phers look through a telescope at fome dim and fullen planet, whofe orbit is at the remoteft extremity from the center. But in the middle and more temperate path which Mr. Mackintosh has generally purfued, I could often accompany him with pleafure; for, like the earth in the Solar fyftem, he feems neither to approach too near to the dazzling fountain of light, nor to recede from it too far. My friend, for I have the honour to hail him by that fplendid name, will excuse me for expreffing in general terms what I think of his work *. In Mackintosh, then, I fee the fternness but not acrimony, of a republican, and the ardour but not the impetuofity of a reformer. His tafte in morals, like that of Mr. Burke, is equally pure and delicate with his tafte in literature.-His mind is fo comprehenfive, that generalities ceafe to be barren, and fo vigorous, that detail itfelf becomes interefting. He introduces every queftion with perfpicuity, ftates it with precision, and purfues it with eafy and unaffected method. Sometimes, perhaps, he may amufe his plan of Mr. Paine, inftead of advancing to a more improved state of fociety, we fhould find ourfelves retrograde towards that fituation, which is commonly called a state of nature, or at least, that we fhould facrifice many of the brilliant and indifputable advantages, which make us boaft of living in a civilized and enlightened age. Quotation is my trade, and therefore I will not fupprefs fome lines, which I once applied to the American reformers of English politics. Protect us, mighty Providence; What would thefe madmen have? And without power enflave. Thefe lines were written in 1680, and are worth remembering in 1792. * The age of the writer, the merit of his firft publication, and the reception it has met with from the world, induce me to apply to my friend what Cicero faid of Hortenfius- -Quinti Hortenfii admodum adolefcentis ingenium, ut Phidiæ fignum, fimul adfpectum et probatum eft. -Cic. de Orat. Lib. 2. readers, readers by excurfions into paradox; but he never be wilders them by flights into romance. His philofophy is far more juft, and far more amiable than the philofophy of Paine, and his eloquence is only not equal to the eloquence of Mr. Burke. He is argumentative without fophiftry, fervid without fury, profound without obfcurity, and fublime without extravagance. My friend, I am fure, does not fufpect me of wishing for the return of " that Prieftly craft, and lrieftly " domination, which would certainly re-plunge Eu rope into ignorance and fuperftition.' But he will excufe me for pronouncing a moft decided and a most unqualified negative to the affumption of the National Affembly, that "the exiftence of ranks is re pugnant to the focial union." On the contrary, I am perfuaded that hereditary as well as perfonal dif tinctions may, under a wife legislature, become the inftruments of public good, and that without bringing back the rude itate of fociety, which gave rise to the * Mr. Mackintosh does not forget, that in the Roman republic there were distinctions of rank not merely among the patricians, knights, and plebeians, but among the nobiles and novi. See Dr. Taylor's Elements of Civil Law, p. 179. "Hereditary characteristics attracted the attention of mankind "in fome degree under all the ancient governments." Dunbar on the Hereditary Genius of Nations. Among the Lacedæmonians there were perfonal diftinctions of rank, though not hereditary, and the Greek word exactly correfponds with our English word peers. See Xenophon. Hellenic. lib. 3. cap. 3, P. 35. Edit. Zeunius, where the note is worth confulting. See alfo Palmerii Exercitationes, p. 69. Mr. Hume in his effays has often obferved the fimilarity between the French and the Athenians; but he did not expect that in fo few years after his death, fo ftriking and new an inftance of resemblance would arife, as we have lately feen in the language of the public affemblies-Frenchmen, is now the fimple and dignified mode of address in the national affembly, like Men of Athens, in the Greek orators. But the mode, in which they often addrefs the King of the French, reminds me of the words which the grand jufticiary, or head of the Ricos Hombres, was content to ufe once to the King of Arragon. "We, who are your equals, conftitute you cur Lord and King, on "condition that you maintain our privileges and liberties; if otherwise, "not." Vid. Millot's Elements of General History, Vol. 1, p. 195. and Sidney's Difcourfes, Chap. 2. Sect. 5. G nobility nobility of Europe, a principle of virtuous action already excited (for I contend that it is excited) by the feudal inftitutions, may be adapted to the exigencies of a more enlightened and more civilized age. Again, I totally differ from my friend upon the origin and the tenure of ecclefiaftical property, and in his defcription of ecclefiaftics as mere penfioners of the ftate. He knows me too well, I am fure, to impute this diffent to the weakness and the selfishness of profeffional prejudice. But thefe, and a few other de fects, if defects they be, are loft in the blaze of general excellence; and they who reflect upon the juft and luminous comparison which Mr. Mackintosh has drawn between the peers of France and thofe of England, may, upon farther confideration, be led to other folid and useful diftinctions, upon other momentous and awful topics. My meaning will be understood, when I say, that I prefer two independent houfes for legiflative deliberation to one, and that in a king with the