must be put out of the poffibility of danger,. Then they form a natural rampart about the lefler properties in all their gradations. The fame quantity of property, which is by the natural courfe of things divided among many, has not the fame operation. Its defenfive power is weakened as it is diffufed. In this diffufion each man's portion is lefs than what, in the eagerness of his defires, he may flatter himfelf to obtain by diffipating the accumulations of others.The plunder of the few would indeed give but a fhare inconceivably fmall in the diftribution to the many. But the many are not capable of making this calculation; and those who lead them to rapine, never intend this diftribution.

The power of perpetuating our property in our families, is one of the moft valuable and interefting circumstances belonging to it, and that which tends the moft to the perpetuation of fociety itfelf. It makes our weaknefs fubfervient to our virtue; it grafts benevolence even upon avarice. The poffeffors of family wealth, and of the diftinction which attends hereditary poffeffion, (as most concerned in it) are the natural fecurities for this tranfmiffion.With us, the Houfe of Peers is formed upon this principle. It is wholly compofed of hereditary property and hereditary diftin&tion; and made therefore the third of the Legiflature; and in the laft event, the fole judge of all property in all its fubdivifions. The Houfe of Commons too, though not neceffarily, yet in fact is always fo compofed in the far greater part. Let thofe large proprietors be what they will, and they have their chance of being among the beft, they are at the very worst, the ballaft in the veffel of the commonwealth. For though. hereditary wealth, and the rank which goes with it, are too much idolized by creeping fycophants, and the blind abject admirers of power, they are too rafhly flighted in fhallow fpeculations of the petulant, affuming, fhort-fighted coxcombs of philofophy. Some decent regulated pre

eminence, fome preference (not exclufive appropriation) given to birth, is neither unnatural, nor unjuft, nor impolitic.-Reflections on the Revolution in France,

POLISH REVOLUTION.

THE ftate of Poland was fuch, that there could fcarcely exift two opinions, but that a reformation of its conftitution, even at fome expence of blood, might be feen without much difapprobation. No confufion could be feared in fuch an enterprize; becaufe the establishment to be reformed was itself a ftate of confufion. A king without authority; nobles without union or fubordination; a people without arts, induftry, commerce, or liberty; no order within; no defence without; no effective public force,. but a foreign force, which entered a naked country at will, and difpofed of every thing at pleasure.Here was a ftate of things which feemed to invite, and might perhaps juftify, bold enterprize and defperate experiment. But in what manner was this chaos brought into order? The means were as ftriking to the imagination, as fatisfactory to the reason, and foothing to the moral fentiments. In contemplating that change, humanity has every thing to rejoice and to glory in; nothing to be afhamed of, nothing to fuffer. So far as it has gone, it probably is the most pure and defecated public good which has ever been conferred on mankind. We have seen anarchy and fervitude at once removed; a throne ftrengthened for the protection of the people, without trenching on their liberties; all foreign cabal banished, by changing the crown from elective to hereditary; and what was a matter of pleafing wonder, we have seen a reigning king, from an heroic love to his country, exerting himfelf with all the toil, the dexterity, the management, the intrigue, in favour of a family of trangers, with which ambitious men labour for the aggrandifement of their own. Ten millions of men

in a way of being freed gradually, and therefore fafely to themselves and the ftate, not from civil or political chains, which, bad as they were, could not bind the mind, but from fubftantial perfonal bondage. Inhabitants of cities, before without privileges, placed in the confideration which belongs to that improved and connecting fituation of focial life. One of the most proud, numerous, and fierce bodies of nobility and gentry ever known in the world, arranged only in the foremost rank of free and generous citizens. Not one man incurred lofs, or fuffered degradation. All, from the king to the day labourer, were improved in their condition. Every thing was kept in its place and order; but in that place and order every thing was bettered. To add to this happy wonder, this unheard-of conjunction of wisdom and fortune, not one drop of blood was fpilled; no treachery; no outrage; no fyftem of flander, more cruel than the fword; no ftudied infults on religion, morals, or manners; no fpoil; no confifcation; no citizen beggared; none imprifoned; none exiled: the whole was effected with a policy, a discretion, an unanimity and fecrefy, fuch as have never been before known on any occafion; but fuch wonderful conduct was referved for this glorious confpiracy in favour of the true and genuine rights and interests of men. Happy people, if they know to proceed as they have begun! Happy prince, worthy to begin with fplendor, or to clofe with glory, a race of patriots and of kings; and to leave

