come fo infignificant, that they have no other way, but to run into the herd, which at leaft will hide and protect them; and where to be much confidered, requires only to be very violent.

But there is one circumftance with relation to parties, which I take to be of all others most pernicious in a state; and I would be glad any partifan would help me to a tolerable reafon, that because Clodius and Curio happen to agree with me in a few fingular notions, I must therefore blindly follow them in al: or, to ftate it at best, that because Bibulus the party-man is perfuaded that Clodius and Curio do really propose the good of their country as their chief end; therefore Bibulus ihall be wholly guided and governed by them in the means and meatures towards it. Is it enough for Bibulus, and the rest of the herd, to fay without further examining, I am of the fide with Clodius, or I vote with Curio 2 Are thefe proper methods, to form and make up what they think fit to call the united wifdom of the nation? Is it not poffible, that upon fome occafion Clodius may be bold and infolent, borne away by his paffion, malicious, and revengeful? That Curio may be corrupt, and expofe to fale his tongue, or his pen? I conceive it far below the dignity both of human nature, and human reason, to be engaged in any party, the most plausible foever, upon fuch fervile conditions.

This influence of one upon many, which feems to be as great in a people reprefented, as it was of old in the commons collective, together with the confequences it hath had upon the legislature, hath given me frequent oc... cafion to reflect upon what Diodorus tells us of one Charondas, a lawgiver to the Sybarites, an ancient people of Italy, who was fo averfe from all innovation, especially when it was to proceed from particular perfons, (and, I fuppofe, that he might put it out of the power of men, fond of their own notions, to disturb the conftitution at their pleafures, by advancing private fchemes), that he provided a statute, that whoever propofed any alteration to be made, fhould step out and do it with a rope about his neck if the matter propofed were generally approved, then it should pafs into a law; if it went in the negative, the propofer to be immediately hanged. Great

minifters

minifters may talk of what projects they pleafe; but I am deceived, if a more effectual one could ever be found for taking off (as the prefent phrafe is) thofe hot, unquiet fits, who difturb affemblies, and obftruct public affairs, by gratifying their pride,. their malice, their ambition,

or their avarice.

Thofe who in a late reign began the diftinction be-tween the perfonal and politic capacity, feem to have had reafon, if the judged of princes by themfelves; for L think, there is hardly to be found through all nature a greater difference between two things, than there is between a reprefenting commoner in the function of his public calling, and the fame perfon when he acts in the common offices of life.. Here he allows himself to be upon a level with the rest of mortals: here he fallows his own reafon, and his own. way; and rather affects a fingularity in his actions and thoughts, than fervilely to copy either from the wifeft of his neighbours. In fhort, here his folly and his. wisdom, his reafon and his paffions, are all of his own growth, not the echo or infufion, of other men. But when he is got near the walls of his assembly, he affumes and affects an entire set of very different airs; he conceives himself a being of a fuperior nature to thofe without, and acting in a fphere, where the vulgar methods for the conduct of human life can be of no ufe. He is lifted in a party, where he neither knows the temper, nor defigns, nor perhaps the perfon of his leader; but whofe opinions he follows and maintains with a zeal and faith as violent, as a young scholar does thofe of a philofopher, whofe fect he is taught to profefs. He hath neither opinions, nor thoughts, nor actions, nor talk, that. he can call his own, but all conveyed to him by his lead-er, as wind is through an organ. The nourishment he receives, hath been not only chewed, but digefled, before it comes into his mouth. Thus inftructed, he fol-lows the party right or wrong through all its fentiments, and acquires a courage and ftiffness of opinion not at all. congenial with him.

This encourages me to hope, that, during the present. lucid interval, the members retired to their homes may fufpend a while their acquired complexions, and taught. by the calmness of the scene and the season, reaffume the

native fedateness of their temper. If this fhould be so, it would be wife in them, as individual and private mortals, to look back a little upon the ftorms they have raised as well as thofe they have escaped to reflect, that they have been authors of a new and wonderful thing in England, which is, for a house of Commons to lose the univerfal favour of the numbers they represent; to observe, how those whom they thought fit to perfecute for righteoufnefs fake, have been openly careffed by the people; and to remember how themselves fat in fear of their persons from popular rage. Now, if they would know the fecret of all this unprecedented proceeding in their mafters, they must not impute it to their freedom in debate, or declaring their opinions, but to that unparliamentary abuse of setting individuals upon their Joulers, who were hated by God and man For it feems the mafs of the people, in fuch conjunctures as this, have opened their eyes, and will not endure to be governed by Clodius and Curio at the head of their Myrmidons, though these be ever so numerous, and compofed. of their own representatives.

This averfion of the people against the late proceedings of the Commons is an accident, that, if it laft a while, might be improved to good ufes for fetting the balance of power a little more upon an equality, than their late meafures feem to promife or admit. This accident may be imputed to two caufes: the first is an univerfal fear and apprehenfion ofthe greatness and power of France, whereof the people in general feem to be very much and justly poffeffed, and therefore cannot but refent to see it, in fo critical a juncture, wholly laid afide by their ministers, the Commons. The other caufe is a great love and sense of gratitude in the people towards their prefent king, grounded upon a long opinion and experience of his inerit, as well as conceffions to all their reasonable defires; fa that it is for fome time they have begun to say, and to fetch inftances, where he hath in many things been hardly ufed. How long thefe humours may laft. (for paffions are momentary, and especially those of a multitude), or what confequences they may produce, a little time will discover. But whenever it comes to pafs, that a popular affenbly, free from fuch obftructions, and al

ready

ready poffeffed of more power, than an equal balance will allow, fhall continue to think they have not enough, but by cramping the hand that holds the balance, and by impeachments or diffenfions with the nobles, endeavour ftill for more; I cannot poffibly fee, in the common courfe of things, how the fame caufes can produce different effects and confequences among us, from what they did in Greece and Roine.

The

53

The PUBLIC SPIRIT of the WHIGS, fet forth in their generous encouragement of the author of the CRISIS

With fome obfervations on the seasonableness, can. dor, erudition, and style of that treatise.

[Upon the first publication of this pamphlet, all the Scotch Lords, ' then in London, went in a body, and complained to Queen ANNE of the affront put on them and their nation by the author of this treatife. Whereupon a proclamation was published by her Majefty, offering a reward of 300 1. to dif cover him. The reafon for offering so small a sum was, that the Queen and miniftry had no defire to have the author taken into cuftody.]

I

Cannot, without fome envy, and a juft refentment against the oppofite conduct of others, reflect upon that generosity and tenderness, wherewith the heads and principal members of a struggling faction treat those

who

* It was written in the year 1712, by the confent if not the encouragement of the minifters of that era, in answer to the Crifis, by Sir Richard Steele. Orrery.

1 F

The noble commentator who appears in another instance to have given an account of the works of his author, from a perufal of no more than a title † in the Dublin editions, has been betrayed into mistakes, which, if he had read the piece, he would have efcaped. This tract, in the title which his Lordship confulted, is faid to have been written in the year 1712: but in that part of it which moft deferves the notice of a critic, because it oc cafioned a complaint in the houfe of Lords, mention is made of æmotion to diffolve the union, which did not happen till 17134 The complaint, which is faid in the note to happen upon the firft

See the note on Voyage to Brobdingnag, chap. 6. vol. 4.