thing at all; nor indeed does the public require it ⚫ of them it is not the compofition of the piece, but the number of starts and attitudes that may be introduced, that elicits applaufe. I have known a piece with not one jeft in the whole, fhrugged into popularity, and another faved by the poet's throwing in a fit of the gripes. No, Sir, the works of Congreve and Farquhar have too much wit in them for the prefent tafte; our modern dialect is much 'more natural.'

By this time the equipage of the ftrolling company was arrived at the village, which, it seems, had been apprised of our approach, and was come out to gaze at us; for my companion obferved, that ftrollers always have more fpectators without doors than within. I did not confider the impropriety of my being in fuch company till I faw a mob gather about me. I therefore took fhelter, as fast as poffible, in the first ale-house that offered, and being fhewn into the common room, was accofted by a very well dreft gentleman, who demanded whether I was the real chaplain of the company, or whether it was only to be my masquerade character in the play. Upon informing him of the truth, and that I did not belong in any fort to the company, he was condefcending enough to defire me and the player to partake in a bowl of punch, over which he difcuffed modern politics with great earnestness and intereft. I fet him down in my own mind for nothing lefs than a parliament-man at leaft; but was almost confirmed in my conjectures, when, upon asking what there was in the house for fupper, he infifted that the player and I fhould fup with him at his houfe; with which requeft, after fome entreaties, we were prevailed on to comply.

CHAP.

CHAP. XIX.

The defcription of a perfon difcontented with the prefent government, and apprehenfive of the loss of our liberties.

THE

HE houfe where we were to be entertained, lying at a fmall diftance from the village, our inviter obferved, that as the coach was not ready, he would conduct us on foot, and we foon arrived at one of the most magnificent manfions I had feen in that part of the country. The apartment into which we were fhewn was perfectly elegant and modern; he went to give orders for fupper, while the player, with a wink, obferved that we were perfectly in luck. Our entertainer foon returned, an elegant fupper was brought in, two or three ladies in an eafy difhabille were introduced, and the converfation began with fome sprightlinefs. Politics, however, were the fubject on which our entertainer chiefly expatiated; for he afferted that liberty was at once his boast and his terror. After the cloth was removed, he asked me if I had seen the laft Monitor, to which replying in the negative, What, nor the Auditor, I fuppofe?' cried he. Neither, Sir,' returned I.- That's ftrange, very ftrange,' replied my entertainer. Now, I read all the politics that come out. The Daily, the Public, the Ledger, the Chronicle, the London Evening, the Whitehall Evening, the feventeen magazines, and the two Reviews; and though they hate each other, I love them all. Liberty, Sir, liberty is the Briton's boast, and by all my coal mines in Cornwall, I reverence its guardians.'Then it is to be hoped,' cried I, ' you reverence the king.' Yes,' returned my entertainer, when he does what we would have him; but if he goes on as he has done of late, I'll never trouble myself more with his matters. I fay nothing. I think only. I could have directed fome things better. I

don't

don't think there has been a fufficient number of advisers: he should advife with every perfon willing to give him advice, and then we should have things ⚫ done in anotherguess manner.'

I wish,' cried I,

that fuch intruding advifers were fixed in the pillory. It should be the duty of ⚫ honeft men to affift the weaker fide of our conftitution, that facred power that has for fome years been ⚫ every day declining, and lofing its due fhare of influ" ence in the ftate. But these ignorants still continue the cry of liberty, and if they have any weight, bafely throw it into the fubfiding fcale.'

How,' cried one of the ladies, do I live to fee one fo base, so fordid, as to be an enemy to liberty, and a defender of tyrants? Liberty, that facred gift of heaven, that glorious privilege of Britons!'

Can it be poffible,' cried our entertainer, that there fhould be any found at prefent advocates for flavery? any who are for meanly giving up the privileges of Britons? Can any, Sir, be fo ab'ject?'

