"history, and I hope without offence *." The Cerberus of faction, finding his felf no longer careffed, no longer the favourite within doors, was willing, at least, to make a noife without. That eloquence too, which cannot command the attention of an audience, might still chance to inflame the paffions of a reader. If here too it should fail, how truly pitiable the author! Gracious Heaven! of what fluff are we made, when the fame human being, in the courfe of eleven short years, can poflefs fuch very different places, in the estimation of his fellow-creatures! I deal in truths-if they be melancholy truths, that man must thank his felf-it is his own fault. Neither can I “pur"chafe the favour of any man, by concealing from him, what I "think his ruin." But, let him remember I tell him, his name already lofes of its influence-even his eloquence, fhorn of its beams, no longer warms, no longer thines-a little time, and he will cease, for ever, to be Lord of the afcendant-he fhall no more dazzle the -eyes of the nations-the Western horizon is now, for the last time, in a blaze with his defcending glory-I fee it gradually finking behind the Atlantic while, unlike that beneficent luminary to which, in its fetting, I compare his former, but always baneful, brightness, he has not the melancholy fatisfaction of appearing greater as he fets!

As we do not value ourselves upon tropes, figures, flourishes, and fine writing, it will not be deemed vanity in us, if, without accufing this writer of plagiarifin, we put him in mind that his concluding allegory bears a very ftriking resemblance to a metaphor of the fame kind applied to Lord Chatham, on the former plan of reconciliation with America; which his Lordfhip offered to the Houfe of Peers, about two years and a half ago. Had Lord Chatham acted confiftently in the course of his political conduct, fays the Reviewer," his setting fun "might have defcended with a radiance proportioned to its "meridian brightness.-As it is, the fplendid orb has loft its "luftre, its path is become dim, and we fee it declining to "the horizon, amidst the obfcurity of clouds, fhadows, and thick darkness."

S.

A Letter to the Earl of Chatham, concerning bis Speech and Motion in the House of Lords, on the memorable goth of May: with fome Obfervations on the Speeches of Lord Gower, the Duke of Grafton, Lord Lyttelton, Lord Camden, Lord Weymouth, The Arch-Bishop of York, Lord Shelburne, and Lord Mansfield. Svo. Is. Evans.

A fhrewd and fpirited remonftrance on Lord Chatham's laft Speech in the houfe of peers, and the debates enfumg.

* Mr. B's Speech, 19 April, 1774, p. 77.

+ Letter, p. 65.

London Review, Vol. I. p. 153.

"I fit

** I fit down," fays this Letter-writer," with an intention to deliver my fentiments to your Lordship, and to the Public, without referve, on a fubject of greater importance than was ever before agitated in this nation. I hope therefore my Epiftle will be read with the attention which the importance of the fubject demands, and that it may not be flightly caft away as the production of a Party- fcribbler. I declare to you, my Lord, on the word of a Gentleman, I have no purpose to answer, no friend to ferve, no party to oblige, in writing this Letter: I have no connexion with Juntos or Cabals of any denomination, I further declare to your Lordship, that I am not a Patriot, even in the best acceptation of the word: Patriotifin ftands upon too narrow a balis. I feel no penchant for the country in which I was born, fufficient to influence my judgement in its favour, in oppofition to reafon and justice; and though I declare myself a friend to the liberties of Mankind, yet I will not grant a fingle jot in favour of America, on the fole plea that he is contending for Liberty. Such, my Lord, is my political creed; and if there be any party in this kingdom willing to fubfcribe to it, of that party I am, and of

no other."

We cannot help thinking that this is going a little too far. There is no occafion for a man, in order to avoid being thought a party fcribbler, to give up his country, to declare himfelf no patriot in the beft acceptation of the word. These Cofinopolites, like the lady in the play, proteft too much. Indeed this profeffed unpatriotic writer in particular expreffes himfelf with a warmth that we can hardly impute to any other motive than perfonal attachment or party zeal. His ftile and manner have by no means the fang froid of univerfal philanthropy about them. They rather glow with the ardour of the amir patria, er burn with the furor uterinus of political partiality.

