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or King, ought not only to have a Throne, Crown, Robes, and an immenfe revenue, but must also be accounted a Demigod, the ne plus ultra of excellence; and though the reigns of a few infallible monarchs, as they happened too frequently to be guided by intereft, caprice, or the impulse of an ill-governed zeal, may have left upon our minds fome doubts of their infal libility, yet are we ftill obliged to pay the fame refpect to that doctrine, as if no inftances of its error had ever occurred, Though the drug may have failed ninety-nine times out of one hundred, it is ftill the bufinefs of the empiric to puff the efficacy of his medicine; fo though the King may have done wrong ninety-nine times in one hundred, ftill it is the bufinefs of Minifters, Judges, &c. to perfuade us-the King never can de wrong!

King-Craft, and Prieft-Craft, have always veered to these two magnetic points; first, to hoodwink mankind; fecondly, to confider, that the multitude was made for them, and not that they were made for the multitude. Deception has ever been the rule of conduct, the infallible policy both of Priefts and Kings-promifes made when only Cardinal or Prince, were quite another thing when the fame perfon was become Holinefs or King.

The hiftory of Popedom is one continual fcene of the agrandifement of a few individuals, purchased with the mifery of millions; each Pope being generally advanced in years when he is elected, takes care to lofe no time to enrich his own family before, or as foon as this is done, he dies, and another fucceeds him, when the fame fcene of plunder and rapacity is acted over and over again.

The hiftory of King-Craft is likewise a scene of the agrandifement of a few, only with this difference, that at prefent, it is upon a larger fcale, and its effects are more pernicious, if poffible than thofe of Priest-Craft. The wars, and ambitious projects of Kings are always draining a country of its wealth and inhabitants, befides the King's family and connections are objects of the higheft importance-they must be amply pro

vided

vided for; add to these the Minifter, his family and connec tions-they must have places and penfions, plundered out of the hard earned pittance of the industrions poor!

In the interior parts of South America, the natives worship the Devil (for wherever there are priests, there must be Devils alfc): they fay, that as the Devil is very powerful, it is but good policy to pay him that homage and respect power ever demands; but ftrip the infernal monarch of his power, they would be the very firft to revile him. Thus those very men, who had preached up the supremacy, and infallibility of the Pope,' in the reign of Henry the Eighth, were the first to revile, and vent their execrations against Babylon and Antichrist, the very man they had formerly called the Reprefentative of God upon earth: they did more, they extracted the effence and spirit of Papacy, and heaped it in one heterogeneous ftructure on the head of the Monarch. It is to this ftructure, the inhabitants of this country are taught to pay their adoration and worship. I worship not the altar of Superftition, or bend to the shrine of Monarchy-it is the imprefcriptable Rights of Man, Justice, and Equality, that I worship-they need not the decorations of Majefty, the ermined robe, or tinfel Crown-away ye STATE JUGGLERIES.

There was a Brutus once, that could have brook'd

The eternal Devil to keep his ftate in Rome,

As easily as a King.

SHAKESPEARE.

R. F.

ZALEUCUS, AND SOME OTHER LEGISLATORS.

I DARE here defy all moralifts and legislators, and I ask

them all, if they ever delivered any thing finer, or more useful, than the exordium of the laws of Zeleucus, who lived before Pythagoras, and who was the first magiftrate of the Locrians?

"Every citizen fhould be perfuaded of the existence of the

"divinity.

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divinity. It is only necefary to obferve the order and har$$ mony of the univerfe, to be convinced that accident could not "have formed it, We fhould fubdue the foul, purify it, and

cleanse it from all evil; in the persuasion that God cannot be "well ferved by those of a perverse disposition; and that he "does not resemble those wretched mortals, who let them"felves be wrought upon by magnificient ceremonies and sump"tuous offerings. Virtue alone, and a conftant difpofition of "doing good, can pleafe him. Let us then endeavour to be "just in our principles and practice; we shall thereby become

dear to the divinity. Every one should dread more what "leads to ignominy, than what leads to poverty. He fhould "be looked upon as the best citizen, who gives up his fortune

for juftice; but those whofe violent paffions lead them to "evil, men, women, citizens, common inhabitants, fhould "be cautioned to remember the gods, and to think often of the

fevere judgments which they exercife against the wicked "let them have the hour of their death before their eyes, the "fatal hour which awaits us all, the hour when the remem"brance of faults brings on remorfe, and the, vain regret of "not having let all our actions be fwayed by equity.

