to agree, that if the faults, mistakes, nay even the vices of such a person be private and perfonal, and not affect the peace of the public, or the liberty or property of our neighbour, it is unmanly aud unmannerly either to expose them by word or writing. But when a ruler of a people brings his perfonal failings, but much more his vices, into his adminiftration, and the people find themselves affected by them, either in their liberties or properties, that will alter the cafe mightily, and all the high things that are faid in favour of rulers, and of dignities, and upon the fide of power, will not be able to stop people's mouths when they feel themselves oppreffed, I mean in a free government. It is true in times paft it was a crime to fpeak truth, and in that terrible court of Aar-chamber, many worthy and braye men suffered for fo doing; and yet even in that court, and in thofe bad times, a great and good man durft fay, what I hope will not be taken amifs of me to fay in this place, to wit, "The practice of informations for libels, is a fword in the hands of a wicked king, and an arrand coward, to cut down and deftroy the innocent; the one cannot, becaufe of his high station, and the others dare not, becaufe of his want of courage, revenge himfeif in another manner.'

[To be continued in our next.]

A new Method of making Hay,

Mr. URBAN,

SHALL make no apology for fending you an account of my own practice in making of hay, though it may feem fmall and trifling at the first mentioning: but finding that it faves me near two-fifths of the time and labour I used to be at in this article, and that my bay is, I think, better than when I used to purfue the usual method, I esteem myself justified in communicating it to the public. My method is this: I mow my grafs, and let it lie in the fwarth till the dew is off the next morning: then I turn and fpread my hay, and let it lie in the fun till the afternoon, when I take it up, and cock it well, and never meddle more with it till I cart it into my barn, or stack it. If the weather be good, it will do well to cart after it has tood two days in the cock. This, I have found by five or fix

years conftant experience, answers for any sort of hay, except falt-bay and red-clover, of which fat I have not had fo long trial: but with refpect to clover hay, I managed it laft fummer after this manner, viz. I foilowed my mowers as they cut the grafs, I fpread it as thin as I could, and before night I put it in cock. The next day, after the dew was off, I spread it again; in the afternoon I cocked it a fecond time, and meddled no more with it till I carted it. The appearance of the hay fince makes me judge that no man has better of the fort. My first com- . ing into this practice was purely accidental. After cutting my grafs, five or fix years ago, I put it in cock the next day. but my avocations then were fuch, that I had no time in which I could poffibly take any farther care of my hay for many days. When I had difpatched my other affairs, I returned to it, and found it in as good order, that is to say, the bulk of it, as ever I had hay in my life, Reflecting then how much labour may be faved by this method, I have followed the fane practice ever fince, and find it anfwer very well. The reafon why I think my hay really better, is, becaufe. I take it for granted, that the more juice, or natural moisture, we can retain in it, without corrupting and rotting the talk, the richer and more nourishing it is. The too often turning and spreading of hay in the fun extract too much of the richnefs thereof, and one day's thus lying will take away fuch a quantity of the most watery particles, as that the remainder is only fulcroft when in the proper fermentation thereof when in the cock, while the fmailnefs of the body there keeps that fermentation from ring to fuch a height as to corrupt it. After twenty-four hours, the fermentation will gradually abate; and the pitching of the hay into the cart, and afterwards into the mow, or tack, fo checks it, that it will not again rife to fuch a height as to be detrimental. Cattle are fonder of this hay than of that which is made in the common way, and lefs of it will support them.

In Nature, the largest bodies! are the longeft in being heated; but when they are thoroughly fo, they retain the heat alfo the longeft, and burn with the greateft violence. In like manner, Nations, thofe large political bodies, are not easily fet on fire; but when once thoroughly kindled, the flame is long before it is extinguished It burns; it ravages; it bears down all before it. No minifterial grandeur can ftifle it in its progrefs, or preferve from its fury. It is in vain for the unpopular statefinan, in fuch a fituation, to rely on the Favour of his Prince, or trust to his own power and riches. These cannot aid him; but they may ferve for oil, to make the popular fire burn with the greater rage.

In fuch a crifis (if ever fuch a crifis was to arrive in any country) all good man, that have a due regard for the happiness of their fovereign, would tremble at the fituation of their prince; expofed, or likely to be expofed, to the utmost troubles and vexations, by the machinations of a favourite upttart, whom the royal beneficence had called to honours and the public notice. In fuch a hard dilemma, how fevere muft the task be which lies on loyal fubjects! How ftrong the ftruggle between grief for their prince, and concern for their country! The latter, will not permit them to be filent under violent minifterial ufurpations; and the former paints before his eyes, all the horrors that defpair may be productive of, in the breast of the falling Favourite, to prop his finking fortunes.

