256 PROCEEDINGS of the POLITICAL CLUB, &c. June me do violence to my own inclina- Upon this Cafo Fabius ftood up, and I SIR, fo many impending mischiefs, that future misfortunes will, I am afraid, give future ages too juft reafon to fufpect the wisdom of this, and perhaps a contempt of every precedent that may be left them by us. Do not therefore let us trouble our heads so much about what future ages may do, but provide for the inconvenience we are now exposed to; and we cannot do this with any difcretion, unless we confider very particularly not only the prefent circumftances of the nation, but the characters, qualities, and probable views of the chief persons now in being. The Hon. gentleman was pleased to fay, Sir, that we cannot determine what our conftitution is in practice but from hiftory and precedent. CI will averr, Sir, that if we are to determine, upon this occafion, what we are to do from precedent, we can come to no determination at all; for there are no two precedents that are the fame in every point; and no wonder it fhould be fo, because when a regency is to be appointed, the circumstances of the time must be fo particularly confidered, that it is impoflible to fuppofe, that what is done at one time can be a precedent for what ought to be done at another; and if we were, upon the prefent occafion, to be determined by precedent, and by that alone, the perfon who is now fo wifely and fo worthily to be appointed regent, could never have been thought of, because the mother of the infant E HAVE learned something from the Hon. and learned gentleman who fpoke laft, which, I confefs, I never before dreamed of: From him I find, that we are by the bill now before us, to establish a regulation D for all future minorities, and fuch a one as no future parliament shall ever depart from; whereas, I thought we were by this bill to provide only for the next minority, in cafe fuch a misfortune fhould happen by his prefent majesty's dying before his next fucceffor comes of age; and when I confider the words of the bill, I cannot well help being fill of this opinion. But fays the learned gentleman, what we do now will be a precedent for all future ages. Truly, Sir, whatever that gentleman may have, I have not fo extraordinary an opinion of the wifdom of the prefent adminiftration, or even of the prefent parliament, as to think, that future ages will pay fuch a deference to us, as never to depart from any precedent made by us, tho' cir-G cumitances should be afrerwards quite different from what they are at prefent. There are fo many clouds hanging over this nation at prefent, N- F. king was never during his minority regent of the kingdom, tho' it has feveral times happened, that the mother was alive when the king died. Nay, the mother was never propofed to be appointed until the reign of Henry VIII. when, I believe, he did once or twice appoint his queen to be regent; but all the precedents of that reign are not, I am fure, fit to be followed; and even he, when he died, did not leave his then queen fo much as one of the regency. For 1751. PROCEEDINGS of the POLITICAL CLUB, &c. 257 For this reafon I must fay, that it is a little arrogant in us to fuppofe, that our pofterity will exactly and implicitly follow a precedent now made by us, when at the fame time we do not follow any one precedent left us by our ancestors. a power to opprefs, which his minifters are but too apt to make use of; and this is the cause of our conftitution's having always varied in practice, for to find out and establish a certain medium is beyond the wit of But the A man. truth is, Sir, it is ridiculous to talk of precedent in the cafe now before us; for as I have faid before, no former precedent can be any authority for what ought to be done upon the next occafion. We are therefore in the right not to follow any former B precedent, and pofterity will be in the right not to follow any precedent made by us. In every fuch cafe, the true way of judging is, to lay the nature of our conflitution down as the foundation, and then to confider all the particular circumftances which C happen to exist at the time. When I talk of the nature of our conftitution, I must beg the learned gentleman's pardon for meaning its nature in theory; for from practice there is no determining what it is; because it has been, and always must be va- D rying, according as time and experience point out where and how it is become defective. In all govern F From this fhort sketch of the true nature of our conftitution it is evident, Sir, that when the executive, or what we call the royal power is divided, and put into feveral hands, it is a total alteration of our conftitution: It is establishing, instead of a limited monarchy, an oligarchy, which Saluft the philofopher places in oppofition to an ariftocracy, and defines it to be, when non optimi quique fed pauci, iique peffimi gubernant. Such a government from the nature of mankind muft neceffarily produce faction; and accordingly from our own history it appears, that it has always done fo. There never was a council of regency appointed in this nation, that were not in a year or