churches; and that afterwards they spent the day cheerfully, as other clubs do, at the tavern. But I never heard that any public measure, or political fyftem, much lefs that the merits of the conftitution of any foreign nation, had been the fubject of a formal proceeding at their feftivals; until, to my inexpreffible furprize, I found them in a fort of public capacity, by a congratulatory addrefs, giving an authoritative fanction to the proceedings of the National Af fembly in France. In the antient principles and conduct of the club, fo far at least as they were declared, 1 see nothing to which I could take exception. I think it very probable, that for fome purpose, new members may have entered among them; them; and that some truly christian politicians, who love to dispense benefits, but are careful to conceal the hand which diftributes the dole, may have made them the inftruments of their pious defigns. Whatever I may have reason to fufpect concerning private management, I fhall fpeak of nothing as of a certainty, but what is public. For one, I fhould be forry to be thought, directly or indirectly, concerned in their proceedings. I certainly take my full share, along with the rest of the world, in my individual and private capacity, in fpeculating on what has been done, or is doing, on the public ftage; in any place antient or modern; in the republic of Rome, or the republic of Paris: but having no general B 3 general apoftolical miffion, being a citizen of a particular state, and being bound up in a confiderable degree, by its public will, I fhould think it, at least improper and irregular, for me to open a formal public correspondence with the actual government of a foreign nation, without the express authority of the government under which I live. I should be ftill more unwilling to enter into that correfpondence, under any thing like an equivocal defcription, which to many, unacquainted with our ufages, might make the address, in which I joined, appear as the act of perfons in fome fort of corporate capacity, acknowledged by the laws of this kingdom, and authorized to fpeak the fenfe of fome part of it. On account of the ambiguity and uncertainty of unautho rized general defcriptions, and of the deceit which may be practised under them, and not from mere formality, the houfe of Commons would reject the most sneaking petition for the most triffing object, under that mode of fignature to which you have thrown open the foldingdoors of your prefence chamber, and have ushered into your National Affembly, with as much ceremony and parade, and with as great a bustle of applaufe, as if you had been vifited by the whole reprefentative majefty of the whole English nation. If what this fociety has thought proper to fend forth had been a piece of argument, it would have fignified little whofe argument it was. It would be neither the more nor the 1 the lefs convincing on account of the party it came from. But this is only a vote and refolution. It ftands folely on authority; and in this cafe it is the mere authority of individuals, few of whom appear. Their fignatures ought, in my opinion, to have been annexed to their inftrument. The world would then have the means of knowing how many they are; who they are; and of what value their opinions may be, from their perfonal abilities, from their knowledge, their experience, or their lead and authority in this ftate. To me, who am but a plain man, the proceeding looks a little too refined, and too ingenious; it has too much the air of a political ftratagem, adopted for the fake of giving, under an high-founding name, an importance to the public declarations of this club, which, when the matter came to be closely inspected, they did not altogether fo well deserve. It is a policy that has very much the complexion of a fraud. I flatter myself that I love a manly, moral, regulated liberty as well as any gentleman of that fociety, be he who he will; and perhaps I have given as good proofs of my attachment to that cause, in the whole courfe of my public conduct. I think I envy liberty as little as they do, to any other nation. But I cannot stand forward, and give praise or blame to any thing which relates to human actions, and human concerns, on a fimple view of the object, as it ftands ftripped of every relation, in all the nakednefs and folitude of metaphyfical abstraction. Circumftances B 4 t ftances (which with fome gentlemen pafs for nothing) give in reality to every political principle its diftinguishing colour, and difcriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind. Abstractedly speaking, government, as well as liberty, is good; yet could I, in common fenfe, ten years ago, have felicitated France on her enjoyment of a government (for fhe then had a government) without enquiry what the nature of that government was, or how it was administered? Can I now congratulate the fame nation upon its freedom? Is it because liberty in the abstract may be claffed amongst the bleffings of mankind, that I am seriously to felicitate a madman, who has escaped from the protecting restraint and wholesome darkness of his cell, on his reftoration to the enjoyment of light and liberty? Am I to congratulate an highwayman and murderer, who has broke prifon, upon the recovery of his natural rights? This would be to act over again the scene of the criminals condemned to the gallies, and their heroic deliverer, the metaphyfic Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance. When I fee the fpirit of liberty in action, I fee a strong principle at work; and this, for a while, is all I can poffibly know of it. The wild gas, the fixed air is plainly broke loose: but we ought to fufpend our judgment until the first, effervefcence is a little fubfided, till the liquor is. cleared, and until we fee fomething deeper 4 of than the agitation of a troubled and frothy fur- All |