fion which could excite a new idea in the mind. But Dr. Watfon in his holy zeal for his country has fhewn himself by no means "a careless, cold, or timid fpectator of the common danger."

We do not conceive that we can perform a more acceptable fervice to our readers, than by presenting them with a few pointed extracts from this well-written pamphlet; which may be faid to concern every individual in the kingdom, whatever may be their station or rank in fociety. Refpecting the justice of our caufe, Dr. W. ftrongly obferves, "We are not fighting to plunder other men's property, but to protect our own-we are not fighting to fubvert the liberty of other nations, but to prevent the yoke of flavery from being faftened on our necks and on thofe of our pofterity—we are not fighting in contempt of national character, in defpite of the civil order of the world, in derifion of religion, in mockery of heaven-No! We are fighting, to preserve this happy land from atheism, from defpotifm, or anarchy; from that moral contamination of principle and practice, which outrages the very nature of humankind."

Many inconfiderate perfons, either from want of better information, or from motives, perhaps, lefs venial, have drawn an affected comparison between modern France and England, and ancient Rome and Carthage. That there is not a fingle point of fimilitude between them, every reflecting mind muft inftantly obferve. But if any additional arguments are neceffary, Dr. Watfon has well fupplied them. "Let our enemies mark the difference between Great Britain and Carthage, to fay nothing of that between Rome and France. We are not defended, as Carthage was, by mercenaries, feldom faithful, always uninterested in the event of war, and fparing of their blood

we are not supported, as She was, by tributary states, impatient of our yoke, and watching for an opportunity to throw it off-we are not affifted, as She was, by allies, envious of our profperity, and fecretly hoping to benefit themselves by our downfall-better none than fuch allies!-No! We have no mercenary forces, no tributary ftates, no alliances; but we have more than an equivalent for them all,-a free conftitution-the work of ages! the wonder of the world! the wifh of furrounding states! the palladium which our ancestors have committed to our cuftody; which, whilft we poffefs it, will render us invincible, and which, whilft we have life, we have to a man determined to defend."

Dr. Watson then proceeds to offer his opinion refpecting a new method of general defence, a method to which we cannot cordially give our affent. He would have every man, without exception (included in the firft clafs), taught the use of arms, not as a temporary expedient, but annually continued as a permanent measure of the executive government. His project is as follows:

"The population of the country would annually fupply, at least, fifty thousand youths, who in the preceding twelve months had attained the feventeenth year of their age; in fix years we should have three hundred thousand young men fufficiently inftructed in the use of arms. In the feventh year, fifty thousand of them might be difmiffed, as emeriti, from further attendance on military duty, except when the country was invaded. Thus by a flight fervice of a few days annually for fix years, the whole nation (for no fubftitutes fhould in this arrangement be allowed) would at length become a nation, not of warriors, but of peaceful citizens, of all occupations and denominations, ready to be

come warriors, whenever the fafety of their country should require the exertion of their skill and courage. Neither France alone, nor France with'all Europe in her vaffalage, would venture to fet a foot on this ifland, thus prepared to receive them: Great Britain, fingle handed, would defy the world."

Fafcinating as this may appear at first fight, its apparent excel lence will certainly diminish when more clofely examined. Itis, in fact, endeavouring to unite what are by nature different; it is endeavouring to blend into one common fubflance two very oppofite purfuits: it is to coalefce into unity the foldier and the merchant; a fcheme which could never be reduced to practice, or, if reduced, muft foon terminate the existence of the one or the other.

After having defended the right which every man has to deliver his fentiments at a time when every man is concerned, and entered a caveat against the farcasms of ne futor ultra crepidam of tractent fabrilia fabri, &c. his Lordship undertakes an Herculean task indeed; viz. the liquidation of the national debt! which he propofes fhould be done by the equal relative exertions of every individual in the kingdom; that is, for every man to pay in a given ratio according to his property. But here his Lordship fhall fpeak for himself:

"The payment of the national debt would, I have faid, be profitable to every individual paying taxes-This, at the firft view, appears to be a paradoxical affertion; but it is as certain a truth, as that every man is richer who fells part of his property to pay his debts, than he would be if he made a fresh mortgage upon it every year, by which, in addition to the intereft of his debt, he would have an attorney's bill to discharge. A confiderable portion of the tax which any man now pays to government

never reaches the exchequer of the kingdom. I don't mean, by this obfervation, to caft any imputation of dishonour upon men engaged in the management of taxes, and of the public revenue; they are neceffary parts of the great machine of government, and are very properly paid for their fervices; my with is, that by paying the debt, and taking off the taxes impofed for the payment of the intereft of it, the fervices of fuch men might be lefs wanted.

"I propofed, my Lords, this fubje& to public confideration five years ago, in my addrefs to the people of Great Britain (of which publication, by the bye, above thirty thoufand copies were difperfed in Great Britain and Ireland, with what effect to the public it becomes not me to say), and I will not trouble your Lordships with a repetition of what I ftated in that addrefs. Ono thing only I think it very important to recommend, if ever the measure itself, or an efficacious approximation to the meafure, fhould be adopted-that it be extended to every clafs and to every individual in the kingdom poffeffing property, in a juft proportion to what he poffeffes. The true principle of taxation feems to me to be this-that every man should pay for the protection of his property by the state, in exact proportion to the value of the property protected; juft as merchants, who rifk their goods on board a veffel, pay an infurance in proportion to the value of the goods infured. This is fo plain and equitable a principle, that every man is capable of understanding it, and no one is able, on reasonable grounds, to object to it. I at leaft never yet met with a person worth a hundred pounds, who, when the question was put to him (and I have put it to many) did not acknowledge it to be perfectly right, that he fhould pay one or two pounds out of his hundred towards the liquidation of the

national debt, provided that every man worth an hundred thousand pounds paid one or two thoufand pounds for the fame purpose. Com mon people are as acute as their fuperiors in diftinguishing between juitice and oppreffion; and I think fo well of human nature in general, as to believe that there is in all claffes fuch a refpect for justice, that no ftatefman need fear to propofe to his country any measure founded on the bafis of juftice, and evidently become neceffary for the prefervation of the ftate,"

