the prefent hour, and with the profits of his employment. He is the tenant of the day, and has no interest in the inheritance. The fovereign himself is bound by other obligations, and ought to look forward to a fuperior, a permanent interest. His paternal tenderness should remind him how many hoftages he has given to fociety. The ties of nature come powerfully in aid of oaths and proteftations, The father, who confiders his own precarious state of health, and the poffible hazard of a long minority, will wish to fee the family eftate free and unincumbered. What is the dignity of the crown, though it were really maintained ; what is the honour of parliament, fuppofing it could exift without any foundation of integrity and justice-or what is the vain reputation of firmnefs, even if the fcheme of government were uniform and confiftent, compared with the heart-felt affections of the people, with the happiness and fecurity of the royal family, or even with the grateful acclamations of the populace. Whatever stile of contempt may be adopted by minifters or parliaments, no man fincerely defpifes the voice of the English nation. The houfe of Commons are only interpreters, whofe duty it is to convey the fense of the people faithfully to the crown. If the interpretation be falfe or imperfect, the conftituent powers

ments.

powers are called upon to deliver their own fenti Their speech is rude, but intelligible ;their geftures fierce, but full of explanation. Perplexed by fophiftries, their honeft eloquence rifes into action. The first appeal was to the integrity of their reprefentatives :-the fecond to the King's justice; the last argument of the people, whenever they have recourse to it, will carry more perhaps then perfuafion to parliament, or fupplication to the throne.

JUNIUS.

LETTER

SIR,

WH

XXXVI.

May 28, 1770.

HILE parliament was fitting, it would neither have been fafe, nor perhaps quite regular, to offer any opinion to the public, upon the justice or wisdom of their proceedings. To pronounce fairly upon their conduct, it was neceffary to wait until we could confider, in one view, the beginning, the progrefs, and the conclufion of their deliberations. The caufe of the public was undertaken and supported by men, from whose abilities and united authority, to fay nothing of the advantageous ground they stood on, might

well

well be thought fufficient to determine a popular question in favour of the people. Neither was the houfe of Commons fo abfolutely engaged in defence of the Ministry, or even of their own refolutions, but that they might have paid fome decent regard to the known difpofition of their Conftituents, and without any difhonour to their firmnefs, might have retracted an opinion too hastily adopted, when they faw the alarm it had created, and how strongly it was oppofed by the general fense of the Nation. The Miniftry too would have confulted their own immediate intereft, in making fome conceffion fatisfactory to the moderate part the people. Without touching the fact, they might have consented to guard against, or give up the dangerous principle, on which it was eftablished. In this ftate of things, I think it was highly improbable at the beginning of the feffion, that the complaints of the people upon a matter, which, in their apprehenfion at leaft, immediately affected the life of the conftitution, would be treated with as much contempt by their own reprefentatives, and by the houfe of Lords, as they had been by the other branch of the legislature. Despairing of their integrity, we had a right to ex pect fomething from their prudence, and fomething from their fears. The Duke of Grafton

certainly

He

certainly did not foresee to what an extent the corruption of a Parliament might be carried. thought, perhaps, that there was still fome portion of fhame or virtue left in the majority of the houfe of Commons, or that there was a line in public proftitution, beyond which they would fcruple to proceed. Had the young man been a little more practised in the world, or had he ventured to measure the characters of other men by his own, he would not have been fo eafily difcou raged.

The prorogation of parliament naturally calls upon us to review their proceedings, and to confider the condition in which they have left the kingdom. I do not queftion but they have done what is ufually called the King's Bufinefs much to his Majesty's fatisfaction. We have only to lament, that, in confequence of a fyftem introduced or revived in the present reign, this kind of merit should be very confiftent with the neglect of every duty they owe to the nation. The interval between the opening of the last and the clofe of the former Seffion was longer than usual. Whatever were the views of the Minifter in deferring the meeting of Parliament, fufficient time was certainly given to every Member of the house of Commons, to look back upon the fteps he had taken, and the

con.

confequences they had produced. The zeal of party, the violence of perfonal animofities, and the heat of contention had leisure to fubfide. From that period, whatever refolution they took was deliberate and propenfe. In the preceding Seffion, the dependents of the Ministry had affected to believe, that the final determination of the queftion would have satisfied the nation, or at least put a stop to their complaints; as if the certainty of an evil could diminish the fenfe of it, or the nature of injustice could be altered by. decifion.

But they found the people of England were in a temper very distant from fubmiffion; and, altho' it was contended that the houfe of Commons. could not themfelves reverfe a refolution, which had the force and effect of a judicial fentence, there were other constitutional expedients, which would have given a fecurity against any fimilar attempts for the future. The general propofition, in which the whole country had an intereft, might have been reduced to a particular fact, in which Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Luttrell would alone have been concerned. The houfe of Lords might interpofe; -the King might diffolve the Parliament ;-or, if every other refource failed, there ftill lay a grand. conftitutional Writ of Error, in behalf of the people, from the decifion of one court to the wif

dom