are the standard of rectitude, I shall think myself obliged to make those opinions the masters of my conscience. But if it be doubted whether Omnipotence itself is competent to alter the essential constitution of right and wrong, sure I am, that such things, as they and I, are possessed of no such power. No man carries farther than I do the policy of making government pleasing to the people. But the widest range of this politic complaisance is confined within the limits of justice. I would not only consult the interests of the people, but I would cheerfully gratify their humors. We are all a sort of children that must be soothed and managed. I think I am not austere or formal in my nature. I would bear, I would even myself play my part in, any innocent buffooneries to divert them. But I never will act the tyrant for their amusement. If they will mix malice in their sports, I shall never consent to throw them any living, sentient creature whatsoever, no, not so much as a kitling to torment.

But, if I profess all this impolitic stubbornness, "I may chance never to be elected into parliament." It is certainly not pleasing to be put out of the public service. But I wish to be a member of parliament, to have my share of doing good, and resisting evil. It would therefore be absurd to renounce my objects, in order to obtain my seat. I deceive myself indeed most grossly, if I had not much rather pass the remainder of my life, hidden in the recesses of the deepest obscurity, feeding my mind even with the visions and imaginations of such things, than to be placed on the most splendid throne of the universe, tantalized with a denial of the practice of all which can make the greatest situation any other than the greatest curse. Gentlemen, I have had my day. I can never sufficiently express my gratitude to you for having set me in a place, wherein I could lend the slightest help to great and laudable designs. If I have had my share in any measure in giving quiet to private property, and private conscience; if by my vote I have aided in securing to families the best possession, peace; if I have joined in reconciling kings to their subjects, and subjects to their prince; if I have assisted to loosen the foreign holdings of the citizen, and taught him to look for his protection to the laws of his country, and for his comfort to the good-will of

his countrymen: if I have thus taken my part with the best of men in the best of their actions, I can shut the book—I might wish to read a page or two more-but this is enough for my measure-I have not lived in vain.

And now, gentlemen, on this serious day, when I come, as it were, to make up my account with you, let me take to myself some degree of honest pride on the nature of the charges that are against me. I do not here stand before you accused of venality, or neglect of duty. It is not said, that, in the long period of my service, I have, in a single instance, sacrificed the slightest of your interests to my ambition, or to my fortune. It is not alleged, that to gratify any anger, or revenge of my own, or of my party, I have had a share in wronging or oppressing any description of men, or any one man in any description. No! the charges against me are all of one kind, that I have pushed the principles of general justice and benevolence too far; further than a cautious policy would warrant; and further than the opinions of many would go along with me.-In every accident which may happen through life, in pain, in sorrow, in depression, and distress-I will call to mind this accusation, and be comforted.

DR. SHIPLEY ON TOLERATION.

THE repeal of those penal laws which have long been the disgrace of the national church, has my most cordial acquiescence; I object only to the condition annexed to the repeal, the imposition of a confession of faith, however short, and general, and true, such as I hope I shall have the virtue, if called upon, to seal with my blood. But I absolutely disclaim for myself any authority civil or sacred to impose this creed upon other men. By such imposition the present bill, which professes to repeal all former penal laws, is converted into a penal law itself; for those who do not subscribe the declaration, still remain liable to all the old penalties. The truth contained in the declaration, viz. :- "That the Scriptures are the revealed will of God, and the rule of faith and

