"

governours, or fink them into a defpondency of "the publick welfare." I readily admit this apology for his intentions. God forbid I fhould think any man capable of entertaining fo execrable and fenfelefs a defign. The true caufe of his drawing fo fhocking a picture is no more than this; and it ought rather to claim our pity than excite our indignation; he finds himself out of power; and this condition is intolerable to him. The fame fun which gilds all nature, and exhilarates the whole creation, does not fhine upon difappointed ambition. It is fomething that rays out of darknefs, and infpires nothing but gloom and melancholy. Men in this deplorable ftate of mind, find. a comfort in fpreading the contagion of their fpleen. They find an advantage too; for it is a general popular errour to imagine the loudeft complainers for the publick to be the most anxious for its welfare. If fuch perfons can answer the ends of relief and profit to themselves, they are apt to be careless enough about either the means or the confequences.

Whatever this complainant's motives may be, the effects can by no poffibility be other than those which he fo ftrongly, and I hope truly, difclaims all intention of producing. To verify this, the reader has only to confider how dreadful a picture he has drawn in his 32d page of the ftate of this kingdom; fuch a picture as, I believe, has hardly

been

been applicable, without fome exaggeration, to the moft degenerate and undone commonwealth that ever exifted. Let this view of things be compared with the profpect of a remedy which he propofes in the page directly oppofite and the fubfequent. I believe no man living could have imagined it poffible, except for the fake of burlefquing a fubject, to propofe remedies fo ridiculoufly difproportionate to the evil, fo full of uncertainty in their operation, and depending for their fuccefs in every step upon the happy event of fo many new, dangerous, and vifionary projects. It is not amifs, that he has thought proper to give the publick fome little notice of what they may expect from his friends,' when our affairs fhall be committed to their management. Let us fee how the accounts of difeafe and remedy are balanced in his State of the Nation. In the first place, on the fide of evils, he' fiates," an impoverished and heavily burthened

66

'publick. A declining trade and decreafing fpecie. "The power of the crown never fo much extended over the great; but the great without influence over the lower fort. Parliament lofing its re"verence with the people. The voice of the mul"titude fet up againft the fenfe of the legiflature;

a people luxurious and licentious, impatient of "rule, and defpifing all authority. Government ❝ relaxed in every finew, and a corrupt felfish spirit "pervading the whole. An opinion of many,

"that

46

"that the form of government is not worth contending for. No attachment in the bulk of the people towards the conftitution. No reverence "for the customs of our ancestors. No attachment but to private intereft, nor any zeal but "for selfish gratifications. Trade and manufac"tures going to ruin. Great Britain in danger "of becoming tributary to France, and the defcent "of the crown dependent on her pleasure. Ire“land in cafe of a war to become a prey to France; "and Great Britain, unable to recover Ireland, "cede it by treaty (the author never can think of a treaty without making ceffions), in order to purchase peace for herself. The colonies left ex

66

66

pofed to the ravages of a domeftick, or the con

queft of a foreign enemy."-Gloomy enough, God knows. The author well obferves*, that a mind not totally devoid of feeling cannot look upon fuch a profpect without horrour; and an heart capable of humanity must be unable to bear its defcription. He ought to have added, that no man of common difcretion ought to have exhibited it to the publick, if it were true; or of common honesty, if it were falfe.

But now for the comfort; the day-ftar which is to arife in our hearts; the, author's grand, fcheme for totally reverfing this difmal ftate of things, and

*.P. 31.

making

*

making us "happy at home and refpected abroad, "formidable in war and flourishing in peace.'

In this great work he proceeds with a facility equally aftonishing and pleafing. Never was financier lefs embarraffed by the burthen of establishments, or with the difficulty of finding ways and means. If an establishment is troublefome to him, he lops off at a ftroke juft as much of it as he choofes. He mows down, without giving quarter, or affigning reafon, army, navy, ordnance, ordinary, extraordinaries; nothing can stand before him. Then, when he comes to provide, Amálthea's horn is in his hands; and he pours out with an inexhauftible bounty, taxes, duties, loans, and revenues, without uneafiness to himself, or burthen to the publick. Infomuch that, when we confider the abundance of his refources, we cannot avoid being furprised at his extraordinary attention to favings, But it is all the exuberance of his goodnefs.

This book has fo much of a certain tone of power, that one would be almoft tempted to think it written by fome perfon who had been high in office. A man is generally rendered somewhat a worfe reafoner for having been a minifter. In private, the affent of liftening and obfequious friends; in publick, the venal cry and prepared vote of a

P. 33.

paffive

paffive fenate, confirm him in habits of begging the queftion with impunity, and afferting without thinking himself obliged to prove. Had it not been for fome fuch habits, the author could never have expected that we fhould take his eftimate for a peace establishment folely on his word.

This estimate which he gives,* is the great groundwork of his plan for the national redemption; and it ought to be well and firmly laid, or what must become of the fuperftructure? One would have thought the natural method in a plan of reformation would be, to take the prefent exifting eftimates as they ftand; and then to fhew what may be practicably and fafely defalcated from them. This would, I fay, be the natural course; and what would be expected from a man of businefs. But this author takes a very different method. For the ground of his fpeculation of a prefent peace establishment, he reforts to a former speculation of the fame kind, which was in the mind of the minifter of the year 1764. Indeed it never existed any where elfe. "The plan," fays he, with his ufual eafe," has been already formed, " and the outline drawn, by the administration of 1764. I fhall attempt to fill up the void and ob"literated parts, and trace its operation. The standing expence of the prefent (his projected)

peace