454 takes room to the evident hazard of his royal reputation? And what amends will he make to the nation for the heart-burnings and jealoufies, which are the natural fruit of fuch a procedure? Yet thefe, gentlemen, are the leaft of the mischiefs that may be apprehended from his behaviour upon the footing of his own plea.

I will venture however to affert, that, as far as hitherto appears, the weight of evidence and probability is on the contrary fide. Now, fuppofing the charge to be true, there can be no need of long argument to convince you of the injury done to the nation, by fuffering fuch capital offenders to efcape. For what is this but to defraud us of the only compenfation we can expect for the lofs of fo many important territories; a lofs rendered till more grievous by the indignity of paying a penfion, as we notoriously do, to the foreign minifter who negotiated the ruinous bargain? Yet even thefe confiderations are infinitely outweighed by the danger to which the whole nation must be expofed from the continued operation of fo much authority, influence, and favour, to their prejudice, and above all from the poffibility that the fupreme government of the kingdom may by the regency act devolve to a perfon directly and pofitively accused of high treafon. Even the encouragement that fuch an impunity mult give to future treafons, is enough to fill a thinking mind with the most painful apprehenfions. We live in an age, not greatly addicted to fcruples, when the open avowal of domeftic venality feems to lead men, by an eafy gradation, to connexions equally mercenary with foreigners and enemies. How then can we expect il-difpofed perfons to refift a temptation of this fort, when they find that treafon may be detected, and proofs of it offered to a magiftrate, without producing either punishment or enquiry? The confequence of this may be our living to fee a French party, as well as a court party, in parliament, which, fhould it ever happen, no imagination can fufficiently paint the calamitous and horrid ftate to which our late glorious triumphs might finally be reduced, When I talk of a French party in parliament, I do not speak a mere vifionary lan

Sept

guage unfupported by experients. The hiftories of all ages inform as, thi France, where other weapons hast failed, has conftantly had recourfe to the lefs alarming weapons of intrigu and corruption. And how effectual thefe have fometimes been, we have a recent and tragical example in the to tal enflaving Corfica.

1 have been thus particular in enumerating the evils that may refult from the refufal of Lord Halifax, not from a defire of aggravating that nobleman's offence, but merely to evince the neceffity of a speedy enquiry, while there is yet a chance of its not being wholely fruitless. Though the courte of my narrative has unavoidably led me to accufe his lordship, accufation is not my object, but enquiry, which cannot be disagreeable to any but thofe to whom truth itself is difagreeable. In purfuing this point I have hitherto been fruftrated from the very circumftance which ought to have infured my fuccefs, the immenfe importance of the queftion. It has been apprehended, how justly I know not, that any magiftrate who fhould commence an enquiry, or any gentleman who should openly move for it, would be deemed refponfible for the truth of the charge, and fubjected to severe penalties, if he could not make it good. This imagination, however, did not deter me, though fingle and unprotected, from carrying my papers to the fpeaker, to be laid before the late Houfe of Commons. The speaker was pleafed to justify my conduct, in allowing that the affair ought to be enquired into, but refused at the fame time to be inftrumental in promoting the enquiry himself. What then remained to be done? What, but to wait, though with reluctance and impatience, till a proper opportunity fhould offer for appealing to the public at large, that is, till the accumulated errors of government thould awaken a fpirit of enquiry too powerful to be refifted or eluded! That this fpirit is now reviving, we have a fofficient earnest in the unanimous zeal you have fhewn for the appointment of a county meeting. In fuch a conjuncture to withhold from you so im portant a truth, would no longer be prudence, it would be to difgrace my former conduct, it would thew that I

had

1769.

had been actuated by fome temporary amotives, and not by a steady and uniform regard to national good. In deed the declared purpose of your meeting is in itself a call upon every freeholder to disclose whatever you are concerned to know. I obey this call without hesitation, fubmitting the profecution of the affair to your judgment, in full confidence that the refult of your deliberations will do honour at the fame time to your prudence, candor, and patriotism. Plymouth, Aug. 12, 1769.

465

The gentlemen whom you have given as your witneffes, cannot deny you this juftification of their own veracity and your's.

Though I cannot but commend your integrity in citing your authors, yet it appears to me an act of the laft imprudence, in an affair of Co much weight, to build upon report for naming publicly a perfon of my character, without having previously confulted him. If you had recollected the contradiction I gave in The St. James's Chronicle of October 25, 1766," No. 881, to an advertisement in the

SIR,

OU will permit me to believe

of me, than I have the honour of knowing of you; and if in your letter of the 12th of Auguft you had not made a wrong ufe of my name, I should not now find myfelf obliged to enter into a correfpondence with you. You pretend that "in the fummer of the year 1764, overtures were made in my name to feveral members of parliament, importing, that I was ready to impeach three perfons, two of whom were peers and members of the privy council, of having fold the peace to the French." And you feem to found thereupon the evidence of a charge which you fay you carried yourfelf to Lord Halifax.

