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poffible for him to live another century, he would never find any period, at which a man might with fafety impugn the infallibility of a minifter.

The cafe is no more than this; my honeft friend has invefted his whole fortune in the Stocks, on Government fecurity, and trembles at every whiff of popular discontent. Were every British fubject of the fame tame and timid difpofition, Magna Charta (to use the coarse phrafe of Oliver Cromwell) would be no more regarded by an ambitious Prince than Magna F-ta, and the liberties of England expire without a groan. Oppofition, when reftrained within due bounds, is the falubrious gale that ventilates the opinions of the people, which might otherwife ftagnate into the most abject fubmiffion. It may be faid to purify the atmosphere of politics; to difpel the grofs vapours raifed by the influence of minifterial artifice and corruption, until the Conftitution, like a mighty rock, ftands full difclofed to the view of every individual, who dwells within the fhade of its protection. Even when this gale blows with augmented violence, it generally tends to the advantage of the Commonwealth: it awakes the apprehenfion, and confequently aroufes all the faculties of the pilot at the helm, who redoubles his vigilance and caution, exerts his utmoft fkill, and becoming acquainted with the nature of the navigation, in a little time learns to fuit his canvas to the roughnefs of the fea, and the trim of the veffel. Without thefe intervening ftorms of oppofition to exercise his faculties, he would become enervate, negligent, and prefumptuous; and in the wantonnefs of his power, trusting to fome deceitful calm, perhaps hazard a step that would wreck the conftitution. Yet there is a meafure in all things. A moderate froft will fertilize the glebe with nitrous particles, and deftroy the eggs of pernicious infects, that prey upon the fancy of the

year:

year but if this froft increases in severity and duration, it will chill the feeds, and even freeze up the roots of vegetables; it will check the bloom, nip the buds, and blaft all the promife of the fpring. The vernal breeze that drives the fogs before it, that brushes the cobwebs from the boughs, that fans the air and fofters vegetation, if augmented to a tempeft, will ftrip the leaves, overthrow the tree, and defolate the garden. The aufpicious gale before which the trim veffel plows the bofom of the fea, while the mariners are kept alert in duty and in fpirits, if converted to a hurricane, overwhelms the crew with terror and confufion. The fails are rent, the cordage cracked, the mafts give way; the mafter eyes the havock with mute defpair, and the veffel founders in the ftorm. Oppofition, when confined within its proper channel, fweeps away thofe beds of foil and banks of fand which corruptive power had gathered; but when it overflows its banks, and deluges the plain, its courfe is marked by ruin and devaftation.

The oppofition neceffary in a free ftate, like that of Great Britain, is not at all incompatible with that national concord, which ought to unite the people on all emergencies, in which the general fafety is at ftake. It is the jealoufy of patriotifm, not the rancour of party; the warmth of candour, not the virulence of hate; a tranfient difpute among friends, not an implacable feud that admits of no reconciliation. The hiftory of all ages teems with the fatal effects of internal difcord; and were hiftory and tradition annihilated, common fenfe would plainly point out the mischiefs that must arife from want of harmony and national union. Every school-boy can have recourse to the fable of the rods, which, when united in a bundle, no ftrength could bend; but when feparated into fingle twigs, a child could break with ease.

ESSAY

ESSAY X.

I HAVE spent the greater part of my life in making obfervations on men and things, and in projecting fchemes for the advantage of my country; and though my labours met with an ungrateful return, I will ftill perfift in my endeavours for its fervice, like that venerable, unfhaken, and neglected patriot Mr. Jacob Henriquez, who, though of the Hebrew nation, hath exhibited a fhining example of Chriftian fortitude and perfeverance*. And here my

confcience urges me to confefs, that the hint upon which the following propofals are built was taken from an advertisement of the faid patriot Henriquez, in which he gave the public to understand, that Heaven had indulged him with " feven bleffed daughters." Bleffed they are, no doubt, on account of their own and their father's virtues; but more bleffed may they be, if the fcheme I offer fhould be adopted by the Legiflature.

