fuch furmifes as may at least very much embarrass our affairs.

The law by which the Swedes juftified their oppofition to the encroachments of the King of Denmark, he not only calls

Great Nature's law, the law within the breast,

But proceeds to tell us that it is

Stamp'd by Heaven upon th' unletter'd mind.

By which he evidently intends to infinuate a maxim which is, I hope, as falfe as it is pernicious, that men are naturally fond of liberty till thofe unborn ideas and defires are effaced by literature.

The author, if he be not a man mewed up in his folitary study, and entirely unacquainted with the conduct of the prefent miniftry, muft know that we have hitherto acted upon different principles. We have always regarded letters as great obftructions to our scheme of fubordination, and have therefore, when we have heard of any man remarkably unlettered, carefully noted him down as the moft proper perfon for any employments of truft or honour, and confidered him as a man in whom we could fafely repose our most important fecrets.

From among the uneducated and unlettered we have chofen not only our embaffadors and other negotiators, but even our journalists and pamphleteers; nor have we E

had

34

had any reason to change our meafures, or to repent of the confidence which we have placed in ignorance.

Are we now therefore to be told, that this law is

Stamp'd upon th' unletter'd mind?

Are we to fufpect our placemen, our penfioners, our generals, our lawyers, our best friends in both houses, all our adherents among the atheists and infidels, and our very Gazetteers, clerks and court-pages, as friends to independency? Doubtless this is the tendency of his affertion, but we have known them too long to be thus impofed upon, the unlettered have been our warmest and most constant defenders, nor have we omitted any thing to deferve their favour, but have always endeavoured to raise their reputation, extend their influence, and encrease their number.

In his firft act he abounds with fentiments very inconfiftent with the ends for which the power of licensing was granted; to enumerate them all would be to transcribe a great part of his play, a tafk which I fhall very willingly leave to others, who, though true friends to the government, are not inflamed with zeal fo fiery and - impatient as mine, and therefore do not feel the same emotions of rage and refentment at the fight of those : infamous paffages, in which venality and dependance are reprefented as mean in themselves, and productive of remorfe and infelicity.

One line which ought, in my opinion, to be 'erafed from every copy by a fpecial act of parliament, is men

tioned

tioned by Anderson, as pronounced by the hero in his fleep,

O Sweden, O my country, yet I'll fave thee.

This line I have reason to believe thrown out as a kind of a watch-word for the oppofing faction, who, when they meet in their feditious affemblies, have been observed to lay their hands upon their breafts, and cry out with great vehemence of accent,

O B*, O my country, yet I'll fave thee.

In the second scene he endeavours to fix epithets of contempt upon those paffions and defires which have been always found most useful to the miniftry, and most oppofite to the spirit of independency.

Bafe fear, the laziness of luft, grofs appetites,
Thefe are the ladders and the grov'ling foot-stool
From whence the tyrant rifes-

Secure and fcepter'd in the foul's fervility
He has debauched the genius of our country
And rides triumphant, while her captive fons
Await his nod, the filken flaves of pleasure,
Or fetter'd in their fears.

Thus is that decent fubmiffion to our fuperiors, and that proper awe of authority which we are taught in courts, termed bafe fear and the fervility of the foul.

57

Thus are thofe gayeties and enjoyments, thofe elegant amusements, and lulling pleasures which the followers of a court are bleffed with, as the juft rewards of their attendance and fubmiffion, degraded to luft, groffness, and debauchery. The author ought to be told, that courts are not to be mentioned with fo little ceremony, and that though gallantries and amours are admitted there, it is almoft treason to suppose them infected with debauchery or luft.

It is obfervable, that when this hateful writer has conceived any thought of an uncommon malignity, a thought which tends in a more particular manner to excite the love of liberty, animate the heat of patriotifm, or degrade the majesty of kings, he takes care to put it in the mouth of his hero, that it may be more forcibly impreffed upon his reader. Thus Gustavus, speaking of his tatters, cries out.

Yes, my Arvida,

Beyond the fweeping of the proudest train
That shades a monarch's beel, I prize thefe weeds,
For they are facred to my country's freedom.

Here this abandoned fon of liberty makes a full difcovery of his execrable principles, the tatters of Guftavus, the ufual drefs of the affertors of thefe doctrines, are of more divinity, because they are facred to freedom, than the fumptuous and magnificent robes of regality itself. Such fentiments are truly deteftable, nor could any thing be an aggravation of the author's guilt, except his ludicrous manner of mentioning a monarch.

The

The beel of a monarch, or even the print of his beel, is a thing too venerable and facred to be treated with fuch levity, and placed in contrast with rags and poverty. He, that will speak contemptuously of the heel of a monarch, will, whenever he can with fecurity, speak contemptuously of his head.

These are the most glaring paffages which have occurred, in the perufal of the first pages; my indignation will not fuffer me to proceed farther, and I think much better of the licenser, than to believe he went fo far.

In the few remarks which I have fet down, the reader will eafily observe, that I have ftrained no expreffion be yond its natural import, and have divested myself of all heat, partiality, and prejudice.

So far therefore is Mr. Brooke from having received any hard or unwarrantable treatment, that the. licenfer has only acted in purfuance of that law to which he owes his power, a law, which every admirer of the administration must own to be very neceffary, and to have produced very falutary effects.

I am indeed surprised, that this great office is not drawn out into a longer feries of deputations, fince it might afford a gainful and reputable employment to a great number of the friends of the government; and I should think, instead of having immediate recourfe to the deputy-licenfer himself, it might be fufficient honour for any poet, except the laureat, to ftand bare-headed in the presence of the deputy of the deputy's deputy in the nineteenth fubordination.