fubftance of the executive power, will be found a better guardian of the public weal than in the mockery of a pageant king with little more than the fhadow. My opinions upon the facred duties and the venerable privileges of an English King, nearly coincide with thofe of Mr. Rous, and I am happy in this opportunity of acknowledging the pleasure I received from his late excellent letter to Mr. Burke. I am, however, compelled to diffent from this very judicious and patriotic writer, upon the extent to which he would ftretch his principle of excluding the members of the legiflative body from all fhare whatsoever in the duties and the emoluments of the excutive government. I grant, indeed, that the more useful duties in the lower departments are well enough discharged * Some decent regulated pre-eminence, fome preference (not ex"clufive appropriation) given to birth, is neither unnatural, nor un"juft, nor impolitic." Page 76, Burke's Reflections. by by men, "formed by the routine of office *. Vide p. 104. of Mr. Rous's Letter." But I cannot admit, that the higher departments ftand in no need of " minds fplendidly endowed," or that, when fuch minds engage in public affairs, "their paths are ever marked with ruin." Great revolutions have ufually been atchieved by men of great abilities; but their fuccess in turbulent periods is to be imputed to previous circumstances, and those circumstances gradually arose from the want of wisdom in persons who have directed the affairs of government in feafons of apparent tranquillity. To fettle the imaginary balance of power, to impofe a form of government upon one reluctant people, to adjust the limits of dominion to another," are, furely, not the fole employments for which an English administration is deftined. That the attention of our prefent governors has been too much directed to thefe narrow and mischievous objects; that their measures, whether fuccefsful, or defeated †, have been at once expenfive *That men who are formed, according to Mr. Rous's expreffion, merely by "the routine of office," can bear up against the preffure of public duties, and public difficulties, I deny as a fact. And upon this fubject, I think the following remarks of Mr. Ferguson, deferving of ferious confideration. "When we fuppofe government "to have beftowed a degree of tranquillity, which we fometimes "hope to reap from it, as the best of its fruits, and public affairs "to proceed in the feveral departments of legislation and execution, "with the leaft poffible interruption to commerce and lucrative arts; "when a ftate, like that of China, throws affairs into feparate of"fices, where conduct confifts in detail, and in the obfervance of forms, it fuperfedes all the exertions of a great and liberal mind, "and is more a-kin to defpotifm than we imagine " 66 + In the ridiculous and fruitlefs conteft of this country about the ceffion of Okzakow, we have feen an inftance where, as Bolingbroke fays, "The majority without doors compelled the majority "within doors to truckle to the minority." Much do I rejoice at the Ferguson's Civil Society. Part VI. Sect. 5, G 2 event, expenfive without advantage, and oftentatious without glory; that they have multiplied our taxes without extending our commerce, and have displayed our ftrength without encreafing our fecurity, I readily allow. But, whilft government embraces the affairs, not of Great Britain only, but of Ireland, and of those remote colonies, which it feems equally difficult to keep, and dangerous to abandon, whill there is a real, as well as an imaginary, balance of power, which every ftate must be concerned in preferving against the incroachments of every other ftate; whilit our domeftic councils mult, for the fake of our domestic fafety, be fometimes engaged in watching the crooked machinations, and in curbing the restless ambition, of foreign powers; whilft France is ftruggling for freedom, and other nations, after the example of France, appear difpofed to fhake off the yoke of defpotifm; whilst our public debt is fo heavy, and our public interefts are fo complex and fo extenfive, the talents which, under fuch circumstances, aim only at "giving event, but more at the cause. What then, it may be asked, was the obftacle which prevailed against the votes of parliament, the plans of the cabinet, the dark negociations of foreign courts, the fenfelefs and delufive cry of confidence, and the impofing plea of engagements, which, in Bolingbroke's words, "imply both action and expence *?" My anfwer is, the juft and extended views, which the English people are beginning to entertain upon the folly, the injuftice, and the inexpediency of war, and which, by a fort of rebound from the declarations of the National Affembly of France, ftruck upon the public mind with a wider and deeper impreffion. A fpectacle has been thus fpread before the contemplative philanthropist, fuch as the hiftory of paft times feldom prefents to our view, and fuch as future hiftorians will, I hope, defcribe with enthusiasm, and hold up to the wonder and the imitation of all fucceeding ages. Events yet greater will, perhaps, ere long, burft from the womb of greater caufes, and happy is that man, who, mingling the love of freedom with the love of peace and order and focial union, furveys with philofophical calmnefs or religious awe the gracious defigns of Providence, magnificently unfolding themfelves in the intellectual, the civil, and the moral improvement of mankind. *Bolingbroke's Patriot King. protection |