commons, for fuch offences as he had been convicted of, was both just and seasonable, and that no fuch calamity as the fubverfion of the conftitution, was to be feared from an act, that had ufage, which is the law of parliament, to warrant it. The non-acquiefcence of the people interested in the question, is therefore branded by him with folly and madness, in the following animated expreffions:- Every artifice of fedition has been fince practifed to awaken difcontent, and inflame indignation. The papers of every day have been filled with the exhortations and menaces of faction. The madnefs has fpread through all ranks and both fexes; women and children have clamoured for Mr. Wilkes: honeft fimplicity has ' been cheated into fury, and only the wife have escaped the infection.'

To ridicule the conduct of oppofition, he adopts a term, invented by the leaders thereof, and calls the conjuncture of events, at the time of which he is fpeaking, an alarming crifis, but endeavours to abate the fears of its termination, by alluding to parliamentary decifions apparently partial, and fometimes oppreffive; and fhewing, that the vexation excited by injuftice, fuffered, or fuppofed to be fuffered, by any private man or fingle community, was local and temporary. This pofition he illuftrates by the following obfervation: We have found by experience, that though a fquire has given ale and venifon in vain, and a borough has been compelled to fee its dearest <interests in the hands of him whom it did not trust,

yet the general state of the nation has continued the fame. The fun has rifen, and the corn has grown, and whatever talk has been of the danger of pro

perty

perty, yet he that ploughed the field commonly reaped it, and he that built the house was master of the door,'

In a tone more grave, he addreffes fuch as are capable of conviction, and tells them-that they have as much happiness as the condition of life will easily receive; and that a government, of which an erroneous, or unjust, representation of one county only, is the greatest crime that intereft can discover, or malice can upbraid, is a government approaching nearer to perfection than any that experience has fhewn, or hiftory related.'

The pamphlet concludes with fome fhrewd remarks on the fupport given to faction by the fectaries, and that frigid neutrality of the tories in this bufinefs, which he cenfures in thefe words:

<

They do not yet confider that they have at last a king, who knows not the name of a party, and who wishes to be the common father of his people.'

It was not to be imagined, that a publication, so unpopular as this, would long remain unanswered. Of many anfwers to it, one alone feemed to Johnfon worthy of a reply; but, in a confultation with his friends, he was advifed to forbear. Had he engaged in a vindication of The falfe alarm,' the world might poffibly have been entertained with a fpeci men of his abilities in controverfial writing, in which there is little doubt that he would have difplayed the temper and perfpicuity of Hooker, the ftrength of Chillingworth, and the dexterity of Hoadly, though, in truth, he was no friend to controverfy;

his opinion on that fubject being, that it feldom produced conviction, that an impotent argument against a book was beft refuted by filence, and that it is want of policy to give immortality to that which muft of itself expire.

In the next fucceeding year, a subject of more general importance to the interefts of this country engaged his attention: it was a question between us and the court of Spain, touching the pre-difcovery, and, confequently, the right of dominion over certain iflands in the South feas, known to us by the name of Pepys's or Falkland's iflands, and to the Spaniards by that of the Malouines, spots of earth fo inconfiderable, as Johnson afferts, that in the defert of the ocean they had almost escaped human notice ; and which, if they had not happened to make a feamark, had perhaps never had a name. Lord Anfon, in his voyage, had noticed thefe iflands, and the relator thereof had recommended them as neceffary to the fuccefs of any future expedition against the coaft of Chili, and, of fuch importance, that the poffeffion of them would produce many advantages in peace; and in war would make us mafters of the South fea. In 1748, our miniftry fent out a few floops, for a fuller knowledge of Pepys's and Falkland's islands, and for further discoveries in the South fea; but, upon a remonftrance of Wall, the Spanish ambaffador here, maintaining the right of his master to the exclusive dominion of the South fea, they relinquished part of their original defign, and our purpose of fettling there was difowned. Thus the matter refted, till lord Egmont was appointed to the

direction

direction of our naval operations, who, in the year 1765, fent out an expedition, the commander whereof took poffeffion of Falkland's island in the name of his Britannic majesty, and placed a garrison in a place of defence, to which he gave the appellation of Port Egmont. In this settlement, we were foon after difturbed; for Madariaga, a Spanish commodore, with five frigates and a train of artillery, appearing before the island, obliged our people to capitulate, and obtained poffeffion. This event was no fooner known at our court, than hoftilities against Spain were refolved on, and a powerful fleet was affembled: these preparations brought on a conference between prince Mafferano, the Spanish ambaffador here, and our minifter, and a fubfequent negociation at Madrid, between Mr. Harris our minister there, and the marquis Grimaldi: the refult was, a disavowal on the part of Spain of the violent enterprise of Buccarelli, the governor of Buenos Ayres, who had fent the force that difpoffeffed the English, and a promise to restore port and fort called Egmont, with all the artillery and stores therein, but with a declaration, that this engagement should not affect the question of the prior right of fovereignty of the Malouine, otherwife called Falkland's iflands*.

the

The

* The conference at London was with lord Rochford, then secretary of state for the fouthern department, who, in discourse with me, gave an account of it to this effect, viz. that he reprefented to the Spanish ambaffador, that the inflexibility of his court in this business had compelled us to arm, that our fleet was manned, and the officers and failors impatient for action ; that the nation having incurred the expence of a naval equipment, would hardly be fatisfied without a trial of what it was able to

Hh

effect;

The acquiefcence of our court in these conceffions of that of Madrid, and the reference of a difputable question to the Greek calends, furnished the leaders of faction with a new topic for clamour, and war became the cry. The heavy burthen of debt, incurred by the last, was no reafon against a new one, and millions were to be expended, and thousands murdered, for the titular fovereignty of an ifland, which Johnfon thus strongly and even poetically characterises :-

A bleak and gloomy folitude, an island thrown 'afide from human use, stormy in winter, and barren in fummer: an ifland which not the southern savages have dignified with habitation; where a garrison must be kept in a state that contemplates with envy ↑ the exiles of Siberia; of which the expence will be ⚫ perpetual, and the use only occafional, and which, if fortune fmile upon our labours, may become a neft of smugglers in peace, and in war the future refuge of buccaniers.'

These are his fentiments refpecting the incommodities of this contested fettlement: against the advantages fuggefted by the relator of Anfon's expedition, whom he represents as having written under the influence of a heated imagination, he oppofes the following arguments, founded in true policy and found morality:

That fuch a fettlement may be of use in war, no man that confiders its fituation will deny. But war is not the whole bufinefs of life; it happens but

effect; and that a refusal of conceffions on the part of Spain would inevitably bring on a war between the two powers, which, as it would be confined to the fea, must prove a short one,

⚫ feldom,