itself even in this court, it has not made the flightest impression on me. The highest flight of fuch clamorous birds is winged in an inferiour region of the air. We hear them and we look upon them, juft as you, Gentlemen, when you enjoy the ferene air on your lofty rocks, look down upon the Gulls, that skim the mud of your river, when it is exhausted of its tide.

I am forry I cannot conclude, without faying a word on a topic touched upon by my worthy colleague. I wished that topic had been paffed by; at a time, when I have fo little leafure, to disculs it. But fince he has thought proper to throw it out, I owe you a clear explanation of my poor fentiments on that subject.

وو

He tells you, that,, the topic of Inftructions has occafioned much altercation and uneafiness in this ,, City;" and he exprelles himself (if I understand him rightly) in favour of the coercive authority of fuch inftructions.

Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happinefs and glory of a Representative, to live in the stricteft union, the closest correfpondence, and the most unreferved communication with his Conftituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion high refpect; their bufinefs unremitted attention. It is his duty to facrifice his repofe, his plea fures, his fatisfactions, to theirs; and, above all, ever, and in all cafes, to prefer their intereft to his own. But, his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgement, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to facrifice to you; to any man, or to any fett of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the Law and the Conftitution. They

are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your Representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he be trays, instead of ferving you, if he facrifices it to your opinion.

My

My worthy colleague fays, his Will ought to be fubfervient to yours. If that be all, the thing is innocent. If Government were a matter of Will upon any fide, yours, without queftion, ought to be fuperiour. But Government and Legislation are matters of reason and judgement, and not of inclination; and, what fort of reafon is that, in which the determination precedes the discuffion; in which one fet of inen delibe rate, and another decide; and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant from those who hear the arguments?

To deliver an opinion, is the right of all men; that of conftituents is a weighty and respectable opinion, which a Representative ought always to rejoice to hear; and which he ought always most seriously to confider. But authoritative instructions; Mandates issued, which the Member is bound, blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the conviction of his cleareft judgement and conscience; these are things uterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which arife from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenour of our Constitution.

Parliament is not a Congress of Ambassadors from different and hostile interests, which interests each must maintain, as an Agent and Advocate, against other Agents and Advocates; but Parliament is a deliberative Allembly of one Nation, with one intereft, that of the whole; where, not local Purposes, not local Preju dices ought to guide, but the general Good, resulting from the general Reason of the whole. You chuse a Member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not Member of Bristol, but he is a Member of Parliament. If the local Constituent fhould have an Intereft, or fhould chorifh an hasty Opinion, evidently oppo fite to the real good of the rest of the Community, the Member for that place ought to be as far, as any other, from any endeavour to give it Effect. I beg pardon for faying fo much on this fubject. I have been unwillingly drawn into it; but I fhall ever ufe a refpectful frankness of communication with you. Your faith

ful

ful friend, your devoted fervant, I fhall be to the end of my life: A flatterer you do not wish for. On this point of inftructions, however, I think it scarcely poffible, we ever can have any fort of difference. Perhaps I may give you too much, rather than too little

trouble.

From the first hour I was encouraged to court your favour to this happy day of obtaining it, I have never promised you any thing, but humble and persevering endeavours to do my duty. The weight of that duty, I confefs', makes me tremble; and whoever well confiders, what it is of all things in the world, will fly from what has the least likeness to a poffitive and precipitate engagement. To be a good Member of Parliament, is, let me tell you, no easy task; especially at this time, when there is so ftrong a dispofition to run into the perilous extremes of fervile compliance or wild popularity. To unite circumspection with vigour, is abfolutely necellary; but it is extremely difficult. We are now Members for a rich commercial ̧City; this City, however, is but a part of a rich commercial Nation, the interests of which are various, multiform, and intricate. We are Members for that great Nation, which however is itself but part of a great Empire, extended by our Virtue and our Fortune to the fartheft limits of the Eaft and of the Weft. All these widespread Interests must be confidered; must be compared; must be reconciled if poffible. We are Members for a free Country; and furely we all know, that the machine of a free Constitution is no fimple thing; but as intricate and as delicate, as it is valuable. We are Members in a great and ancient Monarchy; and we must preserve religiously, the true legal rights of the Sovereign, which form the Key-ftone that binds together the noble and well conftructed arch of our Empire and our Constitution. A Conftitution made up of balanced Powers must ever be a critical thing. As fuch I mean to touch that part of it which comes within my reach. I know my Inability, and I wish for fupport from every Quarter. In particular I fhall aim at the friendship, and fhall cultivate the best

Corre

Correfpondence, of the worthy Colleague, you hav given me.

I trouble you no farther than once more to thank you all; you, Gentlemen, for your Favours; the Candidates for their temperate and polite behaviour; and the Sheriffs, for a Conduct which may give a model for all who are in public Stations.

VI. Deuts

VI.

Deutsch e.

Mosheim.

Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, geb. zu Lübeck, 1694; geft. als stanzler der Üniversität Göttingen, 1755. Für die Beutsche geistliche Beredsamkeit war er das, was Tillotson für die englische war; der erste, der ihren Geschmack läuterte, unb dem Vortrage der Religionslehren jene pedantische, unnatürliche, und nicht selten abgeschmackte Gestalt nahm, in der sie sich so lange, und gewiß nicht zu ihrem Vortheil, gezeigt hatte. Ihm half die Natur, fagt Hr. Pref. Rüttner in seiner Charakteristik, obgleich feine große Belefenheit und der Umfang theologischer Kenntniffe feine Geistesfähigkeiten mächtig unterfügten. Man Fann sagen, daß in seinen Predigten alle Vollkommenheiten einer Kanzelrede vereinigt find: Gründlichkeit, starke Motiven, edle Faßlichkeit, und herzrührende Moral. Seine Schrifterklärungen find ungezwungen; die Entwickelung der darin enthaltenen Wahrs heiten ist natürlich und bündig; die daraus gezogenen Lehren übers zeugen und rühren. Er redet meistens mit einiger Begeisterung, immer mit gleichem Feuer, und oft mit dichterischer Lebhaftigkeit. Seine Beredsamkeit ist eine Tochter geprüfter Frömmigkeit, und des aufgeklärteßten Verstandes: " Bei der jetzigen Les fung einer Mosheimischen Predigt muß man indeß nicht vergessen, daß unsre Profe vor mehr als sechszig Jahren noch sehr in ihrer Kindheit, unsre Sprache noch wenig gewandt und bereichert, uns fer Geschmack noch wenig gebildet war. Mosheim's Beispiel wirkte aber gewiß nicht wenig, diesen Unvollkommenheiten abzus helfen, und Gefühl für das Edle, Starke und Würdige auf einem Wege zu verbreiten, der ohne Zweifel zur Erreichung des Ziels einer der kürzesten und gebahntesten ist. Die Predigt, welche die hier eingerückte kurze Stelle enthält, handelt von der wahren Ber trachtung des Todes, und ist schon im J. 1729 zu Braune schweig gehalten:

Wir gestehen gerne, daß wir euch zu einer Sache ermaß, nen, die der Natur zugleich schwer und unangenehm ist. Es find zweierlei Dinge, die uns abhalten, die Kraft unserer Seele, die man die Einbildung nennt, so in dieser Sache anzuwenden, als wir pflegen in andern Dingen zu thun. Das eine ist unser Leben, welches voll von allerhand Ges schäften, Verwirrungen, Arbeiten und Abwechselungen ist, Geisp. Samml. 8. B. 2. Abth.

die