fitting of parliament. But the parliament was very far from taking any notice of the addreffers. Upon the whole however, it is fufficient for our purpose to have fhewn, that there was a time fimilar to the present, when the contention ran high between administration and the people, and when the one thought proper to prefer petitions of grievances, and the other to fhield themfelves by a cloud of addreffes obtained by bribery, corruption and undue influence. This parallel is only drawn with a view to introduce a more striking one, which will at once discover the aim of a favourite, and account for all the arbitrary proceedings which for fome years have alarmed and difquieted the public.

About the year 1729, a certain Mr. Winnington, who had for many years diftinguished himself as a remarkable Jacobite, profeffing a firm, fteady attachment to the cause of the houfe of Stuart, and upon all occafions, when he could do it confiftent with his perfonal fafety, promoting their intereft, fuddenly turned courtier, and was deemed by the administration of that time to be a very confiderable acquifition to their party. This gentleman died in 1746, and among his papers was found a manufcript, entitled An Apology for my conduct in Parliament, with this motto, Trabit Jua quemque voluptas. It was printed foon after, and in the rotation of human affairs it has fo come to pass, that every line of his apology is at this time truly interefting to the friends of our happy conftitution, and merits the serious attention of every loyal fubject, who wishes well to our Auguft fovereign, and to his illuftrious house. What Winnington was, B-e may be, and like him, his well laid scene of political hypocrify might not have been discovered till after his decease, if the fpirit of the people had not been set against him. . But a continual oppofition to every falutary measure for the profperity of the kingdom, and for the fatisfying and quieting the minds of the people, having diftinguished him and his adherents for a number of years, it has naturally fet the ftudious and confiderate on enquiring into the hidden motive for promoting so much national difcontent. And as the partifans of the earl of B-e have conftantly declared that their patron was not. actuated either by ambition, the love of wealth, or the fpirit of revenge: it feemed neceffary to find out fome fixed capital object, of all his political manoeuvres, which have conftantly indicated a firm attachment to the principles of defpotifm, and have always rendered him unpopular, and in fome refpects deteftable in the eyes of a free people,

people. Now if we can prove by analogy of conduct, that his lordship's principles are the fame as those of Winnington and his party, we fhall be at no lofs to account for the convulfions into which this nation has been thrown by the fecret friends of enflaving popery and arbitrary power. Nor fhall we any longer be aftonished at the indulgence granted to the Roman Catholics in one part of the British empire, or the unrelenting oppreffions exercised over the proteftant diffenters in another.

Mr. Winnington was nephew to the celebrated Harley, earl of Oxford, who was prime minifter at the latter end of queen Anne's reign. And he gives the following account of himself. o "My country and

prince (the pretender) were ever in my view, and uppermost in my thoughts, even in my "tender age, for fo was I tutored to think, before I was capable of reflection. Yet this prejudice ftrong as it might have been, was not of force enough to prevent my examining the depth and juftice of the principles, "that had been inculcated fo early and fo carefully.

"The firft ftep I took in this fo neceffary a research "was, to examine the motives, the juftice, the neceffity "and expediency of the revolution, a measure that had oc"cafioned fo mighty a chaẩm in the conftitution. I con"fulted the best authorities both living and written, con"cerning that important change which happened before my time, reckoning that from fuch only, judgment "might be beft formed of the worth of thofe principles, "adopted by the two different contending parties in the "nation.

"I could evidently gather from books and men of all "parties, that thofe who had the earliest and principal "fhare in the conduct of that mighty affair, had no view "to fuch a change as happened, nor intended to go fuch "lengths as they were led into afterwards. Here 1 paused "awhile, to fee if I might not reft where so many great "men had taken their ftand, even while the fcene was "yet fresh and unclofed. And I freely confefs to have "thought this fo early a ftruggle in favour of the old "conftitution, to be a tacit difapprobation of the new mea"fure, and a difhonour to thofe, who had fhamefully

yielded to the allurements of prefent favour and power, "after they had fhined on the other fide of the queftion. "Such were my earliest fentiments in regard to that "great novel measure, while I was as yet a younger bro❝ther, and before there were any thoughts by my friends,

"of

"of introducing me to the family abroad, on which the crown was fettled. Nor could I afterwards fee any "reafon for altering thefe early fentiments, which strength"ened with my years, and became at laft the bafis, on "which I built that fyftem which I now think myself "obliged to avow and explain. Among all my relations,

none had my attention fo much as my uncle Oxford, "who had projected my being put into the fervice of the "expectant family, and he took care to confirm me in "thofe principles, which I had adopted' in my greener 66 years, much more by choice than chance. The method

" he took was to fet before me the nature and excellence "of the constitution, as it ftood before the great event "under prefent confideration. He would often compare "the prefent ftate of the nation with the former, and fuch

66

always were his descriptions, as gave the former the pre"ference to the prefent; but if in thofe early days after the "acceffion of the houfe of Hanover, he found reafon for speak"ing more advantageoufly of former than of latter times, "what would he have faid if he had lived in these days of ours, when the amount of our taxes almoft equals the quantum of our fpecie, and the intereft of our debts "exceeds the old revenue, and when venality and infidelity "are not only generally practifed but openly avowed."