Setting thefe objections afide, our author appears neither to want judgement nor information; although the wilful perverfion of that judgement and mifconftruction of fuch information are frequently but too apparent.—But to give a fpccimen or two of his addrefs.

"When your Lordship's intention of moving the House of Lords, and of fupporting your motion by your eloquence, was promulgated, the American war was univerfally fuppofed to be your object; and we were naturally led to imagine that you had fome new plan of reconciliation to propofe. We liftened to your Speech with the utmost attention, and, as heretofore, were charmed with your remaining powers of clocution; but your Lordship must pardon me when I tell you, that we were not a little difappointed to hear nothing more than a beautiful harangue, calculated merely to evince the justice,

*Had not our author particularly mentioned this circumftance, we fhould have fufpected him of having fcribbled this fprightly expoftulation, fans pede in una.

0002

the

the policy, the neceffity of lenient measures towards America. I do not mean to accufe your Lordship of want of proper information; but from the general tenor of your fpeech, you feemed to take for granted, that America is ftill inclined to fubmit to the dominion of this country. Now, my Lord, from the best information I can get, I ain clearly of opinion, that America is, at this juncture, abfolutely and pofitively determined, never to fubmit to the dominion of this county on any conditions whatsoever and their reafon for this refoJution is, that England requires of America a total, absolute, abject fubmition, equal to that of any defpotic monarchy in the world."

We will not difpute the authenticity of this writer's information, nor the clearness of his opinion, refpecting the abfolute and pofitiye determinations of America; but we will venture to fay, from our own knowledge, that the fubmiffion required of her is not that abject fubmiffion, he defcribes, and which he afterwards terms perfect fiavery. But be this as it may, it is with much fhrewdness our letter-writer exposes the futility of Lord Chatham's motion at the prefent juncture.

"The purport of your Lordship's motion was, to addrefs the King, to give peace to America on her own terms; and the fum of your reafons for fuch an addrefs was, because the war is unnatural, ruinous, and on our part, unjust. Surely, my Lord, you did not, with your wonted agacity, fully confider the real implication of fuch an addrefs, Would it not be to accufe the wife Legislature of Great Britain of having, in concert with the wifeft Ministry in the world, acted the part of arrant knaves or tools? Would it not be, to confefs that not only the initial battle at Lexington, but everr fubfequent victory, was

a maffacre?

Error is always the child of ignorance, of folly, or of villainy. Did your Lordship imagine that the Miniftry fhould come forward, and declare themfelves fools or rafcals; and that at a time when not only a relpectable majority in both Houfes,, but of the whole Nation, tellity their approbation of every public measure? I fay, my Lord, of the whole nation.

This affertion may poffibly furprife your Lordship, who, from your obiclete notion, that the King has loft the hearts of his fubjects, I prefume, have farely converfed but little with the world. No, my Lord, the dilatisfied party is of late dwindled to a felect few. The cnerality or the people, elpecially in the metropolis, think his Majelly the belt King that ever fat upon the throne, and my Lord North the wifeft Minitter that ever governed this nation; they think, and publicly declare, that every American deferves the gallows; they fimile at the increase of taxes, and pay them with the utmost ala"crity,"

We are glad to find a partizan for the Americans (for we believe our author to be a better patriot than he affects to be) fubfcribe to io juft a reprefentation of the countenance, which the American caule now meets within this country. And indeed, we believe, that if their refractory inclinations had not at

firft

first been foftered and encouraged by mifreprefentations from the mother-country, they would not have rushed so precipitately into the prefent rebellion.-It is true, that our author draws, from the very circumftance he reprefents, a conclufion very unfavourable to the political exiftence of old England.

Your Lordship," fays he, " may poffibly be able, without much reflection, to affign a reafon for a majority in Parliament; but, to find a caufe for a majority out of doors, you must recollect the ancient hiftories of great Empires: you must fix your attention particularly on that period of fuch hiftories, which treats of their incipient declenfion; the caufe or caufes will there ftare you in the face; fuperabundant wealth, univerfal depravity of manners, very little private, and no public virtue, a ridiculous attention to foolish fashions and filly amufements, pufillanimous effeminacy amongst men, female vicious intrepidity, cunning and fraud in every tranfaction, hypocrify in religion, gambling in all shapes, attention only to the prefent moment, a total difregard of pofterity, and a general stupid infenfibility of public danger.