practice," was indeed acknowledged by every Protestant. But supposing the existence of any set of Christians who should reject our canon of Scripture, who should build their faith on the basis of tradition, or on the supposed illuminations of the Spirit, would you, my lords, persecute them for believing Christianity upon, arguments that suit their own understandings? Such men would undoubtedly be in error, but error in religion is the very ground and subject of toleration. The evils resulting from this declaration are not however confined to possibilities. Many of the most eminent of the dissenting ministers-men highly deserving esteem for their science, their literature, their critical study of the Scriptures, for their excellent writings in defence of Christianity, as well as of the civil and religious rights of mankind—men, whom it would be no disparagement to this bench to acknowledge as friends and brethren, engaged in the same honorable and arduous task of instructing the world in the ways of happiness-such men as these, my lords, if the clause in question be enacted and carried into execution, will not even be tolerated. Declaring, as they have invariably done, against all human authority in matters of religion, and holding it as a first principle of protestantism that no church has a right to impose its own articles of faith upon others, they conceive that an acquiescence in this declaration would imply a recognition of that claim which they are bound, as Christians and protestants to resist. It is the duty of magistrates, it is indeed the very end of magistracy to protect all men in the enjoyment of their natural rights, of which the free exercise of their religion is one of the first and best. All history, my lords, is full of the mischiefs occasioned by the want of toleration; but no one has ever yet pretended to show, that any public evils have been occasioned by toleration. At a meeting of the Right Reverend Bench, where I had the honor to be present, it was asked, whether the clause in question was ever intended to be put in execution? It was answered, No-there was no such intention. I asked then, and I ask now, What was the use of making laws that were never to be executed? To make useless and insignificant laws is not to exercise authority, but to degrade it: it is a vain, idle, anů insolent parade of legislation; and yet, my lords, would to God'

the four last shameful and miserable years had been employed in making such laws as this: this wretched country might still have been safe, and perhaps once more might have been happy. But, my lords, let us for a moment consider to whom this power of prescribing articles of faith is to be confided: undoubtedly this holy deposit cannot fail to be lodged, where we have placed everything else that is great, and good: the honor, the interest, the strength, and revenues of the nation, ALL are placed in the keeping of the ministry. Perhaps, my lords, there might be ministers to whose management none, who have the least value for their religion would choose to confide it. One might naturally ask a minister for a good pension, or a good contract, or a place at court; but hardly any one would think of making interest with him for a place in HEAVEN. What I now say applies only to future bad ministers, for of the present administration I most firmly believe that they are fully as capable of defining articles of faith as of directing the councils of the state. The ruling party is always very liberal in bestowing the title of schismatic and heretic on those who differ from them in religion, and in representing them as dangerous to the state. My lords, the contrary is the truth. Those who are uppermost and have the power, are the men who do the mischief, while the schismatics only suffer and complain. Ask who has brought the affairs of this country into the present calamitous state? Who are the men that have plundered and depopulated Bengal? Who are they that have turned a whole continent, inhabited by friends and kindred, into our bitterest enemies? Yes, they who have shorn the strength, and cut off the right arm of Britain, were all members of the established church, all orthodox men. I am not afraid of those tender and scrupulous consciences who are over-cautious of professing or believing too much: if they are sincerely in the wrong, I forgive their errors, and respect their integrity. The men I am afraid of are the men who believe everything, who subscribe everything, and who VOTE for everything.

LORD CHATHAM IN REPLY TO LORD MANSFIELD.

MY LORDS,-There is one plain maxim, to which I have invariably adhered through life; that in every question, in which my liberty or my property were concerned, I should consult and be determined by the dictates of common sense. I confess, my lords, that I am apt to distrust the refinements of learning, because I have seen the ablest and the most learned men equally liable to deceive themselves and to mislead others. The condition of human nature would be lamentable indeed, if nothing less than the greatest learning and talents, which fall to the share of so small a number of men, were sufficient to direct our judgment and our conduct. But providence has taken better care of our happiness, and given us, in the simplicity of common sense, a rule for our direction, by which we never shall be misled. I confess, my lords, I had no other guide in drawing up the amendment which I submitted to your consideration: and before I heard the opinion of the noble lord who spoke last, I did not conceive, that it was even within the limits of possibility for the greatest human genius, the most subtle understanding, or the acutest wit, so strangely to misrepresent my meaning, and give it an interpretation so entirely foreign from what I intended to express, and from that sense which the very terms of the amendment plainly and distinctly carry with them. If there be the smallest foundation for the censure thrown upon me by that noble lord; if, either expressly or by the most distant implication, I have said or insinuated any part of what the noble lord has charged me with, discard the opinions forever, discard the motion with contempt.

My lords, I must beg the indulgence of the house. Neither will my health permit me, nor do I pretend to be qualified to follow that learned lord minutely through the whole of his argument. No man is better acquainted with his abilities or his learning, nor has a greater respect for them, than I have.. I have had the pleasure of sitting with him in the other house, and always listened to him with attention. I have not now lost a word of what he said, nor did I ever. Upon the present question I