the perfon entrusted with the executive has fuch a discretionary power, it is called prerogative. If he, who is entrusted with the executive, has a difcretionary power of calling the public together to act in its legislative capacity, or of calling the representatives of the public together, ⚫ where it acts in this capacity by its reprefentatives; or if it is left to him to appoint the time and place of its meeting; this, though it is not properly any branch of executive power, yet if it is fo entrusted with him, who has the executive power, will come under the notion of prerogative. But should

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