This crafty politician after developing all the fprings of action during the reign of queen Anne pofitively affirms as an indifputable fact, founded on his own experience,that not only the earl of Oxford, but Sir Robert Walpole, and every English minifter from the revolution down to his own time, conftantly had the old conftitution in viewAnd this while they were profeffing the warmest attachment to the houfe of Hanover, and were enjoying posts of honour and profit under them, fo that it was impoffi ble for the vulgar to discover any deceit or hypocrify in their behaviour, but thofe who were well fkilled in politics knew by the measures they purfued, what were the fecret ends they had in view. Our apologist acknowledges that he stood foremost amongst those who practifed one constant scene of diffimulation upon this occafion from the year 1729 to the time of his death, which happened in 1746. And being admitted into the confidence of the great men who were in the intereft of the pretender, he gives an account of the feveral fteps they took for the recovery of the old conftitution by the restoration of the Stuart' family. His apology is made to thofe of his party, who might have concluded from his conduct after the year

1729,

1729, when he commenced courtier, that he had deferted the good old caufe, whereas his real motive was to ferve his prince more effectually.

"The figure I made, fays he, while in the opposition "to the house of Hanover, and to all the favourite fchemes of "George the fecond, gave me fuch additional reputation "with my party, that my desertion, as they termed it, was "thought to have given the deepest wound to the cause "that it could have received. Such was the language of "those I left; and the acquifition which the minifter "had made was looked upon to be of no small importance "by the minifterial party. But to speak fincerely, I left my party to promote that cause and intereft they had at heart; and went over to the court, to give the bet"ter countenance to the ruinous measures then in hand. "Our people, the pretender's adherents, thought it merito"rious to oppofe and clog the measures of the court, "whereas on the fyftem I laid down to myself, to abet "and indulge the court was the fure, though flow means, of reducing the people to that low condition, which often ren"ders a nation wife and defperate.

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Having now explained the principles on which this fhrewd politician acted, and fhewn that the warmest attachment in appearance, to the reigning prince, is no furecriterion of loyalty. It is time to lay open the measures purfued by the pretender's party to throw this nation into confufion, and to compass a revolution in favour of the old conftitution, and of the houfe of Stuart: And I fhall take the liberty to draw a parallel between paft times and the prefent, as I proceed in my examination of the conduct of the jacobites.

"One of their schemes for retrieving the errors of the "laft century, fo they termed the revolution, was to have "thrown fo much power into the hands of the king that " he must have been an angel if he did not mifufe it; by "which means, they proposed a republic should rife on the "ruins of the monarchy, and a commonwealth once "raised on the deftruction of kingly government, b

granting the king more power than the conflitution warrantea, "could not fail of re-establishing royalty and the old con"flitution in the confufion of popular government, to "which the English are by no means fitted by nature. "The death of the projector of this scheme prevented the "carrying it into execution."

But this first part of the lofing game in politics with respect to the rg prince was played off foon after his

acceffion,

acceffion, and furnished to fenfible people, a key to the political character and principles of a certain nobleman, who, whether intentionally, or through ignorance, it matters not, has rendered as much differvice to his illuftrious mafter, as any of the minifters, who in the time of Winnington, fecretly promoted the intereft of the house of Stuart; and while meafures equally detrimental to the true intereft of the fare ftrenuoufly perfifted in under the guidance and direction of the fame modern Machiavel, we have juft grounds to fufpect that a fimilar motive gives rife to them. Efpecially as a preference is manifeftly given to the old conftitution as it ftood in the time of the Stuarts. It is needlefs to give any inftances of the extention of the prerogative of the c-- fince the twentyfifth of October, 1760. But a reference to the exercife of the difpenfing power; to the duke of Portland's cafe &c. may be thought fuitable to the subject, we therefore defire your readers to take the trouble of recollecting them, and leave them to form their own judgment on the point in question. "The great lord Oxford's plan which he defigned to "have carried into execution had he been employed by the 66 new rulers, (the illuftrious houfe of Hanover) comes next under confideration; it was, to work upon a confumptive fcheme,-(his lordship's term for tiring out the "nation) with debts, taxes, and coercive laws and clogs upon "trade and industry, so as that they would of themselves "do their own best work, and accomplish the defired re"ftoration of the old conftitution."

It would be an affront to the understandings of all impartial independent Englishmen to enlarge on the glaring analogy between the scheme of lord Oxford, which only exifted in theory, because he was not employed, and its actual execution by the fervants of the favourite, who have laid the heaviest clogs on trade and induftry, and who have enforced fuch coercive laws with refpect to America, that the industrious manufacturers of Great Britain fenfibly feel the weight of their oppreffion; and the trading intereft of this kingdom is now daily fuffering through the mifconduct of the mr at the head of the American department.

The apologift proceeds to inform us "That he was "aftonished to think how Mr. Walpole, (afterwards Sir "Robert, and finally Lord Orford) with fuch moderate "talents, a narrow fortune, and very few or no relations "of figure or intereft, had been able to push himself to "the fummit of power. The fupporting himself there "fo long as he did, may be eafily accounted for, by those. Vol. V.

K

"who