two endeavouring to cut the throats of one another, by which the nation was exposed to great animofities and perturbations within, and to great lofies and indignities without. Such a government ought never therefore to be appointed, except when it becomes neceffary for avoiding a greater danger, and this can only be, when the perfon to be appointed regent is fo nearly allied to the crown, that there may be fome reason to fear an ufurpation, which was the cafe in the minority both of Richard II. and Henry VI. This country was then in fuch circumftances, the military power of the barons was fo great, and they were upon every occafion fo ready to fly to arms, that it was thought impoffible for a woman to govern: Belides, the nation was at both thofe times involved in a foreign war; for the truce with France had expired fome months before the death of Edward III. and Henry V. was at his death in actual war with the dauphin. In thefe circumstances the ments there are two evils to be most 258 PROCEEDINGS of the POLITICAL CLUB, &c. A C June alter our established form of government? Why fhould we expofe the nation to the intrigues of faction? Why fhould we embarrass the regent's government, by fubjecting it to the controul of a factious, perhaps a treacherous council? The regent would certainly have a council, as every fovereign has; and if we leave it to her own choice, I am perfuaded, fhe will have an honeft and a wife one, if fuch a one can be What arguments were then made found in the nation. I am therefore ufe of in parliament for such a regu- B for her having a council to consult lat on, no one, Sir, can now pretend with when the thinks it neceffary; to guefs; but, furely, they could but I am not for her having a counnot, in the first parliament of Ri- cil to embarrass and perplex her adchard II. pretend to found it upon miniftration: I am for her having a what our conftitution was in prac- council to give her good advice tice; for of the only two minorities when the defires it; but I am not that from the conqueft to that time for her having a council to fend her had happened, there was during one peremptory orders. The learned no council of regency at all, and gentleman told us, that this council during the other, tho' there was a was to meet only when the calls council of regency appointed, they them, and to take into confideration never had acted, the queen mother only what the lays before them. Sir, having affumed to herself the fole I fufpect the contrary, by their havand whole fovereign power. I am D ing a prefident appointed; for the therefore apt to imagine, that both office of a prefident is to call the in the minority of Richard II. and council together, and to open what Henry VI. the members of parlia- matters he thinks proper for their ment fpoke their minds pretty freely, confideration; but were it otherand told the king's uncles that they wife, this council must meet very would not truft them with fovereign often, were it for nothing else but power, because of the danger the in- E to prorogue or fummon the parliafant king might be thereby exposed ment; and as they will probably to; and I am forry to hear any gen- have a great influence in parliament, tleman in this houfe fuggeft, that a I am afraid, the regent will find it member of parliament may not ex- difficult to prefcribe to them, either prefs his fentiments freely upon every the time they are to continue togefuch occafion; for in fuch a cafe it ther, when affembled, or the fubwould not be neceffary to attack the F jects they are to take under their character of the perfon to be apconfideration. pointed regent, it would be fufficient to fay, that his great power, or his near relation to the crown, made it unfafe to put into his hands the fole and whole fovereign power. As no fuch argument can now, G Sir, be made ufe of: As there is not the leaft danger to be apprehended from the perfon now to be appointed regent, why should we In fhort, Sir, if you once eftablith fuch a number of men, irremoveable, in power and authority, no one can tell what they may not do, if united: No one can defcribe the terrible confequences that may. enfue from their difuniting. And thefe dangers we are to expofe the nation to for no reason, for no purpofe, that I can conceive, unless it be, 1751. Conclufion of Dr. G.'s Letter to M. de Reaumur. 259 be, that fome gentlemen have found fo much sweet from having a finger in that delicious pye, called the adminiftration of government, that they are refolved to keep their fingers in as long as poffible; for during the minority, if they continue A united, they will have established themselves fo firmly, that it will not be in the young king's power, for fome years at least after he comes of age, to turn any one of them out, or in any respect to act contrary to the advice or rather direction of the junto; and as I think, that this would be, for the time at least, a total overthrow of our conftitution, I must therefore be against it. [This DEBATE and JOURNAL to be continued in our next.] Conclufion of Dr. Garcin's Letter to M. de Reaumur, upon the general Usefulness of Infects. (See