as such?"Some, (says Montesquieu,) have thought that liberty consisted in a facility of deposing a person on whom they had conferred a tyrannical authority; others in the power of choosing a person whom they are obliged to obey; others for the right of bearing arms, and of being thereby enabled to use violence; others for the privilege of being governed by a native of their own country, or by their own laws. A certain nation for a long time thought liberty consisted in the privilege of wearing a long beard." And at present a certain nation believes, or at least wishes others to believe, that liberty consists in allowing every man to do whatever he pleases, without the power of controul; and this they dignify with the name of "the rights of man." Now though a sensible man who has got the talisman in his pocket, sees that all these privileges are mere bits of sticks, or straws, or useless baubles, yet were he to venture to say so in an afsembly of these infatuated idolaters, they would laugh him to scorn, if they were not very deeply tinctured with the rabies dictandi at the time; but if they were in the height of their paroxysm, the unhappy philosopher without doubt would be torn in pieces. Were I, for example, at this moment in France, I should as soon eat a piece off my fingers, as utter a syllable against liberty, and equality, and the rights of man. I fhould bawl out as loud as the best of them, that this is the land of freedom, and liberty; though I knew well I neither durst say what I thought, go where I inclined, or have any assurance that either my life or my property were secured to me for a single hour. Are not those

people under the fascinating influence of glamar, who worship such a phantom, and call it Liberty? Are not those people in a delirium who call every new modulation, eternal, though they see that the former everlasting institution did not exist a month? Blefsed be the country which gave me birth and blefsed be those who have preserved to me the sacred privileges I derive from that birthright!-In consequence of that, I can sit in my garret, and laugh

At low ambition and the pride of kings.

I can write in favour of what I think right; I can investigate with freedom whatever appears to me to be wrong. The pen that is in my hand, though it be worn to the stump, I can call my own; and I defy the proudest in this isle to take it from me without my own consent. Not a hair on my bald pate can be touched by the hand of power; not a pairing of my nail can be wrested from me by any one. My house is my castle in which I sleep secure; and into which no one but the nightly robber, at the risk of his life, dares to intrude. I live as I will. Under the steady protection of the law, I go out and come in when I please; and if I encroach not on the property of others, no one has a right to ask me why I do so; or wherefore I do not comply with the rules they wish to establish. If I here exercise not the rights of man, I exercise the rights of some superior being. When you can fhow me a coun try that for half a century together has been able to boast of similar privileges, Ifhall believe that the Britifh constitution urges unjustly its claim to the highest

degree of political freedom that ever was experienced on the earth; for I hold, with old Hudibras, that, No argument like matter of fact is.

Or if you can show me a country in which I could be better protected from the ravages of others, or where I could enjoy with more perfect freedom, the full exercise of all my faculties, I fhall then begin to respect it. But if no such place can be found, I fhall consider those who there boast of their liberty as a parcel of charlatans. LIBERTY in the mouths of such persons is a sacrilegious profanation; and the noise they make about it, I can only view as the ravings of a set of bedlamites, who make use of words, the meaning of which they do not understand; of words too sacred to be permitted lightly to pass through such unhallowed lips, lest the veneration so justly their due, should come thus to be abated among mankind. O sacred freedom! heaven's last, best gift to man! who can justly appreciate thy value? Man inspired by thee rises superior to all created things. He afsumes a dignity of mind, that excites the admiration,-and a firm and steady beneficence that commands the veneration of all beholders. Before thy sacred thrine I bow with humble adoration!—in thy defence the forfeiture of life would be but a trivial sacrifice! How then must I detest the execrable profanations of that rabble rout that pollute thy sacred fhrine with deeds too horrible to name! It is not of such men thy true votaries consist. This house ought to be the abode of peace, where order and subordination ever reign; but they have converted it into a den of murderous afsafsins.

From the influence of such tenets good Lord deliver us! Such the sincere prayer of TIMOTHY HAIRBRAIN.

ANECDOTE OF GENERAL REDING.

For the Bee.

A SOMETIMES wild, but yet, upon the whole, a good natured race, inhabit the desarts of the Alps in Switzerland. Their stormy heaven renders them hardy and strong; and their pastoral life renders them mild. An Englishman has observed, that he who has never heard the thunder among the Alps, can form no conception of the roar, the reverberation, and the long protracted noise, as it rolls along the whole horizon among these mountains; and, on this account, the inhabitants of the Alps who have ne、 ver had an opportunity of seeing better houses than their own huts, nor any other country than the Alps, consider the whole world in the light of a rough, a stormy, and a toilsome waste. Perhaps it is so. But as the heavens after an awful storm resume their serenity and smile; so the heads and hearts of the Swifs are alternately wild and complacent. This I can prove from history and facts.

One of these citizens of the Alps, general Reding, a native of the canton of Schweitz, had lived from his youth with the Swifs guards in Paris and Versailes, and rofe in the service of the French king to the rank of lieutenant general, but remained, nevertheless, always a Swifs." When France, about

twenty years ago, adopted a new regulation for the Swifs troops in her service, it was believed in the canton of Schweitz, that this regulation was inconsistent with their ancient rights and privileges; and the blame was laid on general Reding. In the mean time, the general's lady, who lived in the country, was engaged in raising recruits; but the French standard was now for once hated in the Schweitz; and the white cockade on the hat of an independent Swifs was seen with displeasure. The recruiting was forbidden by the magistracy, not to irritate the people in the midst of this fermentation. Mrs Reding desired to have a written order for this prohibition; but the magistracy had not courage enough to take this public step against France; and the general's lady continued to inlist. Now the rage of the people was excited against this daring female. An afsembly was summoned; and Mrs Reding stood before the 4000 members. The drum, said fhe, fhall not cease to beat, until I receive a written prohibition from the canton, as a vindication of my husband's character at court; for at present his corps is not complete. The prohibition was granted, and the general was ordered to exert his utmost influence at court in behalf of his country. More favourable reports were now expected by the men of Schweitz; but the very opposite took place. The cry was raised by those who possessed credit and influence, that the new regulation was dangerous to religion and liberty.This raised the displeasure of the whole people to madness. Conventions were