faw the fympathizing comforter of the martyrs, who fuffer under the cruel confifcation of this day; whilft they beheld with admiration his zealous protection of the virtuous and loyal nobility of France, and his manly fupport of his brethren, the yet ftanding nobility and gentry of his native land. Then his Grace's merit would be pure and new, and sharp as fresh from the mint of honour. As he pleafed he might refle& honour on his predeceffors, or throw it forward on those who were to fucceed him. He might be the propagater of the stock of honour, or the root of it, as he thought proper.Letter to a noble Lord. REFORMAMION. Short View of the Reformation. GENTLEMEN, the condition of our nature is fuch, that we buy our bleffings at a price. The Reformation, one of the greateft periods of human improvement, was a time of trouble and confufion. The vaft structure of fuperftition and tyranny, which had been for ages in rearing, and which was combined with the intereft of the great and of the many; which was moulded into the laws, the manners, and civil inftitu tions of nations, and blended with the frame and po licy of ftates; could not be brought to the ground without a fearful struggle; nor could it fall without a violent concuffion of itfelf and all about it. When, this great revolution was attempted in a more regular mode by government, it was oppofed by plots and feditions of the people; when by popular efforts, it was repreffed as rebellion by the hand of power; and bloody executions (often bloodily returned) marked the whole of its progress through all its ftages. The affairs of religion, which are no longer heard of in the tumult of our prefent contentions, made a principal ingredient in the wars and politics of that time; the enthufiafm of religion threw a gloom over the politics; and political interefts poisoned and perverted the fpirit of religion upon all fides. The Proteftant religion in that violent ftruggle, infected, as the Popish had been before, by worldly interefts and worldly paf fions, became a perfecutor in its turn, fometimes of the new feets, which carried their own principles further than it was convenient to the original reformers; and always of the body from whom they parted; and this perfecuting spirit arofe, not only, from the bitter nels of retaliation, but from the mercilefs policy of fear. It was long before the fpirit of true piety and true wifdom, involved in the principles of the Reforma. tion, could be depurated from the dregs and feculence of the contention with which it was carried through. However, until this be done, the Reformation is not complete; and thofe who think themfelves good Protéftants, from their animofity to others, are, in that refpect, no Proteftants at all. It was at first thought neceffary, perhaps, to oppofe to Popery another Popery, to get the better of it. Whatever was the cause, laws were made in many countries, and in this kingdom in particular, againft Papifts, which are as bloody as any of those which had been enacted by the popifh princes and ftates; and where thofe laws were not bloody, in my opinion, they were worfe; as they were flow, cruel outrages on our nature, and kept men alive only to infult in their perfons, every one of the rights and feelings of humanity. I pafs those ftatutes, because I would fpare your pious ears the repetition of fuch fhocking things.-Speech at Briftol previous to the Election. ROYAL NEGATIVE. THE king's negative to bills is one of the most indifputed of the royal prerogatives; and it extends to all cafes what foever. Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol. 2 SAXONY. French Principles in that Country. POLAND, with the Elector of Saxony, will contribute most to strengthen the Royal authority of Po, land, or to fhake the Ducal in Saxony. The Elector is a Catholic; the people of Saxony are, fix-fevenths at the very leaft, Proteftants. He must continue a Catholic, according to the Polifh law, if he accepts that crown. The pride of the Saxons, formerly flattered by having a crown in the Houfe of their Prince, though an honour which coft them dear; the German probity, fidelity, and loyalty; the weight of the conftitution of the Empire under the Treaty of Weftphalia; the good temper and good nature of the Princes of the House of Saxony; had formerly removed from the people all apprehenfion with regard to their religion, and kept them perfectly quiet, obedient, and even affectionate. The feven years war made fome change in the minds of the Saxons. They did not, I believe, regret the lofs of what might be confidered almoft as the fucceffion to the Crown of Poland, the poffeffion of which, by annexing them to a foreign intereft, had often obliged them to act an arduous part, towards the fupport of which that foreign intereft afforded no proportionable ftrength. In this very delicate fituation of their political interefts, the fpeculations of the French and German Oeconomists, and the cabals, and the fecret as well as public doctrines of the Illuminatenordens and Freemafons, have made a confiderable progrefs in that country, and a turbulent fpirit, under colour of religion, but in reality arifing from the French Rights of Man, has already fhewn itself, and is ready on every occafion to blaze out.Memorial on the Affairs of France in 1791. SITUATION. THE fituation of man, is the preceptor of his duty. SALARY. A Security against Avarice and Rapacity. I WILL even go fo far as to affirm, that if men were willing to ferve in fuch fituations (offices of ftate) without falary, they ought not to be permitted to do it. Ordinary service must be fecured by the motives. to ordinary integrity. I do not hesitate to say that, that state which lays its foundation in rare and heroic virtues, will be fure to have its fuperftructure in the bafest profligacy and corruption. An honourable and fair profit is the beft fecurity against avarice and rapacity; as in all things elfe, a lawful and regulated enjoyment is the beft fecurity againft debauchery and excefs. For as wealth is power, fo all power will infallibly draw wealth to itself by fome means or other; and when men are left no way of afcertaining their profits but by their means of obtaining them, those means will be increafed to infinity.Oecon. Reform. SECRETARY OF STATE A Secretary of State muft not appear fordid in the eyes of the Ministers of other nations.-Oeconomical Reform. SOCIETY. THE retrogate order of fociety has fomething flattering to the difpofitions of mankind.-Letter to a Member of the National Affembly. SOCIETY A Contract. SOCIETY is indeed a contract. Subordinate con tracts for objects of more occafional interest may be depofited at pleasure, but the state ought not to be confidered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico or to bacco, or fome other fuch low concern, to be taken up for a little temporary intereft, and to be diffolved by the fancy of the parties. It is to be looked on with other reverence; because it is not a partnership in things fubfervient only to the grofs animal exift, ence of a temporary and perishable nature. It is a partnership in all fcience; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of fuch a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnerfhip not only between thofe who are living, but between thofe who are living, thofe who are dead, and those who are to be born. Each contract of each particular flate is but a clause in the great primæval contract of eternal fociety, linking the lower with the higher natures, connecting the vifible and invifible world, according to a fixed compact fanctioned by the inviolable oath which holds all phyfical and all moral natures, each in their appointed place. This law is not fubject to the will of thofe, who by an obligation above them, and infinitely fuperior, are bound to fubmit their will to that law. The municipal corporations of that univerfal kingdom are not morally at liberty at their pleasure, and on their speculations of a contingent improvement, wholly to feparate and tear afunder the bands of their fubordinate commu. nity, and to diffolve it into an unfocial, uncivil, unconnected chaos of elementary principles. It is the firft and fupreme neceffity only, a neceffity that is not chofen but choofes, a neceffity paramount to deliberation, that admits no difcuffion, and demands no evidence, which alone can jnftify a refort to anarchy. This neceffity is no exception to the rule; because this neceffity itself is a part too of that moral and phyfical difpofition of things to which man muft be obedient by confent or force; but if that which is only fubmiffion to neceffity fhould be made the object of choice, the law is broken, nature is dif obeyed, and the rebellious are outlawed, caft forth, |