p. 215.) B C HE fun, the air, the water, the fire, and the ftomach of D the animals, are, according to my third idea, thofe which diffolve and destroy the bodies with a great deal of efficacy. Fermentation, it is true, is alfo an operation, which powerfully contributes to the deftruction of the bodies of the vegetables and ani- E mals; but it is properly, if rightly confidered, the work of the firit agents I have named, which, acting in concert, produce it together in all places of the earth. As the ftomach of the animals is the agent which deftroys moft of F them, in all orders, by digeftion, and which divides and grinds them by means of the diffolvents, and of the motions peculiar to it, it thereby contributes, more than all others, to the general circulation of the mass of invifible matter I have mentioned. G Not any thing of all that the animals confume is loft, all returns continually afterwards to their profit by the neceflary circulation, which I have faid is made in the world. This lofs, and this profit, are always reciprocal. The more organized beings they deftroy, and quickly confume the matter of, for their food, the more they haften and advance the generation and the multiplication of the new beings, and make them abundant on the earth to their own advantage. The reafon is, because the maffes of the atmofphere and of the waters, receiving into their bofom more divided and rarified matter by that powerful deftruction of the bodies, they in like manner depofit more of it upon the earth, ready prepared, in favour of the plants, from whence the faid animals draw all they have occafion for. It must be obferved, indeed, and this is my fourth idea, that the great animals confume every day only as much food as their ftomach can re ceive and digeft, proportionably to their nature and bulk. If they were the only ones which inhabited the earth, that is to fay, without being accompanied with fmaller, the confumption they might make of it, would not be great enough to accelerate, to make to abound, and to put in vigour, the circulation of the general mafs of the particles of matter which is made around the globe. The atmosphere would never be fo charged with it as it ought to be, confequently, the plants would receive less nourishment by the rainwater, which is the vehicle of it, and the faid animals would alfo receive less matter from the whole mafs, than they fhould have communicated to it at the time that all things were equal. This want being alfo fuppofed, the generation, as well vegetable as animal, would become more rare, and the earth lefs replenished with the faid beings. It is neceffary that nature should be helped in this circulation, which is most commonly aerial, to contribute to the nourishment, to the multiplication, Kk 2 260 Prodigious Number and C This help is owing to the infects, E those little animals which you know fo perfectly, Sir, and to which I have afcribed fo much good. I must not lofe fight of them any more, in order to compleat what I promised on their account, viz. to demonftrate their usefulness, by fhewing, that all the wafte which they make in the crops, as well as many other things, is a neceffary evil, to procure us, afterwards, a greater good in the fruits of the earth. I fhall fhew at least, that if they do a great F June Variety of INSECTS. First, then, if we stop to confider their multitude, how prodigious does it appear to us? Hardly any one can reprefent it to himself fo great as it really is; it exceeds the bounds of imagination. Their kinds and fpecies are exceeding various. I include the infects which are extremely fmall, and which are no lefs useful in nature than the others. In the mean time, in respect to these, we muft guefs to what defign the fame nature employs them; for we cannot fenfibly difcover the effects which they produce, in the matters where we find them only by means of microscopes. However, I think I have difcovered fomething of them, which I fhall fet down in its place. It is a wonderful thing, and worthy of remark, that in all the claffes of infects, the fmaller they are, the more power they have to multiply very abundantly in a little time, provided the circumstances of the places and of the feafons, are favourable to them. This multiplication is not without defign, as we are going to fee. The fruitful zones of the earth which I have vifited, are full of our little animals. air, the earth, and the water, contain innumerable fpecies of them, fome of which are common, and others peculiar to each climate, taken according to the parallels. The They are of a very different nature according to their fpecies. Their ftructure, their inclination, and their working, are infinitely diverfified. It is not to be doubted, but all the different fpecies in the world, have deal of hurt on the one hand, they Gas many particular properties, for do as much good on the other. What I have faid as to the neceffity of the deftruction of bodies, and of the general circulation of matter, to the feveral ufes which nature reaps from them in her wants. We do not know them, because their effects are hid from our eyes, at leaft in mof |