His Lordship afterwards advances a pofition which is by no means irrefragable. He fays, "I have never yet heard a fubftantial reafon given, why the taxation should stop at a property of fixty, or even of ten pounds a year. A man of ten pounds a year is as able to pay (I mean with as little privation of his comforts) ten fhillings annually, as a man of five hundred a year is to pay five hundred fhillings."-In this there is a great difparity of reafoning, for it must first be afcertained (if poffible) what are or what are not confidered as comforts by the two perfons here mentioned. We must not confound fubmiffion to privation with abfolute contentment. Befides, the refidue after taxation on the one part is much greater than on the other: out of a little, a very little fubtraction is feverely felt. A man paying five-and-twenty pounds out of five hundred, will itill have a yearly income adequate to a thousand neceffaries, and ten thoufand luxuries. But the man who has hitherto adapted his fmall expenditure to the fmall income of ten pounds, muft and would feel a bitter difference, inafmuch as he would in all probability be thus deprived of the means of gratifying an abfolute neceffity. Thefe remarks, which to us appear rational and founded in truth, are offered with fome degree of con

fidence; they are not the offspring of a mind bent on cavilling.

Dr. Watton next proceeds to offer fome obfervations on the state of the Catholics in Ireland, and the state of the Diffenters in England; in both of which he difplays his ufual candour, humanity, and good fenfe. He gives implicit confidence to the declaration of Emmet, that he deprecated all connexion with France, and urges the neceflity that the religious teachers of Ireland fhould be maintained at the public expence. This is a juft remark, and one which it certainly is not yet too late to reduce to practice.

After fome excellent and independent obfervations on the prefent ftruggle between Great Britain and France, in which many manly and patriotic affertions are advanced, his Lordship thus defcribes, in glowing and ardent language, the dreadful confequences of a fuccefsful invafion.

"The occafion is extraordinary; and we meet it, as we ought to do, with extraordinary refolution and exertion. A fuccefsful invasion, had it ever been accomplished during the monarchy of France, would have been terminated by, perhaps, a difadvantageous peace; but we fhould have retained our rank in the fcale of nations. A fuccefsful invafion by the republic of France (heaven avert fo great an evil!) will never be terminated but in complete national degradation, in public bankruptcy and individual beggary. This limited monarchy, the glory of civilized fociety! will be overthrown-our aged monarch (God protect him!) and his numerous fons will be buried-fuch is the acknowledged bravery of his race!-in the laft ruins of their native land-Your rank, my Lords, by which, for the benefit of all, you are now diftinguifhed from the reft, will be heard of no morethe landed gentry will be obliged to become farmers, and be compelled,

by unheard of, unthought of exactions, to give up the lamented produce of their own lands and of their own labour, to feed the luxury of a foreign country---the farmers will be made labourers, and the labourers will be made flaves---And, in addition to all thefe calamities, the youth of every clafs will be made confcripts, and dragged from their country and their father's houfe, to fight the battles of violent and unjust ambition in every part of the world. Sooner than all this fhould happen, I would fay (did christianity permit fuch a wifi), may the fate of the Saguntines become the fate of Britons!

"Such, my Lords, would be the final event of a fuccefsful invafion of this country by the republic of France. I have in fome degree defcribed it, but I do not in any degree expect it: I expect the direct contrary. My hope and my firm expectation is, that, inftead of fuccefs, the enemy will experience defeat; inftead of triumph, difgrace and ruin--that, under the good providence of God, the arms of Great Britain will not only preferve our own independence, but Be inftrumental in exciting the fpirit of other nations to recover theirs, and eventually contribute to the eftablishing the true liberty, and promoting the true profperity of France itfelf:---but on this fubject I forbear.--

"And now, illuftrious peers of this mighty empire! Venerable fathers of our moft venerable church! I

befeech you, individually, to par don me, if, in the warmth of my zeal for the public fafety (never more endangered than at prefent!), any expreffion has escaped me unworthy the dignity of your rank to hear, unbecoming the decorum of my station to utter. Little more can be expected by the country from a man of my age, except from his prayers; and mine shall never be wanting for its prefervation, and for peace among mankind."

Such is the conclufion of one of the moft animated and most patriotic productions that ever fell from the pen of man!

Befides the pieces already mentioned, Dr. Watfon has likewife written: "Richardi Watson, A.M. Coll. Sacr. Sancta. Trin. Soc. et Chemia Profefforis in Academia Cantabrigenfi Inftitutionum Chemicarum in prelectionibus Academis explicatum Pars Metallurgica," Svo., 1766.---" An Effay on the Subjects of Chemistry, and their general Divifions."--" A Defence of revealed Religion; in two Sermons, preached in the Cathedral Church of Landaff." "A Charge to the Clergy of that Diocefe, in June 1795."---“ Sermons and Tracts." In 1 vol. 8vo.---and "A Charge to his Clergy in 1790."

His Lordfhip is a good public fpeaker; his action is graceful, his voice full and harmonious, and his delivery chafte and correct: his family is numerous, and his chief refidence is Calgarth Park, delightfully fituated near the lakes of his native country.