Thefe, your Lordship knows, have ever been the fymptoms of a decline, which always did, and always muft, end in diffolution. There is another, not more equivocal, fymptom of the declenfion of Empires; I mean, the infatuate difregard of all warning. The jovial crew con tinue to laugh and fing, and caroufe, till the very moment the ship ftrikes upon the rock, and the foaming ocean buries them in eternity.

Oblivious of the weak moment (for who is perfect!) in which infidioufnefs itfelf prevailed on you to accept a Peerage and a Penfion, I verily believe you honeft to your Country; and I am fully perfuaded that, if the King had preferred your advice to that of men who want both your abilities and integrity, all would have been well. But the die is now caft, and my prophetic foul dooms this country to gradual deftruction."

Poor, prophetic Soul! There needs no great fpirit of prophecy to predict the gradual deftruction of every political inftitution, however ftable and flourishing. The most extenfive focicties partake of the nature of the individual, and every human being is mortal. It has its gradations of rife, completion, and decay; the queftion is, what is the increment of the fluction? what is the ratio of that celerity, with which it proceeds from its rife to its fall? That this country will not flourish for ever is most certain; but we must confefs, we fee fo few fymptoms of its hafty decline, that its encreafing profperity may continue, as it has done, for ages to give the lie to the political croakers that have fo long prophecied its downfall. Not that we place much hopes on our public fpirit or public virtue. Our political conftitution is certainly reduced to mere matter of form: but we are by no means convinced that there is as little private as public virtue. On the contrary, we

think

think private spirit has increafed as public fpirit has declined; and that open profligacy is not a greater indication of the general wickedness of an age than covert hypocrify. At the fame time we are convinced that the perfonal probity, economy, induftry, and ingenuity, of numerous individuals in this country, afford fuch resources of national power and profit, as not even the profufion of the unprincipled, the prodigal, and the idle, can foon exhauft. How long, indeed, a country may be fupported in profperity, by private virtue, under the influence of public corruption, we prefume not to forefee. And yet we probably can forefee as much of the matter as our prognofticating author, if we may judge by the acumen with which he inveftigates the fubject at prefent before him. In fuch inveftigation, it is true, he drives on at fuch a furious rate that he frequently flounders out of his depth; at the fame time boldly challenging the bett authorities to point out his abfurdity. Thus he tells us, the King's foldiers at Lexington had no legal right to fire on the provincials, till the riot-act had been read by a juftice of peace; and puts the cafe to my Lord Mansfield for his decifion-Again, he doubts whether the prefent armed rioters in America are rebels.

"If," fays he," the prefent war in America be really a Rebellion, it is very extraordinary that your Lordship, and many other refpectable Members of both Houfes, fhould, with perfect fecurity to your perfons, dare to approve their proceedings, and even to advise unconditional redrefs. Was there a Member of either Houle, in the ycar Fifteen, or Forty-five, who would have ventured to fupport the caule of the Scotifh Rebels? Whereas the cause of thefe American Rebels is unrefèrvedly pleaded in Parliament, by Men as fuperior to their epponents, in point of eloquence, as in knowledge and integrity."

This is certainly a curious, though impudent and ungrate fol, pica, and juftly retorted on adminiftration. Their lenity to the avowed advocates for rebels is certainly an argumentative proof either of their confcioulness of error, or their pufilTapimity. Had government acted as fpiritedly and confiftently in regard to the prefent American rebellion as it did in regard to the Scotch rebellion in forty-five, thofe advocates would have been deprived of fo infolent a plea. This writer, however, fhould reflect, that the king's troops in forty-five were not under the command of the civil magiftrite; nor was the riot-act read either at Culloden or Preston.

In giving an account of the debate in the house of lords, the partiality of this writer is moft egregiously manifeft; every peer, that spoke in favour of the Americans, exhibiting, according to him, a mafterpiece of argument and elocution; while every one on the contrary fide of the queftion only expofed his

weakness