"Every one should therefore conduct himself, as if this "moment was the laft of his life; but if an evil genius "prompts him to crimes, let him fly to the foot of the altar, "and implore heaven to drive from him the ill-difpofed genius; "let him particularly throw himself into the arms of worthy people, whofe counfels will bring him back to virtue, by reprefenting to him God's goodness and his vengeance." No; there is nothing in all antiquity that should obtain preference to this firaple, but fublime moral, dictated by reaz fon and virtue, ftripped of enthusiasm and of those gigantic figures, which good fenfe difowns.

Charondas, a difciple of Zaleucus, explained himself in the fame manner. The Plato's, Cicero's, and divine Antoninus's, have never fince held any other language. Thus does Julian, who had the misfortune to give up the Chriftian religion, but

who

who did fo much honour to that of nature, explain himself'; that Julian, who was the scandal of our church, and the glory of the Roman empire.

"The ignorant," fays he," fhould be inftructed, and not

punished; they should be pitied, and not hated; the duty "of an Emperor is to imitate God; to imitate him is to have "the feweft wants, and to do him all the good that is poffible."

Let those who infult antiquity, learn to be acquainted with it; let them not confound wife legiflators with fabulists; let them know how to diftinguish between the laws of the wifeft magiftrates, and the ridiculous customs of the people; let them not fay that fuperftitious ceremonies were invented, that falfe oracles and falfe prodigies were without number; and that all the magiftrates of Greece and Rome who tolerated them, were blindly imposed upon as well as impoftures: this would be like faying there are bonzes in China who abuse the populace, and that therefore the wife Confucius was a wretched impoftor.

Men should, in so enlightened an age as this, blush at those declamations, which ignorance has fo often promulgated against fages, who fhould be imitated, and not calumniated. Do we not know that in every country the vulgar are imbecile, fuperftitious, and infenfible? Have there not been convulfionaries in the country of the chancellor de L'Hôpital, of Charon, Montagne, de la Motte, la Voyer, Descartes, Bayle, Fontenelle, and Montefquieu? Are there not Methodists, Moravians, Millenarians, and fanatics of every kind, in tha country which was fo fortunate as to give birth to the chancel lor Bacon, to thofe immortal genius's, Newton and Locke, andto a multitude of great men?

FAMINE,

FAMIN E.

TO THE

PUBLIC.

Fellow-citizens,

You

OU complain, and very juftly, of the enormous price and fcarcity of Flour, you loudly complain that Corn is exported by wicked men to FRANCE: You are tight; Flour is exported. Who are the exporters, who are these enemies of their country Mr. PITT, Mr. WINDHAM, and the reft of our infatuated rulers. Yes, fellow-citizens, they have sent abroad to feed the emigrants, the foes of every country; the deftitute of every virtue; the friends of popery and TYRANNY, Flour fufficient to have maintained 40,000 men for fix months: yes, to carry on this DETESTABLE WAR, to plant the dagger of the father in the breaft of the for, to deftroy all the focial affections, to encourage rebellion, civil war, and murder have the WAR-MINISTERS dared to ftarve their own countrymen-The WAR is the fource of your diftrefs, and yet these men have declared, that we fuffer by the hand of the Almighty.-Infamous blafphemy! You are perishing by the envenomed arms of abandoned Minifters. Perifh the authors of your distress. Attend to the following statement. Who can deny the fact? « The magazines taken from the ENGLISH and EMIGRANTS at Quiberon are immense; this city refembles the port of Amfterdam, for the eye is feafted with the fight of immenfe quantities of Grain, Sugar, Coffee, Cloaths, Soap, Ammunition, Stores, Arms, Wine, Brandy, Rum, &c. &c. &c. A fortnight will not be sufficient to make even an inventory of all the articles; and 4000 waggons employed daily for a month will not carry them away. There is Corn and Flour enough for the army for fix months, and cloathing for 30,000 men. In the amidst of this abundance the Republicans have not committed the fmalleft excefs."

August 10th, 1795•