troops have been augmented in the hour of peace, and the guardians of the people's liberties have fanctified that universal engine of oppreffion. The bafcft means of corruption have been openly adopted and avowed as a neceffary scheme of government; and left the people at large fhould poffefs dangerous or intractable virtues, it has been judged neceffary to debase the native honefty of the English character, by authorizing every thing which can moft effectually fubvert it. These, and a thoufand other inftances of public corruption, have long been familiar to our view, without engaging us to vigilance or effectual oppofition; fo deep has been our lethargy, fo implicit our confidence in our own fecurity. But neither the degrading patience we have exerted, nor the licence of oppreffing with impunity, nor the spoils which have rewarded our betrayers, were fufficient to content their unbounded appetite for mischief. It has been judged neceffary to perfecute and extirpate human liberty wherever it was found. One nation was too fmali a theatre for rapine, and therefore it was decided to featter death and havock over the whole western continent, and to disperse enmity, divifion, rage, and mutual defolation through all the parts of the nobleft empire in the universe. Such a project as this was indeed worth ambition! To rivet the chains of unborn millions, to blast, like a rapid peftilence, the blessings which heaven had bestowed on half the globe; to fhew that neither ocean, defart, nor wilderness, is fufficiently wide or dreary to protect a single remnant of the fpecies from the yoke !—or fhould they dare refift, to exercife unlimited fury against the devoted rebels; to interdict them from the common rights and mercies of war itself; let loofe the ungovernable ferocity of favage rage upon their defenceless wives and children; deftroy their generous and valiant youth in fields of battle; and then, by the gentler operations of civil juftice, gibbets, exile, and imprisonment, extirpate the few the fword had fpared. Such may, perhaps, be the language of fome future philofophic hiftorian, who, removed from all the paffions, intereft, and prejudices which dazzle the actors in thefe important fcenes fhail fhall relate the awful events of the prefent period. Such a man, perhaps, without confidering the topics which are fo forcibly impreffed upon an English mind, the eternal and illimitable obedience which every colony owes to the parent ftate, the omnipotence of a British parliament, or the generous defign of defolating an immense continent to make it free and happy, may regard nothing but the interefts of humanity. With such a view of things he may, perhaps, execrate the authors of the American war as equally devoid of policy, public fpirit, and humanity; and while he beholds on one fide the rights of nature, the interests of mankind, a rifing empire formed upon the nobleft principles of equity and reafon, and destined to prove a common refuge from European tyranny, he may fee nothing on the other, but the low, illiberal aims of selfishinefs, avarice and cruelty, that would, if poffible, counteract the designs of Providence itself, engrofs its bleffings, or convert them into curses for all the rest of the fpecies. Should fuch a writer hereafter exift, it is probable he may add, after having brought the hiftory of the American contest down to the present æra; such were the aims of the British ministry, but the weakness of their measures was equal to the iniquity of their councils. That noble country, which had so long been the bulwark of European liberty, was doomed at length to fubmit to the common yoke, a just reward for having deviated from its former principles, and become the inftrument of oppreffion. Inftead of the triumphs it had expected, instead of seeing the spoils of the perfecuted colonies poured into its territories, inftead af seeing the commerce of all the weft enrich its merchants, baits which the vile incendiaries of the war had made use of with too much fuccefs, it was doomed to experience every ill it had endeavoured to inflict: its wealth was deftined to circulate through the very country it had devoted to deftruction; its commerce was gradually diminished by the depredations of its enemies, and by the intolerable impofitions which were levied upon the people. [To be continued.] CATO'S CATO'S SOLILOQUY PARODIED, BY M. H. GREEN. Being a REFLECTION and ADDRESS to the PEOPLE, Suppofed to be Spoken while reading the PAMPHLET entitled COOPER'S REPLY TO BURKE'S INVECTIVE. IT must be fo-COOPER, thou reafon'ft well-elfe why this In immortal fame, unhurt amidst the War of Nation's, *The prefent Combination of Kings against Men. Thofe who wish to promote the PHILANTHROPIST, by their affiftance, will please to address their favours (post-paid), ts the Editor, at Citizen EATON's, No. 74, Newgate-street. No. 12. THE PHILANTHROPIST. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 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. › PRICE ONE PENNY. ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC. Univerfal poverty and defpair feemed to pervade the land; all ranks and orders of men begun to share in the general distress; the poor, the rich, the obfcure, the great, the idle, the induftrious, were all alike included in the unequalled miferies which had invaded the land, excepting the few who received the spoils of their finking country, infected with its curfes, and polluted with its blood. They now begun to perceive, with an anguish which it is difficult to exprefs, that they had been deluded by the groffeft artifices, to throw away the noblest prize that was ever poffeffed by mortals :-America, was irreparably loft; yet was there no term proposed to their diftreffes, no hope of peace, no attention to spare the laft refources of an exhaufted nation. In this extremity of public and private distress some remains of the ancient English spirit seemed to burst forth from the embers under which it had fo long been concealed. All the real and definterested friends of public freedom, all who had viewed with filent forrow and indignation the progrefs of venality and the diminution of the people's influence, thought it neceffary to unite in one last effort; and to prevent, if poffible, their country's ruin, which feemed the inevitable confequence of fuch measures as were then pursued-Roufed from a lethargy of so long and fo fatal a duration, they viewed with aftonishment and horror the complicated calamities which furrounded them, and rightly deemed, that all was loft, unless fome check could be interpofed to the prevailing corruptions of their government, and and the people reftored to their fundamental rights. The fplendour of their meridian glory was indeed paft, the dream of greatenefs diffipated, and the pageantry of empire loft; but peace, fecurity, and freedom were yet attainable bleffings, de-. nied to violence and ambition, beftowed but on virtue. Such may perhaps be the account hereafter given of the petitions lately offered by the English people: may it be added, that they were attended with the ampleft fuccefs, and diffused returning vigour through every part of the conftitution! That private intereft and ambition, which had fo long been fuffered to triumph amidst their country's ruin, were thenceforth restrained within their proper and falutary bounds: that the enormous burthens under which the nation had fo long groaned; which had been accumulated under fuch a variety of pretexts; which had equally ferved to impoverish the people and corrupt their reprefentatives, were at length fubmitted to the wholesome regulations of a new tribunal, fuperior to every impression of fear and intereft, and folely intent upon the great and neceffary object of public œconomy! Above all, may it be faid, that this great and conftitutional reformation, by reftoring the English people to all their rights, reftored them to all their virtues! That waking from their disgraceful lethargy, they viewed the carnage and defolation which had been perpetrated in their name with horror and remorfe; and that with the ancient hereditary generofity of their character, they begun to admire the very virtues they had fo lately perfecuted, and instead of invading the rights of others, turned their whole attention to the maintenance of their own! Animated with thefe confiderations, this Society, which feels for their country's wrongs with all the fenfibility which becomes the name of Englishmen, have undertaken the task of rousing their countrymen to the defence of their hereditary rights. Convinced that all remaining hopes of fafety are centred in the great body of the people, which, though fometimes deceived concerning the means, can voluntarily pursue no other end than the general happiness. They wish to awaken them from their lethargy--they wish to awaken them while the means of safety arc |