You have endeavour'd to prove, Sir, that the Craftfman fhould not have begun to write; or at leaft that he is inexcufable for continuing. Now I not only differ from you, but I differ from you upon the very Foundation, on which you have establish'd • that whole Argument.

• The Face of Things was, I agree, as calm as you represent it to have been, when my honeft Contemporary Caleb took up his Pen. They were balcyon Days truly. We were not only quiet, but we feemed implicit, and dull Uniformity of eternal Affent prevailed in every Place. I agree that, fince that Time, Things are very much altered. A Ferment, or Spirit, call it which you pleafe, is raised; but, I blefs God, it is not the blind and furious Spirit of • Party. It is a Spirit, which fprings from Informa⚫tion and Conviction, that has diffufed itself not only 'to all Orders of Men, as you observed, but to Men ⚫ of all Denominations. Even They, who act against 'it, encourage it. You cannot call it Torifm, when 'fuch Numbers of independent Whigs avow it. To 'call it Whigifm would be improper likewife, when 'fo many Tories concur in it. He, who fhould call it Jacobitifm, would be too abfurd to deferve an Answer. What is it then? It is, I think, a Revival of the true old English Spirit, which prevailed in the Days of our Fathers, and which must always be national, fince it has no Direction but to the national Interest; eft jam una Vox omnium; and I hope we shall never have Occafion to add, magis Odio firmata quam Præfidio.

This Spirit the Craftsman has contributed to raife; and I affirm, in my turn, that fuppofing him to have no other Reafon for raifing and fupporting it, than a general Obfervation of the contrary Tem· per, into which the Nation had fallen, He deferves the Acknowledgments of every honeft Man in Bri

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tain, for the Part he has acted. The Difpute between us is thus reduced to one fingle Propofition; and if I prove This, all your Reasoning, Sir, falls ⚫ of courfe to the Ground.

The other affented; the State of the Difpute was fixed; and the old Gentleman proceeded in his Argu. ment to this Effect.

• Give me leave to borrow, upon this Occafion, an Image, which my Lord Bacon employs, in one of his Effays, upon another. A People, who will maintain their Liberties, muft pray for the Bleffing of Judah, to avoid the Fate of Ifachar; the greatest Curfe, which can befall them. Far from jogging on filently and tamely, like the Afs between two Burthens, fuch a People muft preferve fome of the Fierceness of the Lyon, and even make their Roar to be heard like his, whenever they are injured, or so much as ⚫ threatned.

I do not mean to recommend your feditious, rebellious Spirit, which will create a perpetual Scene of Tumult and Disorder, and expofe every State to frequent and dangerous Convulfions. Neither would I be thought to approve even that popular Peevishness of Temper, which fometimes prevails, fo as to discompofe the Harmony of the feveral Orders of Government. But This I affert, that Liberty cannot be long fecure, in any Country, unless a perpetual Fealoufy watches over it, and a conftant determined Refolution protects it in the whole Body of the Nation. The Principle must be permanent and equal.

The

Exercife of it ought to be proportioned to the Oc• cafions. The hundred Eyes of Argus were not always kept open; but they were never all clofed, The whole Body of a Nation may be as jealous of their Liberties, as a private Man of his Honour. They may be, at all Times, animated by a generous Refolution of defending these Liberties, at any Rifque; as he may, at all Times, feel in his Heart

the

the Courage of venturing his Life to maintain his Honour. But as there is no neceflary Confequence from this private Character to That of a quarrelfome Bully; fo neither is there any neceffary Confequence from the publick Character I have recommended to That of a factious, rebellious People.

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Liberty is a tender Plant, which will not flourish, unless the Genius of the Soil be proper for it; nor will any Soil continue to be fo long, which is not cultivated with inceffant Care. Varia illudunt Peftes Mifchiefs of various Kinds abound; and there is no Seafon, in the Revolution of the great political Year of Goverment, when we can fay, with Truth, that Liberty is entirely free from immediate, ⚫or remote Danger.

