mistaken zeal for particular perfons and families, as they ever did in defence of what they thought most dear and interesting to themselves.

Ir naturally fills us with refentment, to fee fuch a temper infulted and abused. In reading the history of a free people, whofe rights have been invaded, we are interested in their caufe. Our own feelings tell us how long they ought to have fubmitted, and at what moment it would have been treachery to themselves not to have refifted. How much warmer will be our refentment, if experince should bring the fatal example home to ourselves!

THE fituation of this country is alarming enough to roufe the attention of every man, who pretends to a concern for the public welfare. Appearances juftify fufpicion; and, when the safety of a nation is at stake, suspicion is a juft ground of enquiry. Let us enter into it with candour and decency. Refpect is due to the ftation of minifters; and, if a refolution must at laft be taken, there is none fo likely to be fupported with firmnefs, as that which has been adopted with moderation.

THE ruin or prosperity of a state depends

fo

To much upon the administration of its government, that, to be acquainted with the merit of a miniftry, we need only obferve the condition of the people. If we fee them obedient to the laws, profperous in their industry, united at home, and reIpected abroad, we may reasonably preTume that their affairs are conducted by men of experience, abilities, and virtue. If, on the contrary, we fee an universal spirit of diftruft and diffatisfaction, a rapid decay of trade, diffentions in all parts of the empire, and a total loss of respect in the eyes of foreign powers, we may pronounce, without hesitation, that the government of that country is weak, diftracted, and corrupt. The multitude, in all countries, are patient to a certain point. Ill ufage may roufe their indignation, and hurry them into exceffes, but the original fault is in government. Perhaps there never was an instance of a change in the circumstances and temper of a whole nation, fo fudden and extraordinary as that which the misconduct of minifters has, within thefe few years, produced in Great Britain. When our gracious fovereign afcended the throne, we were a flourishing and a contented people. If the perfonal virtues of a king could have infured the happiness of his fubjects, the fcene could not have altered fo entirely as

it has done. The idea of uniting all parties, of trying all characters, and diftributing the offices of ftate by rotation, was gracious and benevolent to an extreme, though it has not yet produced the many falutary effects which were intended by it. To fay nothing of the wifdom of fuch a plan, it undoubtedly. arofe from an unbounded goodnefs of heart, in which folly. had no fhare. It was not a capricious partiality to new faces ;-it was not a natural turn for low intrigue; nor was it the treacherous amusement of double and triple negotiations. No, Sir, it arofe from a continued anxiety, in the pureft of all poffible hearts, for the general welfare. Unfortunately for us, the event has not been answerable to the defign. After a rapid fucceffion of changes we are reduced to that state, which hardly any change can mend. Yet there is no extremity of diftrefs, which of itself ought to reduce a great nation to defpair. It is not the diforder but the physician;-it is not a cafual concurrence of calamitous circumftances, it is the pernicious hand of government, which alone can make a whole people defperate.

WITHOUT much political fagacity, or any extraordinary depth of observation, we need only mark how the principal departments of the itate are beftowed, and look no

farther

farther for the true caufe of every mischief that befals us.

* THE finances of a nation, finking under its debts and expences, are committed to a B 3. young,

* When the Duke of Grafton firft entered into office, it was the fashion of the times to fuppofe that young men might have wisdom without experience. They thought fo themfelves, and the most important affairs of this country were committed to the first trial of their abilities. His grace had honourably flesht his maiden fword in the field of oppofition, and had gone through all the difcipline of the minority with credit. He dined at Wildman's, railed at favourites, looked up to Lord Chatham with astonishment, and was the declared advocate of Mr. Wilkes. It afterwards pleafed his Grace to enter into administration with his friend Lord Rockingham, and, in a very little time, it pleafed his Grace to abandon hires He then accepted of the treafury upon terms which Lord Temple had difdained.. For a fhort time his fubmiffion to Lord Chatham was unlimited. He could not answer a private letter without Lord Chatham's permiffion. I prefume he was then learning his trade, for he foon fet up for himself. Until he declared himself the minifter, his character had been but little underfood. From that moment a system of conduct, directed by paffion and caprice, not only. reminds us that he is a young man, but a young man without folidity or judgment. One day he defpondsand threatens to refign. The next, he finds his blood heated, and swears to his friend he is determined to go on. In his public measures we have feen no proof either of ability or confiftence, The Stamp-act had been repealed

young nobleman already ruined by play. Introduced to act under the auspices of Lord Chatham, and left at the head of affairs by that nobleman's retreat, he became minifter

by

repealed (no matter how unwifely) under the preceding administration. The colonies had reafon to triumph, and were returning to their good humour. The point was decided, when this young man thought proper to revive it. Without either plan or neceffity, he adopts the fpirit of Mr. Grenville's measures, and renews the queftion of taxation in a form more odious and lefs effectual than that of the law, which had been repealed.

WITH refpect to the invafion of Corfica, it will be matter of parliamentary enquiry, whether he has carried on a fecret negociation with the French court, in terins contradictory to the refolution of council, and to the inftructions drawn up thereupon by his Majesty's fecretary of state. If it shall appear that he has quitted the line of his department to betray the honour and fecurity of his country, and if there be a power fufficient to protect him, in fuch a cafe, against public juftice, the conftitution of Great Britain is at an end.

His ftanding foremost in the perfecution of Mr. Wilkes, if former declarations and connections be confidered, is bafe and contemptible. The man, whom he now brands with treafon and blafphemy, but a very few years ago was the duke of Grafton's friend, nor is his identity altered, except by his misfortunes. In the laft inftance of his Grace's judgment and inconfiftency, we fee him, after trying and deferting every party, throw himself into the arms of a fet of men, whose political principles he had always pretended to abhor.

Thefe