I declare therefore here, fir, that I never made, nor caufed to be made, any fuch overture, either in the winter or fummer of the year 1764, nor at any other time. I am on one fide, too faithful to the office I filled; and on the other, too zealous a friend to truth.

I confess you do not fay it was I that made these overtures; but only that they were made in my name, particularly to Sir George Yonge, and Mr. Fitzherbert,

I affure you I do not know either of these gentlemen, and never authorifed any perfon whatever to make in my name fuch overtures, which the abhorrence alone I have for calumny, would make me deteft.

I call upon you, therefore, fir, to Jay before the public the name of the audacious perfon who has made ufe of mine to cover his own odious offers.

fubftance what you alledge in your laft letter, you had faved me the trouble of replying to you at this time. What

have read greedily your letter; will have believed its contents, because you appeal therein to my teftimony: but what will they think now when your own intereft, my honour and truth oblige me to deny all that you have advanced therein with respect to me ?

It is the fame with your pretence that "about the 17th of May, 1765, Mr. Fitzherbert told you, he knew that overtures had been made to me to fell for a fum of money the papers that were in my hands."

I have always flattered myfelf with being poffeffed of the esteem and friendfhip of the English with whom I have lived. Who of them then in thefe fentiments would have prefumed to have fhewn fufficient contempt for me to have made me fuch an overture? The injury would have been the more fenfibly felt by me, as the character of the perfon was more refpectable.

I fhall not follow you, fir, either in all the fteps you have thought it your duty to take, or in the arguments you make ufe of to fupport them: these fhew the orator, and thofe, if they be well founded, prove the patriot,

But I here certify to you, on my word of honour, and in the face of the public, that I cannot be of any fort of ufe to you; that I never entered into any treaty for the fale of my papers, and never, either by myself or any agent authorised on my part, offered to make appear, that the peace had been fold to France.

If Lord Halifax, or the speaker, to whom

466

whom you fay you caddressed yourfelf, in order to call upon me as evidence with respect to the validity of your charge, had caufed me to be cited, they would have perceived by my answers, that I am of opinion, that England rather gave money to France, than France to England, to conclude the laft peace; and that the happiness I had in concurring to the great work of peace has infpired me with fentiments of the justeft veneration for the English commiffioners who had been employed in it, and with the most lively esteem and fincereft admiration for the late Count de Viry, who in his attachment to the welfare of the two nations then at war, and thanks to his indefatigable zeal! had the glory of bringing that peace to a happy conclufion,

Judge now, fir, with what folidity you can depend upon me to make your charge clear.

I am too well known in England to have been under any neceflity of this reply, if the frankness of your letter had not appeared to me to merit my preventing you from taking any further steps, which could not but turn to your prejudice, in as much as they would be founded folely on falfe reports of my proceedings.

In order to enable you to be as prudent as patriotic, I fign this letter, and therein give you my addrefs, that for the maintenance of your own veracity you may furnish me with the means of convicting publicly thofe danderers who have dared to make ufe of my name, in a manner ftill more repugnant to real facts, than the dignity with which I have ever supported my character.

I have the honour of being
Your most humble fervant,
The Chevalier D'EON.
In Petty France, Westminster,

ON PREDESTINATION.
To the AUTHOR of the LONDON
MAGAZINE.

Sept.

dift. I pitied the fix pious youths who were expelled the university, and thought, they deferved a better fate. While I was meditating_on_thefe things, a clergyman, to whom I communicated my thoughts, defired me to be very cautious in determining for or against any fect or opinion. Read, fays he, on both fides the question. Remember what Solomon obferves, “He that is first in his own cause seemeth juft, but his neighbour cometh and fearcheth him." If you then doubt, apply to fome fober and discreet perfon, on whofe judgment and veracity you can depend; if mankind would but follow this advice, probably there would not be fo many fectaries among us. Novelty moft people are fond of, and the most abfurd opinions have had their admirers and, followers, Many flourish for a season, and then drop into oblivion. Saying this, he put into my hands Dr. Noel's answer to the above book. I read, admired, and was again a Church of England man. Some time after, Goliath flain appeared. Agreeable to my worthy clergyman's advice, I read the book, and was not a little diftreffed. The au thor of Pietas Oxonienfis, and Goliath flain, acquits himself (I ac, knowledge with the reviewers) as an able advocate in the caufe he has undertaken to defend. Still he perfe veres in his opinion, predestination to damnation, and once a child of God, always a child of God. Mentioningthis to my faithful Mentor, he deli vered his opinion in the manner following.

Firit, As to predestination to damnation. This, fays he, is certainly contrary to the divine attribute of mercy, and (if I am not mistaken) to revelation. The fcripture declares, Gen. i. 27. "That God made man after his own image," and Cor. iii. 22, "The Lord faid, Behold the man is become as on of us, to know good and evil." Here is no room for predeftination to damnation; no fuch thought in thofe early days. Let us proceed to later revelation. The apoftle St. Peter declares, "That

any