Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

Governor's behaviour was furely not only illegal, but brutal, and indecent.

So great was the Bishop's attachment to his flock, that no temptation could feduce him from their service. He more than once refufed the offer of an English bishopric.

There is an anecdote of his Lordship and Cardinal Fleury, which does great credit to them both. The Cardinal wanted much to see him, and fent over on purpose to enquire after his health, his age, and the date of his confecration, as they were the two oldeft bishops, and he believed the pooreft, in Europe; at the fame time inviting him to France. The Bishop fent the Cardinal an answer, which gave him fo high an opinion of him, that the Cardinal obtained an order that no French privateer fhould ravage the Isle of Man.'

This good Prelate lived till the year 1755, dying at the advanced age of 93.

Though the Bishop's writings bear no great marks of shining abilities, yet they breathe fuch a genuine fpirit of unaffected piety and benevolence, as cannot fail to afford pleasure in the perufal. With respect to fome speculative points, widely as we may differ from this very excellent man, we are ready to acknowledge, that in his life and manners he has left an example of primitive and apostolical fimplicity that will rarely be equalled.

The following fhort fpecimen will convey fome idea of the ftyle and manner of his pulpit compofitions, in which he made it a rule to avoid all deep and unufeful fpeculations; all matters of controverfy that do not neceffarily offer themfelves; and all juvenile affectation of fine language, wit, and learning.'

You will remember, that every man is your neighbour and your brother, who may be benefited by your love. That God is our common Father, and that all we are brethren. That we are all members of the fame body, of which Jefus Chrift is the head. That God has fo ordered matters, that the members of this body should depend one upon another. That the poor fhould depend upon the rich for their fubfiftence; and the rich, whatever they think of it, fhall receive a greater advantage from the prayers of the poor. You will then call to mind how you are to exprefs your love to your neighbour. The command fays, YOU ARE TO LOVE HIM AS YOURSELF. You know, without a teacher, how you love yourfelf; that you wish and take fatisfaction in your own welfare and profperity. That you are forry when any evil or mischief befalls yourself. You do not love to have your own faults aggravated, or your good name abused; and how ready you are to find excuses for your own mistakes. In fhort, you know very well how you would have others to fhew their love for you. And that it is no small

comfort

comfort for the ignorant and unlearned, that their duty is contained in fo few words, and that they can easily understand it, by confidering how they love, how they would be dealt with themselves!' Vol. II. p. II.

ART. V. An Inquiry into the Origin and Confequences of the Influence of the Crown over Parliament. Submitted to the Confideration of the Electors of Great Britain. 8vo. I s. 6d. DodЛley. 1780.

TH

HIS Inquirer does not fhew much judgment in the choice of a guide to fet out with; for Pope, though a polifhed poet, and a well-informed moralift, was certainly a fplenetic fatirift, and nurfed in the bofom of the Romish church. That he poffeffed not a political idea, is manifeft from the very couplet which the Writer adopts as a fundamental maxim:

[ocr errors]

For forms of government let fools conteft,
Whate'er is beft adminifter'd is beft.''

It is our humble opinion, that a fentiment more fuperficial, more false, or more dangerous to freedom, was never broached. It was not thus that enlightened Greeks and Romans thought of government; it was not thus that any of the great conftitutional lights and oracles of our own country have thought of it: they ever held it infinitely more effential to establish, preserve, or restore a free form of government, than to contend for the choice of an administration.

Much as we admire philofophy, we cannot take any pleasure in the extreme indifference with which this Writer feems to contemplate the approaching, and, as he thinks, inevitable, death of the political body; nor do we feel ourselves convinced by his reafons for diffuading us from every attempt to shorten the duration of parliaments, or to amend the ftate of reprefentation, as being violent remedies, which will probably be too ftrong for an enfeebled conftitution, and at that period of age when cordials and lenitives only fhould be applied."

As thefe are days of fufpicion, we with our Author would explain the two words we have printed in Italics.

We have got, it feems, a bold Inquirer to deal with; for he takes upon him to inquire how far parliaments are in themfelves adapted to the actual state of the British empire;' which parliaments, by the way, he very coolly treats as mere accidental branches of a barbarous Gothic fyftem of government, which is now fo entirely changed from its original inftitution, that no inference can be drawn from thence applicable to its prefent ftate."'

This will perhaps fmell a little too much of political Popery in the noftrils of unrefined, old-fashioned Englishmen. REV. Jan. 1781.

C

Our

Our profound Inquirer tells us, that this country has been evidently brought into its prefent unhappy fituation by the war with America;' while fome fhallow politicians will have it, that it has been occafioned by a combination of caufes; among which they reckon a previous debt of 140 millions, an influence in the crown over parliament previously established, parliaments previously lengthened, and reprefentation previously abridged.

But by the time the Reader arrives at p. 37, he is to learn from our Inquirer, that it is not the American war which has brought our evils upon us, but that it is influence; and that fhortening the duration of parliaments, or changing the manner of choofing representatives, are partial and ineffectual appli cations,

Which will but skin and film the ulcerous part,

While rank corruption, mining all within,

Infects unfeen.'

The malady lies deeper; it lies in the character and principles of the people.'

