I paffed the day very happily though not fo joyously as that day twelvemonth, in the midst of my worthy conftituents at Aylesbury, all of us in full chorus to the liberties of our country, and the virtues of our fovereign; yet after the late flagrant acts of defpotic power in the M****, not forgetting either their wickedness or their infolence, Joly's Champaign was not neceflary to infpire the highest goodhumour and gaiety on fo white fo aufpicious a day as the fourth of June. The toaft confecrated the wine, and gave it the true flavour, though I could not help lamenting my hard and unmerited lot, of being forced to give fuch a toaft out of my own dear country, and in a land where the standard' of liberty is not yet erected. With Mifs W- -'s help we made out tolerably well GOD SAVE GREAT GEORGE OUR KING; and as the duke of Nivernois fays in one of his letters Nous avons toafte et chante fort gaiement, et enfuite nous avons ete quatre bonnes beures a table. As I am an univerfal whig, I could not avoid giving an additional stanza, the poetry of which I endeavoured to bring down as low as the rest of the fong, and I believe I fucceeded; the thought was good, that the name of BRUNSWICK may ever be as propitious to the liberties of mankind as that of NASSAU; and our gracious fovereign, through a long and glorious reign, equally feared abroad and beloved at home, may approve himself as steady a patron of the rights of Englishmen as his grandfather was. On the whole, it prov. ed the most agreeable day I have paffed fince a few of us, in April, kept the anniversary of CULLODEN, which a good many others feemed to have a memorandum to forget, or at least to neglect very shamefully.

Lord H.

gave yesterday a grand dinner to all the English here except one, and to the true Irish whigs; nor like a good courtier did he omit the new converts, the Scots; he did not, however, obferve the diftinction which is fo much in fashion on your fide the water, for the true friends of the Hanover family were received at least as well as their known enemies. My lot is particular and droll enough I am the fingle Englishman not invited by the A- of my country,

• Wine Merchant at Paris.

on the only day I can at Paris fhew my
attachments to its fovereign, as if I was
difaffected to the prefent establishment,
and yet I am frequently and grofsly abus-
ed by a ridiculous fellow at Bouillon, be-
caufe I am known to hate the other fami-
ly, and his mafter, the duke married the
fifter of the pretender's wife, a princess of
Poland, of the house of Sobieski. This
fcribbler is one Rousseau, who by a wretch-
ed Journal does all he can, twice a month,
to degrade a name made illustrious by one
of the beft French poets, and by the great
*philofopher, though in these times no
longer the citizen, of Geneva.
He lays
at my door the North Britons against the
Stuarts, and their dear friends in the
north of our island. You may believe
me, when I affure you it was not the flight-
eft mortification to me, that I did not re-
ceive an invitation to the H-1 de B--s:
When I was afked, how it could happen
that fo ftaunch a Whig as Mr. Wilkes was
not invited on the 4th of June, I laughed
like the old Roman, I had rather you
hould ask why I was NOT than why I
WAS invited: Perhaps it should have
been asked why fome others were invited.
The lift of the company of the Macs and
Sawneys, NOT in the French fervice,
would divert you: I with fome of our
neighbours from the other fide of the
Tweed may not keep the twenty-firft with
more real devotion than they did the
fourth; with respect to external rites they
were exemplary, as all new converts are;
and I believe you find them in England
good occafional conformists, though I shall
ever imagine that it depends on contin-
gencies how long they will continue fuch.
To fay the truth, I paffed the day much
more to my fatisfaction than I should
have done in a fet of mixed or fufpicious
company, a fulfome dull dinner, two
hours of mighty grave converfation to be
purchafed in all civility by fix more of Fa-
ro, which I deteft, as well as every other
kind of gaming: as to the
have never had the leaft connection with
him, nor indeed with it; nor at this time
with his Scottish S-
with his Scottish C
——, an

