No. 33. THE PHILANTHROPIST. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1795. – LONDON: Printed for and fold by DANIEL ISAAC EATON, Printer and Bookfeller to the Supreme Majefty of the People, at the Cock and SWINE, No. 74, Newgate street. THE War had three fucceffive years, purpled the once fertile plains of Belgium, the blood of thousands had flown in a full tide, and the dearest interest of the country facrificed to the idol of ambition. An unprincipled conteft, fruitless in its termination and mixed with as much infanity as wretchedness, has brought to the period long fince predicted by the discerning and ingenuous; and the calamities which ftalk in the train of conflict have not forborne to approach us in an hour of distress, and the wafteful expenditure of the country's grain has haftened us to the fide of the tomb, whofe guardians are famine and disease. There have been few events of greater magnitude, as it relates to the country at large than the late infurrection. The facred awe which was ftudiously preferved by courtiers, and was implicitly cherished by the people, has on a sudden vanished 1 and and the puppetry of state obferved, with infantine pomp to amuse the trifling and thoughtless, has been disregarded in the recent tranfactions with our chief magiftrate-we there beheld the ferment of half smothered injuries, joining the ebullitions of an indignant populace, and expreffing their refentment by violence and diforder. We have witnessed a disrespect to the executive power, manifeftly intended as the avowal of their fufferings and misfortunes. Their fentiments of the present ftate of affairs, declared in the manner of their affembling; we have seen the facred perfon of majesty treated with rudeness unknown to former times, his office difregarded, his honour fullied, his dignity debaced, his fycophants exclaimed against and the cry of want univerfally bellowed in his ears. Thefe are events which are as unexpected as extraordinary, and are only introductory of a crifis which political forefight and philofophical research cannot poffibly predict the iffue. But yet the voice of wisdom has not been heard from our palaces, nor the councils of falvation offered at fuch an alarming juncture: the man whofe age if nothing else entitled him to refpect, inftead of veneration meets with the anger and contempt of innumerable starving fellow men, and his measures which for three years have met with unbounded applause, are on a fudden reprobated and exclaimed against, and the idol of folly who has long ruled the treasures of the country, is on a fudden declared unworthy their confidence. Such revolution's in the fentiments of a people are not without fome foundation and it has often happened that the causes of such great changes in the public mind, have been too little noticed; and in the present inftance we may obferve petitions for a reformation of a corrupt parliament, the fource of all other evils, have been prefented, but their fate has been anticipated by the enjoyers of the spoils, in beftowing them on the rubbish heap of the office; and when haggard distress, and starving bankrupts are univerfal, it can not be surprising that difaffection and tumult should enfue. When mifery, difcontent, wretchedness and vice, are fuddenly changed by the wickedness of lying men into happi nefs (3 nefs and prosperity, and put into the mouths of their harmless unthinking instrument, to tell a nation fo, can it be surprising they should refuse to allow fuch daring abfurdities and in frantic indignation attempt to hurl deftruction on the heads of deluders. It fhould be remembered that in the time of the defpotic James, the frowns of royalty being unable to ftop the torrent of petitioning, the ministry had recourse to a finese not unlikely to be again practifed, and to counterbalance the cries of freedom, brought the approbation of fycophants: addreffes poured in as faft as petitions, perhaps fafter, for he who is bought to profess friendship, generally overacts his part; but we should remember when the voice of petitioning was ftifled, the fighs of freedom were vented by the prefs, as it was in the power of more people to see the critical state of liberty than to feel it; publications from the prefs opened the eyes of those who were before fupine, and the torrent which had been reftrained overflowed every barrier that could be oppofed to it by ministerial power. The liberty of the prefs has always been co-effential with the liberty of the fubject, if they die--they die together. Britons, you are now peculiarly called upon to regard this privilege, and to exercise it for the improvement of your fellow citizens, and value it as your birthright! let it not be meanly bartered away for a mess of pottage, some contemptible compromise, some midway path between misery and content, let your care be inceffantly directed to its preservation, and amid all the changes that may take place, let this be highly prized, and “ let it be impreffed upon your minds, let it be inftilled into your children that the liberty of the press is the palladium of all the civil, political and religious rights of freemen." When we are left to the decifions of unbiaffed judgment we eafily rife to the energies of mind-none are fo ignoble as to be excluded from the common gift of reason, some may poffefs a greater degree of intellectual improvement than others: it is their their duty to feek by communication of all they know to enlighten their fellow citizens, and impart all the knowledge they may exclufively poffefs. Talents were never defigned to be hid in a knapkin, and the man who may chance to enjoy them and neglects to seek the amelioration of his fellow beings by the exercise of them, he is in the eye of justice a delinquent. Liberty, benevolence, and truth, are beings of univerfal dominion in a heart unadulterated with courtly pride, alive to the feelings of humanity, and not made callous by the use of the weapons of defpotifm. Let these three great deities be the trinity in unity of your perpetual adoration. Truth we can discover, benevolence we can feel, and liberty! the glorious principle of liberty we can promote; but it is well to remember that liberty confifts in a generous exercife of the human faculties as far as compatible with the general intereft of the society to which we belong, and we should remember also that no human being can restrain the thoughts, words, and actions, of his fellow beings, and that the interefts of our fellow men, are alone to be regarded. There is therefore, and there can only be one interest in our planet-the intereft of man confidered as one individual being, of whofe aweful body men are but the compofing atoms, of whofe fublime incomprehensible soul, all other fouls are but emanations, the beams that sparkle round the desk of the grand intellectual Sun. The various people that form the nations of the earth, are only diftinct members of the fame body, and the individuals that compose each people, are only the atoms that compose the feperate members of the body of the man-man confidered in the agregate, is one and immortal; man has poffeffed the globe from the first moment when Adam breathed the balm of Paradife; Man amidst all the revolutions of empires and states has alone continued to exift whilft generations have rifen and vanished in fucceffion, and man fhall inherit the world till the laft trumpet shall fummons into renovated life the duft that has • flept 1 flept for ages. May I now afk what is the intereft of one atom against a whole member? It is the intereft of one contemptible individual opposed to the interest of a whole nation, and what is the interest of a fingle member, against the whole body, it is one nation oppofed to all mankind-it is patriotifm oppofed to philanthropy. Patriotifm, is indeed, a generous principle when exerted to protect the welfare of a nation-against the tyranny and ambition of ufurping individuals; but when patriotifm endeavours to establish one nation paramount over all the world, it is ftirring up rebellion amongst the members of the fame body; it is treafon against the majefty of heaven, who has made of " one flesh and blood all nations of the earth." It is the demon of discord which at this inftant is drenching. the bofom of the common mother earth, in blood of her fons, converting the world into one vast slaughter house, and making men alternately the executioners and the victims of its rage. Oh! mad infatuation-oh! ranting hypocrify, what were the interefts of men so closely connected, that the hellhounds of war must be dragged upon the plain, to feperate the ties of nature. War is the greatest of evils, and it is not fufficient that we fee the impolicy of the prefent war, if we are not convinced of the turpitude of war in general; and are determined by all the means in our power to exterminate the hideous monster with its direful brood, and promote the benignant principles of humanity, love, and peace. Seek to inform your fellow men let them not be without inftructions, you that have more leifure and opportunity for reflection than the generality of men, and let the principles of moderation be inftilled into all. Let violence, diforder, bloodfhed, and confufion, be execrated as the fcourges of the human race; and let the mild principles of benevolence, be extolled in the eyes of men. Countrymen and friends, your honour and your intereft demand that you should know your own importance. A consciousness of the dignity and power, which you inherently poffefs, |