What were but a moment ago 'violent remedies,' are now, on a fudden, become gentle cordials and lenitives; they were firft too ftrong;' now they are not ftrong enough, and mere partial and ineffectual applications.' Our Author's only fovereign remedy, it feems, is a return to wisdom and virtue in the people; and yet the very act which evidently would argue the greatest wisdom and the moft virtuous difpofition in the people, viz. a conftitutional reformation of the legislature, he does all he can to diffuade them from. What he fays on the neceffity of virtue in the people we highly approve, except that he carries it not far enough; for that which he inculcates seems to be merely the virtue of MEN excluded from thofe privileges which bring with them the duties of CITIZENS.-Of the rights of citizens, by which they claim, as an unalienable birthright, a fhare, either perfonally or by representation, in the government of their country, this Inquirer seems to have no idea.

With regard to that reverence for their governors,' which our Writer thinks fo effential in the people, we believe it is infeparable from the character of any people, fo long as thofe on their part reverence the conflitution, and hold facred the form of government entrusted to their care and direction. But were governors to feek to destroy them, in order to infave their country, it would denote bafenefs and folly to make fuch governors the objects of reverence. The criterion of political virtue in a people, we apprehend to be-not reverence for men, for the laws.

but

As the objections of our fagacious Inquirer to shortening the duration of parliaments, although neither new nor unanfwered, are yet of a most fingular nature, we shall once more

endeavour

[ocr errors]

endeavour to do juftice to them. He fays, elections would either become matters of fo much indifference, that the people would not attend to them;' or else they would be fo much the reverse, as to be conftant fcenes of riot and oppofition.' This is drawing confequences with a witnefs! Don't, fays the Doctor, eradicate from your conftitution a known and deftructive difeafe by the fimpleft of all remedies, left it fhould either freeze the blood in your veins, or throw you into a burning fever. 'Tis a curious caufe indeed, that must neceffarily produce either fire or froft! But our Inquirer has another paradox, as good as this. Firft, fays he, if you reftore annual elections, private fortunes would not be able to ftand against the public purfe in the hands of the minifter, when contefts were frequently repeated.' In other words, Annual parliaments would annihilate oppofition to minifters, and give them the fame permanency in office as in arbitrary governments.' Then, turn but over the leaf, and there you are told, that annual parliaments would prevent the government's having any connections with foreign ftates. For [fuch would be the inftability of minifters] they would never know with what fet of men they should

treat.

As he who proves too much defeats himself, we do not apprehend our very philofophic Inquirer will raife up to himself any opponent among the friends to thofe reforms of our decayed conftitution, which it is his aim to difcourage. If they make him any addrefs, it will probably be to write again. He who employs near twenty pages in recommending it to us to abolish parliaments, instead of reforming them, will not, we truft, find many difciples amongst Englishmen. Forefeeing this, he beflows on them his philofophic pity, and obferves, that a nation cannot at once fee the advantages propofed by any effential change; and therefore prudence would make them cautious of trying the experiment; and there will be always ftill more objections arifing from prejudice, intereft, and pride. REFORMATION is a work of time, and is more frequently brought to pafs by circumstances and accident [fuch, we fuppofe, as the late riots, which furnished fo convenient a pretence for putting the ftate into the hands of fuch reformers as this gentleman's fcheme requires], than by any previous and fettled plan.'

The efforts of many virtuous perfons towards re-edifying parliaments, and fixing them once more on their ancient foundations, have been called factious and treafonable attempts at innovations in our government; their motions have been narrowly and anxiously watched; and storms of court thunder and lightning have appeared to gather over their heads: but the philofophic Inquiry before us, openly, directly, and fedulously pro

C 2

pofing

pofing aud recommending a total ABOLITION of parliaments, has now been published and difperfed fome months, without having, fo far as we know, called forth the flighteft cenfure from the court or its minifters.

ART. VI. The Travels of Reason in Europe. Tranflated from the French of the Marquis Carraccioli. Small 8vo. 3 s. bound. Macgowan.

TH

1780.

HIS is a fuperficial, and in many refpects a partial performance. The Author affects the ftyle and manner of Voltaire; but he is only the fhadow of that admired writer. His REASON, inftead of travelling through Europe with the föber ftep and grave countenance of a difcerning philofopher, dances hither and thither with all the light fantaftic airs of a French fop. This flimfy being appears doubly ridiculous, by ftopping frequently to drop fage reflections, and moral aphorifms, with a fort of a wife and philofophic afpect. As a fpecimen of his talent in making of proverbs, we need go no farther than the first page of his preface. Truth is generally found in the mid-way between panegyric and fatire.' "The language of Reason will ever be that of fincerity."' • Brevity is a merit, especially in a fuperficial age.' Happy the writer who fays much in few words.' The greateft part of books are of no ufe to the readers.' Men are attached to popular opinions or national prejudices, instead of adhering to truth alone.'-All this we knew before; and Reafon need not have travelled very far to make the difcovery. The work now under confideration is full of these trite faws and hackneyed maxims.

The Author bath given a very unfavourable account of the difpofition and character of the English. He enlarges on the inftability of their political attachments; but his inftances are far from being decifive of the general complexion of the people. He is a bad logician who argues from particulars to univerfals.

The Author's extravagant encomiums on monarchs are not the dictates of unperverted Reafon. He forgot his own maxims.

His flattering views of the French (which aim at impartiality, by intermixing now and then a dark line, which is loft in a whole profpect) are no proofs of found reason. The hightrained compliments lavished on the Emprefs-queen of Hungary were evidently defigned to facilitate his court to the Queen of France. Can any reasonable man imagine, that REASON could have left in its pocket-book fuch a note as the following- The Emprefs-queen of Hungary neither hearkens to prejudice

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »