to be unbiassed and impartial than twelve yeomen, burgesses, or gentlemen, taken indifferently. from the county at large? Or, in short, shall there be no decision, until we have instituted a tribunal from which no possible abuse or inconvenience whatsoever can arise? If I am not grossly mistaken, these questions carry a decisive answer along with them.

Having cleared the freedom of the press from a restraint equally unnecessary and illegal, I return to the use which has been made of it in the present publication.

National reflections, I confess, are not justified in theory, nor upon any general principles. To know how well they are deserved, and how justly they have been applied, we must have the evidence of facts before us. We must be conversant with the Scots in private life, and observe their principles of acting to us, and to cach other; the characteristic prudence, the selfish nationality, the indefatigable smile, the persevering assiduity, the everlasting profession of a discreet and moderate resentment. If the instance were not too important for an experiment, it might not be amiss to confide a little in their integrity. Without any abstract reasoning upon

causes and effects, we shall soon be convinced, by experience, that the Scots transplanted from their own country, are always a distinct and separate body from the people who receive them. In other settlements, they only love themselves in England, they cordially love themselves, and as cordially hate their neighbours. For the remainder of their good qualities I must appeal to the reader's obscrvation, unless he will accept of my Lord Barrington's authority in a letter to the late Lord Melcombe, published by Mr. Lee: he expresses himself with a truth and accuracy not very common in his Lordship's lucubrations. "And Cockburn, like most of his countrymen, is as abject to those above him,

as he is insolent to those below him." I am far from meaning to impeach the articles of the union. If the true spirit of those articles were religiously adhered to, we should not see such a multitude of Scotch commoners in the lowerhouse, as representatives of English boroughs, while not a single Scotch borough is ever represented by an Englishman. We should not sce English peerages given to Scotch ladies, or to the elder sons of Scotch peers, and the number of sixteen doubled and trebled by a scandalous evasion of the act of union. If it should ever be thought adviseable to dissolve an act, the

not notorious, that the vast revenues, extorted "from the labour and industry of your subjects,

" and given you to do honour to yourself and to "the nation, are dissipated in corrupting their representatives? Are you a Prince of the "house of Hanover, and do you exclude all the

leading Whig families from your councils? "Do you profess to govern according to law, "and is it consistent with that profession, to 66 impart your confidence and affection to those men only who, though now, perhaps, detached "from the desperate cause of the Pretender,

are marked in this country by an hereditary "attachment to high and arbitrary principles " of government? Are you so infatuated as to "take the sense of your people from the repre"sentation of ministers, or from the shouts of a "mob, notoriously hired to surround your coach,

or stationed at a theatre? And if you are in 66 reality, that public man, that King, that Magistrate, which these questions suppose you to be, "is it any answer to your people, to say, That,

among your domestics, you are good-humour"ed; that to one lady, you are faithful; that to

your children, you are indulgent? Sir, the man "who addresses you in these terms, is your best "friend. He would willingly hazard his life in "defence of your title to the crown; and, if "6 power be your object, will still show you how

"possible it is for a King of England, by the "noblest means, to be the most absolute Prince

in Europe. You have no enemies, Sir, but "those who persuade you to aim at power without right, and who think it flattery to tell you, "that the character of King dissolves the natural "relation between guilt and punishment."

I cannot conceive that there is a heart so callous, or an understanding so depraved, as to attend to a discourse of this nature, and not to feel the force of it. But where is the man, among those who have access to the closet, resolute and honest enough to deliver it? The liberty of the press is our only resource. It will command an audience, when every honest man in the kingdom is excluded. This glorious privilege may be a security to the King, as well as a resource to his people. Had there been no star-chamber, there would have been no rebellion against Charles the First. The constant censure and admonition of the press would have corrected his conduct, prevented a civil war, and saved him from an ignominious death. I am no friend to the doctrine of precedents, exclusive of right; though lawyers often tell us, that, whatever has heen once done, may lawfully be done again. I shall conclude this Preface with a quotation,

applicable to the subject, from a foreign writer", whose Essay on the English Constitution I beg leave to recommend to the public, as a performance deep, solid, and ingenious.

"In short, whoever considers what it is that "constitutes the moving principle of what we "call great affairs, and the invincible sensibility "of man to the opinion of his fellow-creatures, "will not hesitate to affirm, that if it were pos"sible for the liberty of the press to exist in a "despotic government, and (what is not less “difficult) for it to exist without changing the "constitution, this liberty of the press would "alone form a counterpoise to the power of the 26 prince. If, for example, in an empire of the 66 east, a sanctuary could be found, which, ren"dered respectable by the ancient religion of "the people, might insure safety to those who "should bring thither their observations of any "kind; and that, from thence, printed papers "should issue, which, under a certain seal, might "be equally respected; and which, in their daily * appearance, should examine and freely discuss "the conduct of the cadis, the bashaws, the vizir, "the divan, and the sultan himself; that would "introduce immediately some degree of liberty."

• Monsieur de Lolme.