No, Sir,' replied I, I am for liberty, that attribute of God's! Glorious liberty! that theme of • modern declamation. I would have all men kings. • I would be a king myfelf. We have all naturally an equal right to the throne: we are all originally equal. This is my opinion, and was once the opinion of · a fet of honeft men who were called Levellers. They tried to erect themfelves into a community, where all thould be equally free. But, alas! it • would never anfwer; for there were fome among them ftronger, and fome more cunning than others, ⚫ and these became mafters of the reft; for as fure as ⚫ your groom rides your horfes, because he is a cunninger animal than they, fo furely will the animal that is cunninger or ftronger than he, fit upon his fhoulders in turn. Since then it is entailed upon humanity to fubmit, and fome are born to command, and others to obey, the question is, as there must be tyrants, whether it is better to have them

⚫ in

in the fame house with us, or in the fame village, or ftill farther off, in the metropolis? Now, Sir, for my own part, as I naturally hate the face of a tyrant, the farther off he is removed from me, the better pleased am I. The generality of mankind also are of my way of thinking, and have unanimoufly created one king, whofe election at once diminishes the number of tyrants, and puts tyranny at the greatest distance from the greatest number of people. Now the great, who were tyrants themfelves before the election of one tyrant, are naturally averfe to a power raised over them, and whofe weight muft ever lean heavieft on the fubordinate orders. It is the intereft of the great, therefore, to diminish kingly power as much as poffible; because whatever they take from that is naturally restored to themselves; and all they have to do in the state, is to undermine the fingle tyrant, by which they refume their primæval authority. Now the ftate may be fo circumftanced, or its laws may be fo difpofed, or its men of opulence fo minded, as all to confpire in carrying on this bufinefs of undermining monarchy. For, in the firft place, if the circumstances of our ftate be fuch, as to favour the accumulation of wealth, and make the opulent ftill more rich, this will increase their ambition. An accumulation of wealth, however, muft neceffarily be the confequence, when, as at prefent, more riches flow in from external commerce than arife from internal industry; for external commerce can only be managed to advantage by the rich, and they have also at the fame time all the emoluments arifing from internal industry: fo that the rich, with us, have two fources of wealth, whereas the poor have but one. For this reason, wealth, in all commercial ftates, is found to accumulate, and all fuch have hitherto in time become aristocratical. Again, the very laws also of this country may contribute to the accumulation of wealth; as when by their means the natural ties that bind the rich and poor together

are

are broken, and it is ordained that the rich fhall ⚫ only marry with the rich; or when the learned are ⚫ held unqualified to ferve their country as counsellors merely from a defect of opulence, and wealth is thus made the object of a wife man's ambition; by thefe means, I fay, and fuch means as thefe, riches ⚫ will accumulate. Now the poffeffor of accumulated ⚫ wealth, when furnished with the neceffaries and pleafures of life, has no other method to employ the fuperfluity of his fortune but in purchafing power: that is, differently speaking, in making dependants, by purchafing the liberty of the needy or the venal, of men who are willing to bear the mortification of contiguous tyranny for bread. Thus each very opulent man generally gathers round him a circle of the pooreft of the people; and the polity abounding in accumulated wealth, may be compared to a • Cartefian fyftem, each orb with a vortex of its own. • Thofe however, who are willing to move in a great 'man's vortex, are only fuch as must be flaves, the • rabble of mankind, whose fouls and whose education are adapted to fervitude, and who know nothing of liberty except the name. But there must ftill be a large number of the people without the sphere of the opulent man's influence, namely, that order of men which fubfifts between the very rich ⚫ and the very rabble; thofe men who are poffeft of too large fortunes to fubmit to the neighbouring man in power, and yet are too poor to fet up for ⚫ tyranny themselves. In this middle order of mankind are generally to be found all the arts, wisdom, and virtues of fociety. This order alone is known to be the true preferver of freedom, and may be called the people. Now it may happen that this ⚫ middle order of mankind may lofe all its influence in a state, and its voice be in a manner drowned in that of the rabble: for if the fortune fufficient for qualifying a perfon at present to give his voice in ftate affairs, be ten times lefs than was judged fufficient upon forming the conftitution, it is. evi

⚫ dent