I cannot better conclude on this fubject, than with the following letter, which I received, last week, from an unknown correfpondent,

To the NORTH BRITO N,

SIR,

O much has been already wrote upon Favouritijm, that I should not at prefent trouble the public with any farther remarks upon that fubject, were I not well informed that the mighty Thane had fill great Influence, and that he was endeavouring to freak again into life, after his daftardly, and shameful abdication, from the high offices he had gained, in fo rapid a courfe: Befides, when I hear that he has had the affurance to creep into the prefence of that illuftrious Perfonage, to whom the Houfe of Hanover owe

their firm establishment in the throne of thefe kingdoms; and, for whofe health, daily and hourly prayers are offered to Heaven, by every honest Englishman ; when I fee this, I own, I am alarmed! and in order to open the eyes of my countrymen, defire to give them the Hiftory of Rufinus, Prime Minister to Arcadius, the fon of Theodofus the Great. The motto (fee p. 356.) is taken from Claudian, and is part of a poem he wrote against that favourite Minifter. It seems to mean one of the female Sex, and carries with it the defcription of an imperious violent WOMAN : Nor can any thing give us a more lively idea of the fury, the impatience, the malice, and the mutability of the SEX: but who this woman was, who was in the fecret Intrigues of Rufinus, is not said. The fame Poet gives us a defcription of the Favourite, of which the following is a translation. "While my horn'd ferpents round his

Rufinus had a fupple infinuating addrefs. He was born in the Northern part of Gaul. His family very little known, or his name, till he came to the court of Theodofius; though he arrogated to himfelf the high dignity of Royal Blood; pretending that he was defcended from one of the old Kings of the Huns or Goths: After the death of Theodolius, when Arcadius his fon afcended the throne, Rufinus was, in reality, Emperor of the Eaft, and Arcadius only nominally so ; —tho' a Prince adorned with every virtue, and of a foul truly royal; of an heart entirely Roman. Rufinus acted without controul, difpofed of all offices, put in and turned out, pardoned and punished, at pleasure. He was, in a word, poffeffed of unlimited power, and exerciled it, at large, over the Nobility and Populace; who were now both miferably degenerated, from the virtue and glory of their Ancestors. The dignity of the Patrician Order was, in a great measure, extinguished. The rights and privileges of the Plebeians, were grofly invaded. The laws of the twelve Tables (the MAGNA CHARTA of the Romans) were no longer held facred, but openly and fcandaloufly violated The Conftitution and even the Roman name itfelf, was in danger of being totally annihilated.

The fenate, that is, the Majority of it, was become little better than a collection of Penfioners, Preferment-Hunters, BoyPoliticians, Sham-Patriots, Petty-Orators and Court Slaves, who (very unlike the Members of the prefent Parliaments of France) being divefted of their original Senatorial Authority, had loft all Senfe of Fufice, all Freedom of Voting; all that Force of Eloquence, that Spirit of Liberty, which animated the old Romans, and made them the terror of arbitrary and tyrannical power. No proceedings were too violent; no decrees too unjufi; no resolutions too abfurd; no Actions, no Management, too Profligate for them, when they were executing the commands of their great Lord and Mafter Rufinus. They were grown odious in the eyes of the People, and contemptible in the opinion of Him thy ferved; for his policy was, to make men prostitute their characters in his Drudgery, that he might afterwards difcard them at pleafure, with

Tiberius had not more reafon to laugh at the base compliances of the Senate in his time when he cried out, "O Homines ad Servitutem paratos !-0 Beafts of Burden !" Tacitus tells us, that "abject Slaves were nauseous even to a "Tyrant " and Suetonius gives them no better character; "The Emperor "voachsafed not to answer the flatter"ing Addrefes of the Senate; meanly "begging, and proftrate, at his Feet: It may indeed be urged in apology for the former, that what they did, was in odedience to the sovereign Prince ; whereas the latter, acted in vile fubmiffion to their fellow Subject.

Rufinus, at this time, every where interpofed, every where prevailed to the ut moft of his ambition. He had informers and evidences every where in constant pay, who were inftructed on occasion to swear any thing; to accufe any body; to prove this man a lunatic, and that an ideot. Perjury was deemed innocent, when proved against any of his party; and Truth, when ushered into the world against the most profligate of his meafures, was severely punished. In a word, his whole administration (though short) was one continued scene of Injustice, Confufion and Rapine. He affected, nevertheless, nothing more than a perpetual finoothness and affability in his outward behaviour: but underneath, there lurked a perfecuting and revengeful Soul. In the zenith of his power there arofe a young man named LUCIANUS; who engaged warmly in defence of the Liberties of the People; and harangued, with great freedom, against the tyranny, and oppreflive measures of Rufinus. The wrath of the Favourite was immediately kindled against him. Every engine of revenge was railed. Law and Juftice were made fubfervient to his Pafion. The rules of Reason and common Humanity were laid aside. This, nevertheless, in the end, proved his ruin ; for it railed a general difcontent and clamour throughout the Empire, which, it was not in all his fubtilty ever, effectually, to compofe. LUCIANUS was held in great efteem by the People, and when they found to what extremities Rufinus was proceeding, they committed feveral outrages, and demanded juftice; threatning vengeance. Rufinus endeavoured to

footh