other, with the means of better information. The authority of fuch perfons will always have fome weight. It may ftand upon a par with the fpeculations of those who are lefs practifed in bufinefs; and who, with perhaps purer intentions, have not fo effectual means of judging. It is, besides, an effect of vulgar and puerile malignity to imagine, that every ftatefman is of course corrupt, and that his opinion, upon every conftitutional point, is folely formed upon fome finifter intereft.

The next favourite remedy is a place-bill. The fame principle guides in both; I mean, the opinion which is entertained by many, of the infallibility of laws and regulations, in the cure of public diftempers. Without being as unreasonably doubtful as many are unwifely confident, I will only fay, that this alfo is a matter very well worthy of ferious and mature reflection. It is not eafy to foresee what the effect would be of difconnecting with parliament, the greatest part of those who hold civil employments, and of fuch mighty and important bodies as the military and naval establishments. It were better, perhaps, that they fhould have a corrupt intereft in the forms of the conftitution, than that they fhould have none at all. This is a queftion altogether different from the difqualification of a particular defcription of revenue officers from feats in parliament; or, perhaps, of all the lower forts of them from votes in elections. In the former cafe, only the few are affected; in the latter, only the inconfiderable. But a great official, a great profeffional, a great military and naval intereft, all neceffarily comprehending many people of the first weight, ability, wealth, and fpirit, has been gradually formed in the kingdom. These new interefts must be let into a fhare of reprefentation, elfe poffibly they may be inclined to destroy those institutions of which they are not permitted to partake. This is not a thing to be trifled

1

with; nor is it every well-meaning man, that is fit to put his hands to it.Thoughts on the Caufe of the prefent Difcontents.

PARLIAMENT.

Character of Parliament at the Commencement of the French Revolution.

UPON a view indeed of the compofition of all parties, he (Mr. Burke) finds great fatisfaction. It is, that in leaving the fervice of his country, he leaves parliament without all comparison richer in abilities than he found it. Very folid and very brilliant talents diftinguish the minifterial benches. The oppofite rows are a fort of feminary of genius, and have brought forth fuch and fo great talents as never before (amongst us at least) have appeared together. If their owners are difpofed to ferve their country, (he trufts they are) they are in a condition to render it fervices of the highest importance. If, through mistake or paffion, they are led to contribute to its ruin, we fhall at leaft have a confolation denied to the ruined country that adjoins us-we fhall not be destroyed by men of mean or fecondary capacities. -Appeal from the New to the Old Wigs.

PARLIAMENT, (MEMBERS OF.)

To be a good member of parliament is, let me tell you, no eafy tafk; efpecially at this time, when there is fo ftrong a difpofition to run into the perilous extremes of fervile compliance, or wild popularity. To unite circumfpection with vigour, is abfolutely neceffary; but it is extremely difficult. We are now members for a rich commercial city, (Bristol) this city, however, is but a part of a rich commercial nation, the interefts of which are various, multiform, and intricate. We are members for that great nation which, however, is itself but part of a great empire, extended by our virtue and our fortune to the fartheft limits of the east and of the weft. All these

wide-fpread interefts must be confidered; muft be compared; must be reconciled, if poffible. We are members for a free country; and furely we all know that the machine of a free conftitution is no fimple thing; but as intricate and as delicate, as it is valuable. We are members in a great and antient MONARCHY; and we must preferve religiously the true legal rights of the fovereign, which form the key-ftone that binds together the noble and well-conftructed arch of our empire and our conftitution. A conftitution made up of balanced powers, muft ever be a critical thing. As fuch I mean to touch that part of it which comes within my reach." Speech at the clofe of the poll at Bristol.

POLITY OF THE SEVERAL COUNTRIES OF

EUROPE.

THE whole of the polity and economy of every country in Europe have been derived from the fame fources. They were drawn from the old Germanic or Gothic cuftumary; from the feudal inftitutions which must be confidered as an emanation from thofe cuftoms; and the whole has been improved and digefted into fyftem and difcipline by the Roman law. From hence arofe the feveral orders, with or without a Monarch, which are called States in every country; the ftrong traces of which, where Monarchy predominated, were never wholly extinguished or merged in defpotifm. In the few places where Monarchy was caft off, the fpirit of European Monarchy was ftill left. Those countries ftill contiued countries of States, that is, of claffes, orders and diftinctions, fuch as had before fubfifted, or nearly fo. Indeed the force and form of the inftitution called States, continued in greater perfection in thofe republican countries than under Monarchies. From all thofe fources arofe a fyftem of manners and of education which was nearly fimilar in all countries, and which

foftened, blended, and harmonized the colours of the whole. There was little difference in the form of their Universities for the education of their youth, whether with regard to faculties, to fciences, or to that erudition which is ufed to impart, with liberal morals, a kind of elegance to the mind. From this refemblance in the modes of intercourfe, and in the whole form and fashion of life, no citizen of Europe could be altogether an exile in any part of it. There nothing more than a pleafing variety to recreate and inftruct the mind; to enrich the imagination; and to meliorate the heart. When a man travelled or refided for health, pleafure, bufinefs or neceffity, from his own country, he never felt himfelf quite abroad. My friend, Mr. Wyld, the late profeffor of law in Edinburgh, a young man of infinite promife, and whofe lofs at this time is ineftimable, has beautifully applied two lines of Ovid to this unity and diverfity in Europe, before the curfe of the French Revolution had fallen upon us all.

"Facies non omnibus una;

"Nec diverfa tamen; qualem decet effe fororum."

PRINCIPLES.

Regicide Peace.

GENERAL principles cannot be debauched or corrupted by in or caprice.-Oecon. Reform.

PRINCIPLES (PROPAGATION OF.)

THEY who have made but fuperficial ftudies in the natural hiftory of the human mind, have been taught to look on religious opinions as the only caufe of enthufiaftic zeal, and fectarian propagation. But there is no doctrine whatever, on which men can warm, that is not capable of the very fame effect. The focial nature of man impels him to propagate his principles.-Regicide Peace.

PALACES.

OUR palaces are vaft inhofpitable halls. There the bleak winds, there" Boreas, and Eurus, and "Caurus, and Argeftes loud," howling through the vacant lobbies, and clattering the doors of deferted guard rooms, appal the imagination, and conjure up the grim fpectres of departed tyrants-the Saxon, the Norman, and the Dane; the ftern Edwards and fierce Henries-who ftalk from defolation to defolation, through the dreary vacuity, and melancholy fucceffion of chill and comfortlefs chambers. When this tumult fubfides, a dead, and ftill more frightful filence would reign in this defert, if every now and then the tacking of hammers did not announce, that thofe conftant attendants upon all courts in all ages, Jobs, were ftill alive; for whofe fake alone it is, that any trace of ancient grandeur is fuffered to remain. These palaces are a true emblem of fome governments; the inhabitants are decayed, but the governors and magiftrates ftill flourish. They put me in mind of Old Sarum, where the reprefentatives, more in number than the conftituents, only ferve to inform us, that this was once a place of trade, and founding with the bufy hum of men," though now you can only trace the ftreets by the colour of the corn; and its fole manufacture is in members of parliament.Oecon. Reform.

PENSIONS.

INDEED no man knows, when he cuts off the incitements to a virtuous ambition, and the juft rewards of public fervice, what infinite milchief he may do his country, through all generations. Such faving to the public may prove the wort mode of robbing it. The crown, which has in its hands the trust of the daily pay for national fervice, ought to have in its hands alfo the means for the repole of public labour, and the fixed fettlement of acknow