A THOROUGH REFORM OF PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES, AMONG ALL RANKS OF PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THE KINGDOM! Let the King and Queen continue to fet an exam. ple of Piety, Regularity, Sobriety, and conjugal fidelity, to their children, their fervants, and all their fubjects. Let them drive from their Councils, and their Court, all adulterers and adultereffes; all gamblers; all, in fhort, whofe characters are notoriously bad, of either fex, and of every rank. Let them avoid even innocent amufements, if liable to produce immorality among others, which, alas is too often the cafe. "Oh hard condition, twin-born with Greatnefs! I can take my Sunday evening's walk, chat with my neighbours, and view the beauties of nature, and no harm done. But if my gracious Sovereign could fee but a fmall part of the confufion, idleness, drunkenness, difregard of the Sabbath, and other incalculable ill effects which are produced not only in Windfor, Eton, and the whole neighbourhood, but even in his capital itself, by his merely appear. ing on Windfor Terrace; how gladly would he give up for the good of his People, that heart-felt fatisfaction, which he has fo often felt, from-" Read"ing his history in a nation's eyes!" Let his Majesty's deputy in this kingdom obferve the fame rules. Let him recollect that, as he repre fents sents the power, he fhould alfo reprefent the virtues of his Sovereign; that he is equally obliged to be watchful over his conduct, fo as to give no countenance to the contempt of religion, the neglect of its ordinances, the violation of its Sabbaths, the defertion of its temples, for which all claffes of people are, I am afraid, but too univerfally diftinguishable. Let him recollect, that he alfo is a fpectacle to the people, and that his conduct is a caufe either of offence and degeneracy, or of edification and improvement to the nation over which he prefides. And if ever thefe fheets fhould meet his eyes, let him be affured that these exhortations are not meant for reproof, as if he failed, but as incitements to redoubled attention to thefe important points, towards which, in the high ranks of female fociety, as fuch an example is, alas! but too neceffary, fo is he effectually affifted by his virtuous and amiable confort. Let every Member of Parliament, whether Peer or Commoner, reflect on the awful truft committed to his care, and attend diligently to the execution of it. Not merely when a political difpute arifes, but conftantly and uniformly. Let no act receive its fiat, without a strict fcrutiny into its merits. Let them revife, cuftail, and methodise the whole code of ftatute law, whofe bulk and confufion is fuch, that I fear we may almost fay "Mole ruit fuâ!" If but a fmall part of that time, and those talents, which are wafted in long-winded harangues, and and bitter difputations, were thus applied; our laws would acquire clearnefs, precifion, and vigour. The number, the length, and the expence of our fuits, would no more be the reproach of our nation. Imagination itself can hardly embrace the variety and the magnitude of the national benefits, which would be thereby produced. Let thofe, to whom the administration of the executive government is committed, learn by dearbought and fatal experience, that their own arm cannot fave them; and that human laws and human power can avail nothing, without found principles and pure morals; and let them, therefore, without delay, bend the whole force of their talents to the reformation of thefe. As for those who, from motives of perfonal ambition, advancement, or gain; from private pique, or party prejudice, or any other finifter defign; are ready to facrifice the public good, to their private views; it is vain to waste words on them,—their confciences must be feared with a hot iron. To thofe, on whom Providence has bestowed rank, or honour, or wealth, or any other useful talent, and who have not quite forgot who is the Giver of all good gifts, I next addrefs myself; earnestly entreating them to withdraw their minds, for one moment, from all other purfuits, and to confider their own fituation, and that of their country and of the furrounding nations. Where are now the rank, the honours, and the wealth of France, of Flanders, of Holland, and of Italy? And where muft muft thofe of Britain fhortly be; if their poffeffors will neither take warning from the fate of others, nor from the judgments of Heaven, juft ready to fall on their own heads? It is yet in their power to fave their country, and their own fouls: but not a moment must be loft. Let them inftantly quit the dice box, the turf, and the tavern; every wicked, and every trifling employment, and repair each to his proper ftation. Let them reform, firft themfelves, their expences, their wives and children, their fervants and dependents; and then exert all their influence, as landlords, as magiftrates, as friends, and as neighbours; encouraging and protecting the fober and induftrious; difcouraging and punishing, with candour, but with vigour, the lawless and profligate. Few of thofe, to whom I am now speaking, are aware how much mifchief they occafion, merely by being in a wrong place; or how much good they must do, if they would only stay where their lot has fallen. It was the obfervation of a man of much good fenfe and experience,-" That, if every gentleman would refide on his eftate, and every clergyman on his living, we fhould need no other Reformation." Let thofe, then, who fly to towns and cities, to public places, or foreign countries, in fearch of paltry amusements, or under a false pretext, or at best a mistaken notion, of repairing their fhattered fortunes; no longer think themselves guiltless.-Numberlefs are the ways in which their Country is injured by their abfence: If refident at their family feats, their example, their influence, influence, their fortune,-every talent they poffefs, difpenfes blessings on all around them. In any other place, they almoft unavoidably do mifchief, by adding to the number of thofe, whom the vices of cities inevitably corrupt. But if purer motives cannot prevail, let pride plead the caufe of patriotifm. In a country like ours and Great Britain, a country gentleman is the first of all characters; and truly, when we view him feated in the manfion of his ancestors, furrounded by his family, his relations, his fervants, his work. men, his tenants and his neighbours, all in their due proportion, partaking of his hofpitality, benevo lence and protection, where fhall we find a more enviable object? But merely shift the fcene, and place him in the capital, often in an inconvenient and incommodious house, or paltry lodgings; where now are his honors, his influence, his respectability? All vanished and loft in the crowd. He becomes at once a mere cypher without use or value; fpending his days in a club room, and his evenings in the tavern, or at the card table; and that income, which before promifed him and others fo much folid and fubftantial comfort, will barely fupply what are deemed the necessary ornaments and amufements of life. Meantime, his fervants are tainted with the vices of the town, and infected with the dangerous fpirit of the day; and it is well if his wife and daughter are preferved uninjured; their health certainly is not. Then bathing, or the wells, are ordered, and he is fent with all his incumbrances to England or to the fea, |