"then on the other hand, that conftitution or "frame of government, that fyftem of laws, is " alone calculated to maintain civil liberty, which "leaves the fubject entire master of his own "conduct, except in those points wherein the public good require fome direction or re"ftraint*."

Such are the rights of men, and such is the end of government: these are the fentiments which the enemies of the French revolution have ridiculed and reproached. We find the French declaration is not the only "paltry blurred shred "of paper about the rights of man." When Mr. Burke publishes his next edition, he may, and if he is confiftent, he will, treat the writings of Judge Blackstone, not to mention those of other men equally refpectable, in the fame contemptuous and abufive manner, as he has in almost every part of his work, the famous declaration we have been confidering.

I now beg leave to demand with confidence, of those persons who despise the account which has been given of the origin, nature, and end of government, that they would prefent us with a better. Let them talk more rationally on the subject: let them produce a fyftem more cal

Blackfkone's Commentaries, vol. I. p. 124-126.

+ Burke's Reflections, p. 128.

culated

;

culated to promote the welfare of mankind, and the admirers of the French revolution will give it all poffible attention. At present we can only answer objections which feem urged more with the design to perplex than to convince and, however weak they may be, they serve to keep people in ignorance, and to prevent them from thinking for themselves, on a subject of confiderable importance.

We have in former times heard of the RIGHT OF CONQUEST; and have been gravely told, that the sword gives the right to dispose of the liberties, properties, and lives of mankind. The enemies of freedom in the present day, are I believe not fo far degenerated, as to infult us with arguments formerly used to establish such a right. Should fimilar arguments ever be revived, it will only be neceffary to reply, that they equally serve to juftify the housebreaker, the highwayman, the murderer, and the conqueror of nations. The pleas of each, if they dare make any, are alike in the fight of God, and ought to be fo in the fight of man. emperor or king, whoever he may be, who invades or conquers an empire or kingdom, who establishes his authority, and who disposes of the people as he pleases, merely by the power of the fword, ought at least to be equally reward

That

ed with the man who plunders an individual, or takes away his life. Or rather, does not the greater tyrant merit a feverer punishment than the leffer, in proportion as his guilt is more enormous? Should any one have a difficulty in anfwering the question, I fhall only refer him to a paper in Dr. Hawkefworth's Adventurer, where he will find a juft and ftriking comparifon, between the most famous conqueror we read of (Alexander the Great) and a highway robber and murderer*. Reflection for a few minutes, will remove all doubt on the fubject, from every honeft mind.

We have likewise formerly been inftructed in the blessed doctrine of JURE DIVINC, or

"The right divine of kings, to govern wrong;

And if in the last century in England, or within these four or five years in France, any set of men had ventured to ask their rulers, "By "what authority doft thou these things, or who

gave thee this authority?" the only anfwer, if defpots had condefcended to answer, would have been, Sic volo fic jubeo; or Tel eft notre plaifir; and they would have had plenty of

*Adventurer, Vol. II. No. 47.

+ Tel eft notre plaifir, was the language always ufed in the French king's edicte.

agents,

agents, civil and ecclefiaftical, to have inculcated the confequent duties of paffive obedience and non-refiftance, and to have filenced, in the most effectual manner, all objections. This fyftem has been pretty much exploded, though an attempt has lately been made by Mr. Burke to revive it, or fomething very much like it, under the name of Whiggifm. We are prefented in one of his late publications, with the fentiments of a genuine Whig; which are as follow: "The general doctrine of non-resistance is unquestionably a godly and wholefome doctrine ; "it is the doctrine of the church of England, "as ftated in her homilies, and has been conftantly inculcated by the reverend fathers of "the church*."

66

Whether what is here called Whiggifm, has a right to that appellation, I do not think it worth while to examine. If it has, it only confirms a fufpicion which has croffed my mind, that the names of Whig and Tory, are of little confequence, and although they may be ftill kept up for party purposes, they are of trifling import to the public. Though we acknowledge, with grateful remembrance, the important fervices of the Revolution Whigs, yet from

Appeal from the new to the old Whigs, p. 79-80.
I 4

the

the conduct of the party on several occasions, fince that period, many persons think the name hardly worth preferving. It was the Whigs who formed the plan of funding the public debt; to which plan we partly owe the enormous mass we now labour under. It was the Whigs who established standing armies; it was a Whig parliament which paffed the feptennial act, and rejected the bill for limiting the peerage. The most outrageous writer who ever took up a pen against the extended freedom of mankind, calls himself A WHIG; and has written a pamphlet to prove himself one. To do him juftice, he appears to have more argument, when making out his title,than on many other occafions. With perfect confiftency, one of the fubjects of his panegyric is that famous Whig minifter, Sir Robert Walpole; the author of that renowned statesman-like maxim, (to which Whigs and Tories have, ever fince, generally agreed, however they may have differed in other refpects) Every man has his price: who, like his panegyrift, was a conftant oppofer of all reformation in parliament, and whofe intention was to have extended the excife laws, although the people had then spirit enough to prevent its execution; they being fond of an old fashioned expreffion, which their defcendants have almost forgotten,