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spirit of religion and liberty among the Ame ricans, we find that he does not PRAISE either; he only states their existence, and describes their effects. They were very powerful moral causes of the repugnance of the Americans to submit to British legislation. It is on that account that he shews their nature and operation. He does not represent, them as objects of approbation, but as motives to a certain conduct. He does not say the principles of the dissenters are better than those of the church, or the republican spirit of American freedom is more agreeable to the rights of man than the more. moderate spirit of English freedom; he says, the dissenters of America are inspired with a strong spirit of liberty, which, with other causes, render them unyielding to British authority. The difficulty of coercing men so inspired is great, and, with their physical advantages, probably unsurmountable; or if surmountable, with an expence and loss beyond the value of the object: the attempt, therefore, is unwise; and instead of it he proposes conciliation.

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Happy had it been for this nation, happy for mankind, if his opinions, doctrines, and plans had been reduced to practice! His propositions were negatived by a great majority: pauci ac ferme optimus Hannoni assenserunt; sed ut perumque fit, optimos plurimi vicerunt.

Mrs. Piozzi, in her Anecdotes of Johnson, tells us, that when she ventured, even before

the Doctor himself, to applaud with rapture the passage in the speech concerning Lord Bathurst and the Angel, the Doctor said, had I been in the house, I would have answered it thus:

Suppose, Mr. Speaker, that to Wharton, or to Marlborough, or to any of the eminent Whigs of the last age, the devil had, not with any great impropriety, consented to appear, he would perhaps in somewhat like these words. have commenced the conversation:

"You seem, my Lord, to be concerned at the judicious apprehension, that while you are sapping the foundations of royalty at home, and propagating here the dangerous doctrine of resistance, the distance of America may secure its inhabitants from your arts, though active: but I will unfold to you the gay prospects, of futurity. This people, now so innocent and harmless, shall draw the sword against their mother country, and bathe its point in the blood of their benefactors. This people, now contented with a little, shall then refuse to spare what they themselves confess they could not miss; and these men, now so honest and so grateful, shall, in return for peace and for protection, fee their vile agents in the house of par. liament, there to sow the seeds of sedition, and propagate confusion, perplexity, and pain.Be not dispirited, then, at the contemplation of their present happy state. I promise you that

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anarchy, poverty, and death shall be my care, be carried even across the spacious Atlantic, and settle in America itself, the sure conse quences of our beloved whiggism."

If this parody be corrrectly transcribed by Mrs. Piozzi, I cannot help thinking it inferior to the usual productions of the sage. It is also less able than the passage it is intended to ridicule. Burke's Angel, the advocate of whiggism, by holding forth the amazing increase of prosperity that was to follow its predominancy, describes what was to take place under that free government which good spirits approve. Johnson's devil is a Tory in his heart. The devil calls the doctrine of resistance dangerous; terms opposition to acts, which Whigs thought op. pressive, sedition; and the defenders of the oppressed the vile agents of sedition, Though the devil, therefore, professes to love whiggism, he speaks the language of a Tory.The devil is also out in point of history. The principles of liberty, which Satan calls danger. ous, existed in America long before the time of Wharton and Marlborough. Johnson was so bigotted a Tory, that he makes even the devil himself the reviler of whiggism.

About this time Dr. Johnson published his pamphlet, entitled "Taxation no Tyranny," which may be in many respects considered as an answer to Burke's celebrated speech on tax. ing America. The high church bigotry, which

frequently sent a cloud over the bright mind of the illustrious sage, prevented his political es. says from having that superlative excellence which marks his criticisms and ethics. His views on subjects of government are partial, and want that enlarged comprehensiveness which distinguishes his other writings. The usual perspicacity of his mind seems dimmed by the prejudices of education. His reasoning not only wants his general expansion, but his general acuteness and precision. Indeed, whereever politics interfered, his estimates of truth, conduct, and character, appear erroneous What but the perversion of prejudice could abominate William, the deliverer of this country, regard the contemptible weakness of the priest-ridden James, or praise the abandoned, unprincipled profligate, his brother?-a prince, who evidently considered subjects in no other light, than as men whose industry and property were to be lavished in affording him the means of gross debauchery..

This pamphlet of Johnson partook of the prejudice which could ascribe great merit to Charles II. He sets out with assuming a position as an axiom, which is not only not selfevident, but not true, taken absolutely; true only with certain modifications:-That the supreme power of every community has the right of requiring from all its subjects such contributions as are necessary to the public safety or public prosperity

By the British constitution, the supreme power of the community has not the right of levying contributions from its subjects, as subjects, but as members of an established society, delegating to individuals, chosen by themselves, the power of levying contributions. The agent assesses for the general interest, by permission of the employer; the employer acquiesces, when he finds that general interest to be the object, and marks his judgment of the exercise of the delegated power by the continuance or discontinuance of the agent, when the specified term of the trust is expired. By the British constitution, consent of the taxee, immediate or mediate, is necessary to constitute a legitimate tax. Johnson considers Britain and America as sovereign and subject, not as different members of a free state, held together by and for mutual interest; and as members of a free state, suffering partial restraint for general good,-for their own good, and not the good of others exclusive of theirs. In order to ridicule the resistance of America, Johnson supposes Cornwall to resolve to separate itself from the rest of England, and to refuse to submit to an English parliament; holding a congress at Truro, and publishing resolutions similar to those of the Americans. "Would not such a decláration appear to come from madmen ?" The cases are not analogus: Cornwall is fully represented in parliament, consequently could not have

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