A name, which every wind to heav'n'would bear,
Which men to speak, and angels joy to hear.

To finish all—this great good, as in the inftant it is, contains in it the feeds of all further improvement, and may be confidered as in a regular progrefs, becaufe founded on fimilar principles, towards the ftable excellence of a Britifh conftitution.

Here was a matter for congratulation and for feftiva remembrance through ages. Here moralifts and

divines might indeed relax in their temperance to exhilarate their humanity.--Appeal from the new to the old Whigs.

POLISH AND FRENCH REVOLUTION COMPARED. THEY (the French faction) cannot pretend that France had flood fo much in need of a change as Poland. They cannot pretend that Poland has not obtained a better fyftem of liberty or of government than it enjoyed before. They cannot affert, that the Polifh revolution coft more dearly than that of France to the interefts and feelings of multitudes of men. But the cold and fubordinate light in which they look upon the one, and the pains they take to preach up the other of these revolutions, leave us no choice in fixing on their motives. Both revolutions profess liberty as their object; but in obtaining this object the one proceeds from anarchy to order: the other from order to anarchy. The firft fecures its liberty by establishing its throne; the other builds its freedom on the fubverfion of its monarchy. In the one their means are unftained by crimes, and their fettlement favours morality. In the other, vice and confufion are in the very effence of their purfuit and of their enjo. ment. The circumftances in which thefe two events differ, muft caufe the difference we make in their comparative eftimation. These turn the scale with the focieties in favour of France. Ferrum eft quod amant. The frauds, the violences, the facrileges, the havock and ruin of families, the difperfion and exile of the pride and flower of a great country, the diforder, the confufion, the anarchy, the violation of property, the cruel murders, the inhuman confifcations, and in the end the infolent domination of bloody, ferocious, and fenfelefs clubs. Thefe are the things which they love and admire. What men admire and love, they would furely act. Let us fee what is done in France; and

then let us undervalue any the flighteft danger of falling into the hands of fuch a mercilefs and favage faction Regicide Peace.

POLAND. (SEE SAXONY.)

POLAND, from one caufe or other, is always unquiet. The new conflitution only ferves to fupply that reftlefs people with new means, at lealt new modes, of cherifhing their turbulent difpofition. The bottom of the character is the fame. Memorial on

the Affairs of France in 1791.

1

POWER.

Always accompanied by Terror.

I KNOW fome people are of opinion, that no awe, no degree of terror, accompanies the idea of power; and have hazarded to affirm, that we can contemplate the idea of God himfelf, without any fuch emotion. I purpofely avoided, when I firlt confidered this fubject, to introduce the idea of that great and tremendous Being, as an example in an argument fo light as this; though it frequently occurred to me, not as an objection to, but as a ftrong confirmation of, my notions in this matter. I hope, in what I am going to fay, I fhall avoid prefumption, where it is almoft impoffible for any mortal to fpeak with ftrict propriety. I fay then, that whilft we confider the Godhead merely as he is an object of the understanding, which forms a complex idea of power, wifdom, juftice, goodnefs, all ftretched to a degree far exceeding the bounds of our comprehenfion, whilft we confider the Divinity in this refined and abftracted light, the imagination and paffions are little or nothing affected. But because we are bound, by the condition of our nature, to afcend to these pure and intellectual ideas, through the medium of fenfible images, and to judge of thefe divine qualities by their evident acts and exertions, it becomes extreinely hard to difentangle our