I

nor at any time because generally owes his very nomination to ministerial influence, and is almost of course (though this does not extend through his family) under the direction of the minifters, or perhaps as to the prefent cafe, in all propriety we ought

to

to fay, of the ministry, who, behind and between the curtains, ftill governs our ifland. I have never been prefented at court, because an Englishman should be prefented by the English ambaffador, and I will not ask any favour of Lord Hertford, in the present state of public affairs; though as a private nobleman, I should be ambitious to merit, and moft fortunate to obtain his friendship, as well as Lord Beauchamp's, from their real fterling fenfe, great intrinfic worth; and what fets off the whole, their amiable manners. I have the protection of the laws, which I never offend; and I am at Paris like any other foreigner, who has no favour to aik, nor need any other fecurity. The Eloge, which the noblest of poets gives me, that

"I neither court the fmile nor dread the frown of kings,"

Spectability of their offices, and facrificed the eftates which established the present their characters, to the ambitious views conflitution of this realm. of the then tyrannical court of St. James's. But how long did this tranquil face of things continue? fcarcely two years. An inceffant reiteration of the fame injuries that had kindled the general difcontent at first, foon lighted up thofe flames in which the oppreffive courtiers of thofe days, all perifhed to a man; and even dragged along with them, their unhappy matter.

HILE liberty is maintained, and

ous and dangerous to a free nation, by so
many notorious examples of defpotifm.

When a Stuart is a king or a minister,
every act of power must of course, be ar-
bitrary and oppreffive; or, if in appea-
rance the contrary, be no other than an
infidious maík to cover fome fatal defign.
A miniftry appointed, or recommended

W juftice impartially diftributed, by a Stuart, must be a ministry of flaves,

the people can have no inducement to contend, or break with their rulers; nor is it admiffable, that, in fuch a cale, the multitude can unite in oppofition; becaufe, there is then no common principle which can incite them to action. But it is otherwife with minifiers in general. It is always their interest to aim at a state of independence in respect to the nation itfelf, and then they can only have the frowns of him to prevent or withstand, whom (as having no guile in himfeif, can fufpect none in others) they have the art to mislead at their pleasure. We ought not, therefore, to imagine of miniiters, in general, that they can be kept in their duty without a proper coercion. Few kingdoms can glory in a Temple, or exult in a Pitt! and fewer ftill can boat of being bleft, for any confiderable time, with thofe upright administrations, as are confequent of the employing of men of fuch patriot principles, and fuch fingular integrity!

-

In treating, therefore, of minifters, and the means of preferving our liberties against ministerial attempts to fubdue them, we must not take a view of them merely as minifters generally are, but muft enlarge the profpect, and confider them as this nation has always found them to be under the Stuarts: and as it always will find them, when a Stuart has any influence in an English admini. ftration; be it as mafter, minifter, appointer, or recommender. In this light, we are warranted by experience, to declare them to be, men by intereft engaged, and by paffion invited to ftrip us of our freedom. A Stuart will not, a Stuart cannot be, neither will, nor can he, appoint, or recommend, a minifter of another ftamp. Stubborn facts, indifputable proofs, furnish us with this character of Stuart-kings and Stuart-minifters, and the people must be mad indeed, not to be upon their guard, and to fear every thing that is to be feared, from a specie of minifters and minifter-makers, rendered odi

and the tools of oppreffion. Slaves to
their nominator, and tools in their con-
duct. Under fuch a miniftry, England
must be ever unhappy! ever remonttra-
ting against the neglect of their national
interetts abroad, and complaining of a ty-
rannical exertion of power at home!
Under fuch a ministry, prerogative can-
not fail of being exalted to the utmott
point of elevation! and, from thence,
money be extorted from the subject with-
out law!-In fuch a ministry, peculation
muft flourish, corruption be encouraged,
convicted corruptors be appointed to off-
ces of the ftate, the higheit criminalities
in courtiers overlooked, the fmallett de-
linquencies in oppofers punished with un-
relenting severity, and prosecutions (with
all their confequent inflictions) allotted
for those that venture to arraign the mini-
fterial faction, or who dare to have the
temerity to propagate opinions expreffive
of liberty, and worthy of freemen!

