tants on all fides. It is for chriftian ftatefmen, as the world is now circumftanced, to fecure their com mon bafis, and not to rifque the fubverfion of the whole fabric by pursuing thefe diftinctions with an ill-timed zeal. We have in the prefent grand alliance, all modes of government as well as all modes of religion. In government, we mean to reftore that which, notwithstanding our diverfity of forms we are all agreed in, as fundamental in government. The fame principle ought to guide us in the religious part; conforming the node, not to our particular ideas (for in that point we have no ideas in common) but to what will beft promote the great general ends of the alliance. As ftatefmen we are to fee which of thofe modes beft fuits with the interefts of fuch a commonwealth as we wifh to fecure and promote. There can be no doubt, but that the catholic religion, which is fundamentally the religion of France, muft go with the Monarchy of France; we know that the Monarchy did not furvive the Hierarchy, no not even in appearance, for many months; in fubftance, not for a fingle hour. As little can it exift in future, if that pillar is taken away; or even fhattered and impaired. -Memorial on the Affairs of France in 1792. WALES. Sketch of Welch Hiftory.. My next example is Wales. This country was faid to be reduced by Henry the Third. It was faid more truly to be fo by Edward the First. But though then conquered, it was not looked upon as any part of the realm of England. Its old conftitution, whatever that might have been, was destroyed; and no good one was fubftituted in its place. The care of that tract was put into the hands of lords marchersa form of government of a very fingular kind; a frange heterogeneous monfter, fomething between hoftility and government; perhaps it has a fort of refemblance, according to the modes of thofe times, to that of commander in chief at prefent, to whom all civil power is granted as fecondary. The manners of the Welfh nation followed the genius of the government: the people were ferocious, reftive, favage, and uncultivated; fometimes compofed, never pacified. Wales within itself, was in perpetual diforder; and it kept the frontier of England in perpetual alarm. Benefits from it to the ftate, there were none. Wales was only known to England, by incurfion and invafion. Sir, during that ftate of things, parliament was not idle. They attempted to fubdue the fierce fpirit of the Welch by all forts of rigorous laws. They prohibited by ftatute the fending all forts of arms into Wales, as you prohibit by proclamation (with fomething more of doubt on the legality) the fending arms to America. They difarmed the Welfh by statute, as you attempted (but ftill with more question on the legality) to difarm New England by an inftruction. They made an act to drag offenders from Wales into England for trial, as you have done (but with more hardship) with regard to America. By another act, where one of the parties was an Englishman, they ordained, that his trial fhould be always by English. They made acts to reftrain trade, as you do; and they prevented the Welsh from the use of fairs and markets, as you do the Americans from fisheries and foreign ports. In fhort, when the ftatute-book was not quite fo much fwelled as it is now, you find no less than fifteen acts of penal regulation on the subject of Wales. Here we rub our hands-A fine body of precedents for the authority of parliament and the ufe of it!—I admit it fully; and pray add likewise to these precedents, that all the while, Wales rid this kingdom like an incubus; that it was an unprofitable and oppreffive burthen; and that an Englishman travelling in that country could not go fix yards from the high road without being murdered. The march of the human mind is flow. Sir, it was not, until after two hundred years, difcovered, that by an eternal law, providence had decreed vexation to violence; and poverty to rapine. Your anceftors did however at length open their eyes to the ill hufbandry of injuftice. They found that the tyranny of a free people could of all tyrannies the leaft be endured; and that laws made againft an whole nation were not the most effectual methods for fecuring its obedience. Accordingly, in the twentyfeventh year of Henry VIII. the course was entirely altered. With a preamble ftating the entire and perfect rights of the crown of England, it gave to the Welth all the rights and privileges of English fubjects. A political order was eftablifhed; the military power gave way to the civil; the marches were turned into counties. But that a nation fhould have a right to English liberties, and yet no fhare at all in the fundamental fecurity of thefe liberties, the grant of their own property, feemed a thing fo incongruous, that eight years after, that is, in the thirty-fifth of that reign, a complete and not ill-proportioned representation by counties and boroughs was beftowed upon Wales, by act of parliament. From that moment, as by a charm, the tumults fubfided; obedience was restored; peace, order, and civilization, followed in the train of liberty.-When the day-ftar of the English conftitution had arifen in their hearts, all was harmony within and withoutSimul alba nautis Stella refulfit, Defluit faxis agitatus humor: Concidunt venti, fugiúntque nubes: Speech on Conciliation with America. WEALTH. Ir is the intent of the commercial world that wealth fhould be found every where.-Two Letters to Gentlemen in Bristol. WEALTH OF FRANCE IN 1785. THE wealth of a country is another, and no contemptible standard, by which me may judge whether, on the whole, a government be protecting or deftructive. France far exceeds England in the multitude of her people; but I apprehend that her comparative wealth is much inferior to ours; that it is not fo equal in the distribution, nor fo ready in the circulation. I believe the difference in the form of the two governments to be amongst the causes of this advantage on the fide of England. I fpeak of England, not of the whole British dominions; which, if compared with, thofe of France, will, in fome degree, weaken the comparative rate of wealth upon our fide. But that wealth, which will not endure a comparison with the riches of England, may conftitute a very refpectable degree of opulence. Mr. Necker's book published in 1785, contains an accurate and interefting collection of facts relative to public œconomy and to political arithmetic; and his fpeculations on the fubject are in general wife and liberal. In that work he gives an idea of the ftate of France, very remote from the portrait of a country whofe government was a perfect grievance, an abfolute evil, admitting no cure but through the violent and uncertain remedy of a total revolution. affirms, that from the year 1726 to the year 1784, there was coined at the mint of France, in the fpecies of gold and filver, to the amount of about one hundred millions of pounds fterling. He It is impoffible that Mr. Necker fhould be mistaken in the amount of the bullion which has been coined in the mint. It is a matter of official record. The reasonings of this able financier, concerning the quantity of gold and filver which remained for circulation, when he wrote in 1785, that is about four years before the depofition and imprisonment of the French king, are not of equal certainty; but they are laid on grounds fo apparently folid, that it is not eafy to refufe a confiderable degree of affent to his calculation. He calculates the numeraire, or what we call fpecie, then actually exifting in France, at about eighty-eight millions of the fame English money. A great accumulation of wealth for one country, large as that country is? Mr. Neckar'was so far from confidering this influx of wealth as likely to ceafe, when he wrote in 1785, that he prefumes upon a future annual increase of two per cent. upon the money brought into France during the periods from which he computed.-Reflections on the Revolution in France. WORDS. How Words influence the Paffions. Now, as words affect, not by any original power, but by reprefentation, it might be fuppofed that their influence over the paffions fhould be but light; yet it is quite otherwife; for we find by experience that eloquence and poetry are as capable, nay indeed much more capable, of making deep and lively impreffions than any other arts, and even than nature itself, in very many cafes. And this arifes chiefly from these three caufes. First, that we take an extraordinary part in the paffions of others, and that we are easily affected and brought into fympathy by any tokens which are fhewn of them; and there are no tokens which can express all the circumstances of most pasfions fo fully as words; fo that if a person speaks upon any fubject, he can not only convey the fubject to you, but likewife the manner in which he is himself |