In every Kind of Government fome Powers must be lodged in particular Men, or particular Bodies of Men, for the good Order and Prefervation of the whole Community. The Lines, which circumfcribe thefe Powers, are the Bounds of Separation between the Prerogatives of the Prince, or other Magiftrate, and the Privileges of the People. Every Step, 'which the Prince, or Magiftrate, makes beyond these Bounds, is an Encroachment on Liberty, and every Attempt towards making such a Step is a Danger to • Liberty.

Thus we fee how great a Truft is repofed in Thofe, to whom fuch Powers are committed; and if we look into the Heart of Man, we shall foon 'difcover how great, tho' unavoidable, a Temptation is laid in their Way. The Love of Power is natural; it is infatiable; almoft conftantly whetted; and never cloyed by Poffeffion. If therefore all Men

⚫ will endeavour to encrease their Power, or at least to prolong and fecure the Enjoyment of it, according to the uncertain Measure of their own Paffions, and not according to the ftated Proportion of Reafon and of Law; and if neither one nor the other of

• Thefe

These can be attempted without a Danger to Liberty; it follows undeniably that, in the Nature of Things, the Notion of a perpetual Danger to Liberty is infeparable from the very Notion of Go

vernment.

That these Principles are true, will appear evident from Practice and Experience, as well as from Speculation. All Forms of Government fuppofe them to be fo; and in fuch as are not abfolute Monarchies we find the the utmost Precautions, which their feveral Inftitutions admit, taken against this • Evil; from hence that Rotation of Employments in • Commonwealths; the annual, or other more frequent Elections of Magistrates; and all thofe Checks and Controuls, which the Wisdom of Legiflators, prompted by Experience, has invented.

In perfect Democracies thefe Precautions have been taken in the highest Degree; and yet even there They have not been always effectual. They were carried fo far in the Athenian Form of Government, that this People feemed more in Danger of falling into Anarchy than Tyranny; and yet one of their Magiftrates found Means to become their Tyrant, and to tranfmit this Power to his Succeffors.

In mixed Governments, the Danger muft ftill be greater. Such a one we may justly reckon That of Rome, as well during the regal as republican State; ⚫ and furely no Hiftory can be more fruitful in Examples of the Danger, to which Liberty ftands expofed from the natural, and therefore conftant Defire of amplifying and maintaining Power, than the Roman Hiftory is, from the last of the Kings to the first of the Emperors.

A Monarchy, limited like ours, may be placed, for aught I know, as it has often been reprefented, juft in the middle Point; from whence a Deviation leads, on one Hand, to Tyranny; and, on the other, to • Anarchy; but sure I am that if we are situated just

' in the middle Point, the leaft Deviation is the more cautionally to be guarded against. Liberty would be fafer, perhaps, if we inclined a little more than we • do to the popular Side.

It may be faid, and I would anticipate the Objec⚫tion, that if we are thus placed, our Care ought to be exerted equally against Deviations on either Side; and that I am the more in the Wrong to appear fo apprehenfive of Those on one Side, and fo little apprehenfive of Thofe on the other; because even our own Hiftory might have fhewn us that Deviations to the popular Side have coft us at leaft as dear, as ever Those to the other Side can be pretended to have • done. But let it be confidered;

First, that as far as thefe national Calamities, ◄ hinted at in the Objection, have been the unavoida⚫ble Confequences of Methods neceffary to fecure or retrieve Liberty, it is infamous to repine at them, whatever they have cost.

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Secondly, that the Cafes compared together, and ⚫ fuppofed in this Objection to be equal, are not fo.. I may fafely appeal to every impartial Reader of our. Hiftory, whether any Truth he collected from it ever • ftruck him more ftrongly than This; that when the Disputes between the King and the People have been 'carried to fuch extremes, as to draw national Cala• mities after them, it has not been owing primarily to the Obftinacy and weak Management of the Court, and is therefore unjustly charged on the juft Spirit of Liberty. In Truth a Spirit of Liberty will never destroy a free Conftitution; a Spirit of Faction may. • But I appeal again, whether Thofe of our Princes, who have had Sense and Virtue enough to encou6 rage the one, have had any Thing to fear from the • other.

Now if Experience fhews, as I am perfuaded it does, that the Prerogative and Power of a Prince ⚫ will never be in any real Danger, when he invades, • neither