Page images
PDF
EPUB

will be revered, beloved, and adored. No apparitions, or ghosts of infurrection will haunt his troubled imagination, any more than conscience has power of conjuring up in the bofom of innocence her horrid and agonizing images. But when a king has ruled his people with a rod of iron, when he has treated them, not as human beings, but as vile reptiles, made to crawl upon the earth, to be crushed and trampled upon for his barbarous and wanton diverfion-when his hands have been polluted with the blood of thousands, whom he has driven into the field of battle, where the unhappy and difgraceful conteft was neither neceffary, or just, and fuccefs could not be obtained -a king of this black defcription is naturally induced to take away the rights of his fubjects, and to weaken their strength, left in the feelings of infulted nature and humanity, they fhould rife against their odious oppreffor, and bring him to that punishment, to which his crimes point, and inftigate the oppreffed. To fuch a king no privilege of the subject can be half fo dreadful, or awaken in his fufpicious heart greater jealoufy and alarm, than the privilege of communicating opinion, and baring to the face of day-TRUTH.

For every attack then on this invaluable liberty, the guardian of every other liberty, let us ever be prepared to make a strong and a fuccessful oppofition. Let us never liften to the plea of the neceffity of checking the malignant increase of libel, and of fuppreffing fedition, but as a dangerous ftratagem, and a fhallow artifice, to delude us into the horrid fituation of becoming acceffaries to our flavery, and placing a dagger at the bosom of every right and bleffing which have been transmitted to us by our ancestors.—I dread every encroachment of this description on a nation's happiness.-Where acts of this violent nature are had recourse to, all cannot be well every where. There must be in fome quarter of public adminiftration, fomething bad, profligate, and corrupt. For, is the Conftitution of England, that beautiful, and wife fabric, raifed and conftructed equally for the happiness of all, as its panegyrifts tell us-and does it

anticipate

anticipate its ruin, and overthrow, in the petty affaults of an infignificant libeller? Does it hold out to every individual of the community the means of comfort, and an equal protection of rights-does it shelter them from oppreffion, and shield them from arbitrary impofition-does it defend their lives, and all the fubject values and reveres--and has fuch a frame of government, tempered with fo much juftice and benevolence (a frame of government of fuch merciful operations!) aught to dread from the ribaldry, or the licentious calumnies, of an obfcure, and an unknown, individual? No. No. A people, who are fenfible that they are happy and free, will never thus madly be deluded into a belief that they are oppreffed. They will never perfuade themselves that their governors are tyrants. Such is not the depravity of the human intellect. A people are always grateful for the protection they receive at the hands of their king. They love that king, and reverence him with an almost degraded, and fervile loyalty. But the detection of falfhood has ever been with tyrants an offence of a very foul complexion: for it is their intereft to keep their subjects in a state of mental darkness. Ignorance is the most dreadful weapon that can be wielded against the liberties of any country. It makes the people abject, cowardly, and patient of every injury and oppreffion; and it inspires into their bofoms a propenfity of acquiescing tamely and fubmiffively in every abufe of authority, and every violation of that high and facred truft, which they have repofed in their fovereign. It debilitates and corrupts the human faculties, and it invefts the moft tyrannical and bloody dominion with the majesty of the divine Being himself. It is the contagion of this calamitous diforder, which turns the milk of human kindness into the bittereft gall, and it is this, which drives man to become the tool of ambition, and inftigates him to become the plunderer, and the murderer of his race. And I here call the attention of the reader to a contemplation of the horrors of war! And I direct his meditations to the wretched and degraded life of a foldier!-But the confideration of these me

lancholy

lancholy themes I fhall referve for another opportunity, when I fhall be able to deliver my fentiments on them more at large.

ments.

We cannot conclude this fecond paper of the Philanthropist more happily, than by offering to the attention of the Reader the following obfervations on the liberty of the prefs by the celebrated M. DE LOLME, by which he may learn to appreciate its value, and how dearly interested every individual is to protect it from arbitrary, and unconftitutional encroach"Whoever," fays that well known writer on the conftitution of England, "whoever confiders what it is that constitutes the moving principle of what we call great affairs and the invincible fenfibility of man to the opinion of his fellow-creatures, will not hesitate to affirm, that if it were poffible for the liberty of the prefs to exist in a defpotic Government, and, (what is not lefs difficult) for it to exift without changing the conftitution, this liberty of the press would alone form a counterpoife to the power of the prince. If, for example, in an empire of the east, a fanctuary could be found, which, rendered refpectable by the ancient religion of the people, might enfure safety to those, who should bring thither their obfervations of any kind; and that from thence, printed papers fhould iffue, which under a certain feal, might be equally refpected; and which, in their daily appearance, fhould examine, and freely discuss the conduct of the Cadis, the Bafhaws, the Vizir, the Divan, and the Sultan himself.-THAT WOULD INTRODUCE IMMEDIATELY SOME DEGREE OF LIBERTY."

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

MONDAY, MARCH 30, 17953 tim

rein aki do bee por

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

Printed for and fold by DANIEL ISAAC EATON, Printer and Bookfeller to the Supreme Majefty of the People, at the Cock

[ocr errors]

and SwiNE, No. 74, Newgate ftreet.

[merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

IT

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

T was the intention of the Philanthropist to have proceeded in a regular difcuffion of thofe fubjects, which involve in their confideration the rights, and happiness, of man, and not to have engaged the attention of the public with the political concerns of the day, till he had enforced, and inculcated fome truths of a very preffing, and important nature. But he has been compelled to leave for a while the path, which he had marked out to himself to pursue, and to offer some observations on a very recent occafion, which are intimately connected with thefe topics, which it was his defign not to have taken notice of till he had laid, and established, the foundation of what he conceived to be more dear and interefting to the weal, and to the profperity, of the human fpecies.

[ocr errors]

704

its mob

For

For this digreffion from his original plan and intention, it will be only neceffary to remark, that the fubject on which he now appeals to his country, is of that defcription, as to rife high above every other confideration, and to call aloud for an immediate difcuffion-a difcuffion, which it must be allowed might have been poftponed to a later period, but which would lofe much of its importance, and effect, from an ill-judged and unfeasonable delay.

That evening, which awakened fo much curiofity and anxiety in the breast of every Englishman, is at length passed by. The momentous question on the state of England has been agitated, and Englishmen have at length learned what are the fentiments of the Houfe of Commons on a fubject of fo ferious and exalted a kind. They have been taught, that the mean, and dirty fhuffles of an unprincipled, and pompous minifter can BAFFLE and overthrow the generous, and difinterested exertions of the best patriots and friends to their country, and that beneath the wing of a deluded, or corrupt majority, the vilest measures, the most disgraceful actions, the most deteftable prostitutions of justice, and of honesty, and the vileft violations of the nation's character, and fair reputation, can find an asylum to fhelter them from that punishment, which an injured, and infulted country demanded against them, and the wicked authors of them.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

On what principles are we to account for the vote, which the Houfe of Commons gave on Mr. Fox's late animated, and patriotic motion On what principles! Were facts wanting to bear out the eloquence, fo brilliantly, and fo fuccefsfully dif played by him on that evening! Was the animation of Mr. Fox feigned and falfe: and when he warned the public of the danger which was hovering over his country, of the alarming condition to which it was reduced, and of the mad, and unprincipled measures which government was pursuing to the ruin, and eternal difgrace of Great Britain,, and of every kingdom allied to her was he indulging in idle complaint, or in querulous

« PreviousContinue »