1

till his face is well known, and he has got at last the character of a good cuftomer. By this means he gets credit for fomething confiderable, and then never pays for it.

In all this the young man, who is the unhappy subject of our prefent reflections, was very expert; and could face, fineer, and bring custom to a fhop with any man in England: none of his companions could exceed him in this; and his very companions at laft faid that The.-would be hanged.

As he grew old he grew never the better; he loved ortolans and green peafe as before; he drank gravy-foup when he could get it, and always thought his oyfters tafted beft when he got them for nothing, or which was juft the fame, when he bought them upon tick thus the old man kept up the vices of the youth, and what he wanted in power, he made up by inclination; fo that all the world thought that old The.-would be hanged.

And now reader, I have brought him to his last fcene; a scene where perhaps my duty fhould have obliged me to affift. You expect, perhaps, his dying words, and the tender farewell he took of his wife and children; you expect an account of his coffin and white gloves, his pious ejaculations, and the papers he left behind him. In this I cannot indulge your curiofity; for, oh! the myfteries of Fate, The. -was drowned!

"Reader," as Hervey faith, "pause and ponder; "and ponder and pause; who knows what thy own "end may be !"

ESSAY I IX.

I TAKE the liberty to communicate to the public a few loose thoughts upon a fubject, which, though often handled, has not yet in my opinion been fully difcuffed: I mean National Concord, Unanimity, which in this kingdom has been generally confidered as a bare poffibility, that exifted no where but in fpeculation. Such an union is

or

perhaps neither to be expected nor wifhed for in a country, whofe liberty depends rather upon the genius of the people, than upon any precautions which they have taken in a conftitutional way for the guard and preservation of this ineftimable bleffing.

There is a very honeft gentleman with whom I have been acquainted thefe thirty years, during which there has not been one fpeech uttered against the miniftry in parliament, nor ftruggle at an election for a burgefs to ferve in the Houfe of Commons, nor a pamphlet published in oppofition to any measure of the Adminiftration, nor even a private censure paffed in his hearing upon the mifconduct of any perfon concerned in public affairs, but he is iminediately alarmed, and loudly exclaims against fuch factious doings, in order to fet the people by the ears together at fuch a delicate juncture. "At any other time (fays he) fuch oppofition might not be improper, and I don't queftion the facts that are alledged; but at this crifis, Sir, to inflame the nation!-the man deferves to be punifhed as a traitor to his country." In a word, according to this gentleman's opinion, the nation has been in a violent crifis at any time thefe thirty years; and were it

poffible

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 difcontent. Were every British fubject of the fame tame and timid difpofition, Magna Charta (to use the coarse phrase 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 raised 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 roughness of the fea, and the trim of the veffel. Without these intervening ftorms of oppofition to exercise his faculties, he would become enervate, negligent, and prefumptuous; and in the wantonnefs of his power, trufting 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 destroy the eggs of pernicious infects, that prey upon the fancy of the

year:

year but if this froft increases in feverity 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 strip 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 spirits, 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 vessel founders in the storm. 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 devastation.

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 mifchiefs that muft arife from want of harmony and national union. Every school-boy can have recourfe 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 eafe.

ESSAY

ESSAY X.

I HAVE spent the greater part of my life in making obfervations on men and things, and in projecting schemes for the advantage of my country; and though my labours met with an ungrateful return, I will still 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 scheme I offer fhould be adopted by the Legislature.

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 shall 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 raising money by loans, paying off the national incumbrances, &c. &c. none of which, however, were ever known to have received the smallest notice.

the