At fuch a time, too, as this, rambles
in our young nobility, and men of for-
tune, to France, muft inevitably be
warmly efpoufed, with a view, that be-
ing fafcinated with the winning politeness,
and captivated with the alluring refpect
fulness, of thofe flattering and deceitful
people, and being habituated to the sight
of monarchial government, our giddy tra-
veling countrymen may blunt their edu-
cated averfion to arbitrary power, and
perhaps, at length, be tempted to defire
(at any rate be led not to oppose) the
transfufion of the fpirit of the French
conftitution into this free kingdom. To
this end, alfo, French customs must be
cried up, and French policy exalted to the
fkies; French fashions must neceffarily be
in vogue, and French ambassadors be al-
lowed (under the fhallow, though perni-
cious pretence, of the privilege of ambaf-
fadorfhip) to introduce all the tinfel vari-
ety of French manufactures, with the moft
boundless profufion; that thus intoxica-
ted with every thing that is French, the
rifing generation may utterly conquer that

inluperable

Spectability of their offices, and facrificed the eftates which established the present their characters, to the ambitious views conflitution of this realm. of the then tyrannical court of St. James's. But how long did this tranquil face of things continue? fcarcely two years. An inceffant reiteration of the fame injuries that had kindled the general difcontent at firft, foon lighted up thofe flames in which the oppreffive courtiers of thofe days, all perifhed to a man; and even dragged along with them, their unhappy matter.

The people of England are too fenfible of their rights, and too tenacious of their privileges, ever to fuffer minifterial attempts upon their liberties to pass with impunity. Their patience, their regard for the peace of their country, and their duty to their fuperiors, have always engaged them to fufpend, for a while, the effects of their refentment against the minifter who tyrannized over them. They have never rushed into the field whilt there was (and, I trust, never will whilst there is) a fingle ray of hope remaining, of otherwife extricating their country from the difficulties furrounding her. But no dangers, I hope, will ever terrify them from preferving with the fword (fo foon as all other means of fafety fail) thofe liberties that were purchaled by it. And here it may be worthy remarking, that liberty when attacked, is, like every thing elfe, beft retained by thofe means that first fet it up.

The ancestors of the English acquired their immunities with their fwords in their hands. Whenever thofe immunities were violently broken in upon, and no redrefs attained by remonstrances, they righted themselves in the field. Are there, who affirm this to be unlawful! tell me then the difference between an enflaved and a free nation?-the diftinction between an abfolute and a limited government?If freemen have no rights which they are entitled to maintain by the fword (all other means availing nothing) then it is plain they have no rights but what they may be thripped of by a Laud, a Stafford, a Jefferies, or a B *

If we condemn the ufe of the fword, in fupporting the privileges of freemen (when thus fituated) we must condemn the barons that obtained the magna charta of England, the armed parliaments in which it was confirmed, the great men who effected the revolution, and the meeting of

The fundamental principle of a free constitution is, that there is no power within it, that can legally deprive the fubjects of their birthrights, and that the latter may lawfully defend those rights with their fwords, against any power that fhall attempt any infringement of them. So foon as they lofe fight of this principle, they will cease to be freemen. Their minds once enflaved thus, the fetters of minifterial tyranny will be easily forced upon their perfons.

The effence of freedom confilts in freemen engraving on their minds these great principles of liberty, that it is lawful to maintain their privileges in the field a gainft all gainfayers: that their rights ought to be fupported by the last drop of their blood; and, that every, even the fmalleft intentional infringement, of those rights, is an infufferable evil. Whenever they permit these principles to be erafed from their breasts, they funk into a difpirited people; unworthy of retaining their inestimable poffeffions, because unable to cherish the generous purpose of defending them :-- The noble tenure which their ancestors gloried in!-In fuch a cafe, they might probably become martyrs for liberty, but could never poffibly become the affertors of it.

Since, then, the retention of their honourable characteristic, and all that is dear to freemen, depend upon their military temper, and thofe principles that are productive of that courage which is the bafis of their freedom, they ought, for ever to be familiarizing themfelves with ideas of fo important a nature; engraving them till deeper and deeper in their minds; impreffing them on those of their children, and fearching into the annals of their country to fee how their progenitors behaved, when they were curfed with adminiftrations that harboured the most fatal designs, evinced by the most public attacks, upon the liberties of the people: That, ordering their conduct by their example, they may be able to fhun those fnares that the tyranny of minifters may attempt to lay for their undoing; and, like them, tranfmit to after-generations, an unbroken conflitution, and inestimable laws.

The