The proportion which the number of females born in thefe kingdoms bears to the male children, is, I think, fuppofed to be as thirteen to fourteen but as women are not fo fubject as the other fex to accidents and intemperance, in numbering adults we fhall, find the balance on the female fide. If, in calculating the numbers of the people, we take in the multitudes that emigrate to the Plantations, whence they never return, thofe that die at fea and make their exit at Tyburn, together with

* Aman well known at this period (1762), as well as during many preceding years, for the numerous fchemes he was daily offering to various Minifters for the purpose of raifing money by loans, paying off the national incumbrances, &c. &c. none of which, however, were ever known to have received the fmalleft notice.

the

the confumption of the prefent war by fea and land in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, in the German and Indian Oceans, in Old France, New France, North America, the Leeward Islands, Germany, Africa, and Afia, we may fairly ftate the lofs of men during the war at one hundred thoufand. If this be the cafe, there must be a fuperplus of the other fex amounting to the fame number, and this fuperplus will confift of women able to bear arms; as I take it for granted, that all those who are fit to bear children are likewife fit to bear arms. Now as we have feen the nation governed by old women, I hope to make it appear that it may be defended by young women; and furely this fcheme will not be rejected as unneceffary at fuch a juncture *, when our armies in the four quarters of the globe are in want of recruits; when we find ourselves entangled in a new war with Spain, on the eve of a rupture in Italy, and indeed in a fair way of being obliged to make head against all the great Potentates of Europe.

But, before I unfold my defign, it may be neceffary to obviate, from experience as well as argument, the objections which may be made to the delicate frame and tender difpofition of the female fex, rendering them incapable of the toils, and infuperably averfe to the horrors of war. All the world has heard of the nation of Amazons, who inhabited the banks of the river Thermodoon in Cappadocia ; who expelled their men by force of arms, defended themselves by their own prowess, managed the reins of government, profecuted the operations in war, and held the other fex in the utmoft contempt. We are informed by Homer, that Penthefilea, queen of the Amazons, acted as auxiliary to Priam, and fell valiantly fighting in his caufe before the walls of Troy. Quintus Curtius tells us, that Thaleftris

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brought one hundred armed Amazons in a prefent to Alexander the Great. Diodorus Siculus expreffly fays, there was a nation of female warriors in Africa, who fought against the Lybian Hercules. We read in the Voyages of Columbus, that one of the Caribbee Iflands was poffeffed by a tribe of female warriors, who kept all the neighbouring Indians in awe ; but we need not go farther than our own age and country to prove, that the fpirit and conftitution of the fair fex are equal to the dangers and fatigues of war. Every novice who has read the authentic and important History of the Pirates, is well acquainted with the exploits of two heroines, called Mary Read and Anne Bonny. I myself have had the honour to drink with Anne Caffier, alias Mother Wade, who had diftinguifhed herself among the Buccaneers of America, and in her old age kept a punch-houfe in Port-Royal of Jamaica. I have likewife conversed with Moll Davis, who had ferved as a dragoon in all queen Anne's wars, and was admitted on the penfion of Chelfea. The late war with Spain, and even the prefent, hath produced inftances of females enlifting both in the land and fea fervice, and behaving with remarkable bravery in the difguife of the other fex. And who has not heard of the celebrated Jenny Cameron, and fome other enterprifing ladies of NorthBritain, who attended a certain Adventurer in all his expeditions, and headed their refpective clans in a military character? That ftrength of body is often equal to the courage of mind implanted in the fair fex, will not be denied by thofe who have seen the waterwomen of Plymouth; the female drudges of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland; the fishwomen of Billingfgate; the weeders, podders, and hoppers; who fwarm in the fields; and the bunters who iwagger in the ftreets of London; not to mention the indefatigable trulls who follow the camp, and keep up

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