on the ruins of Monarchy, that the happiness of mankind, which ought to be the aim and end of all governments, would be the effect? Let the toiling hand govern, and the projecting head obey. Would not confufion be indeed confounded? Or fhall all men have an equal fhare in the direction of human affairs? Shall there be no governors, no governed? Shall families, focieties, ftates, and empires, be without an head? Shall all be common right and common fellowship? The comet, my friend, were it "to rufh lawless through the void," would not trail fo much mischief in its courfe, as fuch a number of licentious orbits out of their proper fpheres. The wolves and tygers of the forefts acknowledge, it is true, no fuperior, and they fometimes troop, in grim affociation and fell banditti, to lay waste the countries through which they pass; they are, it must be owned, notable republicans, and are unanimous to deftroy whatever they meet with; but they destroy each other alfo; and are bad examples of the fuccefs of an univerfal republic, inftituted on the levelling principle. The wolves and tygers of human kind, if fuffered to roam through the wilderness of life, without any check on paffions more fierce and fatal than any bestial appetite-or, if controlled only by thofe laws which are inftituted by what are called patriots,

only because they avowedly differ from and oppose any order in a creation that is fuftained by order only-would foon make the universe more intolerable to its inhabitants, than any abufe which power has yet introduced into the government of the world; and the most difloyal beings would again call out, like the frogs in the fable, for a king; and rather than any longer be left to the anarchy of being delivered over to themselves, would pray for one tyrant, fuppofing no honeft prince would then accept of them, in exchange for an univerfe of defpots.

But farther, how egregiously abfurd, my friend, is this new doctrine? Are not all large bodies of men compelled to have governors and chiefs? And do not these imply command and obedience? and do not thefe argue, in their very name and nature, authority and fubjection? What are the Admirals, Generals, Colonels, Captains, and fubalterns of the prefent French armies, but heads? What are the foldiers and failors they govern or direct, but fubordinate members? In what confifts the difference betwixt these and former commanders, whether ministerial or military? Alas, nothing but " the whistling of a name." Call it Ariftocracy, and the gentlest government becomes tyranny: give it the name of Democracy, and there is no

flavery

flavery too hard to be endured. Nay, the very men who are fuch fticklers for equality, who have even fought and bled for it, continue to this very hour to make the proudeft diftinctions amongst men, even in a ftate of mutual captivity. The first thing that ftruck me in my visit to Weyzel, a celebrated town, as you know, of Weftphalia, was the feeing a number of Republican French officers (prifoners) walking on the parade, attended by their fervants. Two of these latter were receiving the orders of their masters, with their heads uncovered, and their bodies bent in a very unrepublican manner. What! in a state of common calamity, are these nice diftin&tions to be made, thought I? Are brother prifoners to keep up this lofty difference? Are those who have levelled the earth, fo foon unmindful of their leading maxim," All men are equal?" One of the fuperiors-I thought there were to be no fuperiors grew angry, chid his domeftic, and fent him from his prefence. Could the old conftitution-could defpotism do more! I faw the obedient flave, with the most fervile fhrug of his country, and of his condition, go flinking away. So much for confraternity!

My friend, a fkilful ufe of words, fubftituting one for another, as time and circumftances may

require, will apparently change the nature of things: but real liberty and flavery are the fame fweet and bitter potions, denominate them what you will, and the tyrant is not lefs an oppreffor, for altering his name to that of a friend to freedom indeed, fome of the worst enemies that freedom ever had in all ages and countries, have affumed this facred character.

.

*

Point out to me the Defpot, that has not called himself a lover of his people, and of his country. I have, within a few years, been an eye-witness to no lefs than two formidable infurrections, effected, under this fpecious mask, in the little Republic, on the verge of which I am now writing. I am far from being fure, that I fhall not be a spectator of a third: though one would have thought either of the two former might have written on the hearts of the people, the WISDOM OF CONTENT, in characters of blood. That which raged in 1787, is fo well and faithfully written, by an English author, who calls his work an Hiftory of the late Dutch Revolution, that I fhall not only refer, but recommend you to a perusal of it. A few of the miferable particulars, I fhall give you on the authority of perfonal knowledge. But not till I again refume my pen to affure you, amidst the storm

*The third has come to pafs.

of

of contending nations" the wrecks of matter,' and the almoft crush of worlds," that I am, affectionately, yours.

LETTER LVII.

TO THE SAME.

WE talk much, and with much rea

fon, of the wild exceffes of our English mobs,

my dear friend. Their fanguinary difpofition has been compared to that of our English bull-dogs, which are faid to to be infatiate of blood, when they have once drawn it from the objects of their attack. Our British infurrections are, no doubt, marked like others, by fome of the prominent features of rebellion in all countries, devastation, flames, and untimely death. But I did not know, how great an enemy man could be to man; nor had I a clear idea to what an extent human beings could go in the deftruction of one another, although I am not unread in the bloody ftory of my own country, till I began to contemplate the more dreadful annals of others. The fix years that have elapfed fince I beheld in

demon of civil fury affociated with

Holland the

party mad,

nefs, far from having abated the memory of