enforce fuch laws and rules of action as the wifdom of the State has thought fit to prefcribe. Happily for us, we are not bound by any laws but fuch as are ordained by the virtual confent of the whole Kingdom, and which every man has the means of knowing: If men judged rightly, they would be perfuaded that their happinefs, as well as their fecurity, depends upon a due obfervance and fupport of the laws. There will however (even in the beft formed fyftems of Government) always be found men of selfish and corrupt principles, who forfake the paths of honeft industry, and prefer the fhorter road of supplying their wants and extravagancies by. rapine and spoil; when that is the cafe, it becomes neceffary for the coercive power of the State to lend its reftraining hand, and to punish the offender; and if the offence is of fo flagrant a nature, that there is no hope of the reformation of the offender, there it is neceffary that the corrupted member fhould be cut off, to prevent others from being contaminated by his example.

"But (though crimes muft not go unpunished) we may venture to boast, that (in the administration of the Criminal Law) no Nation has ever been fo careful of the Lives and Liberty of the Subject, or has made fuch humane provifions to infure the moft careful investigation of the imputed Crime, as that in which we live. The ordaining a preliminary Inqueft of Inquiry (by means of a Grand Jury compofed of men of the first rank and figure in the county), is a guard and caution unknown in any other country. And when they have fo far given their fanction to the proceeding, as to pronounce it a matter fit for further inquiry, the privilege which the party accufed enjoys, of having the matter tried before a Jury of his equals, with liberty to except to any of them that he may think likely to be prejudiced against him, is the moft valuable birth-right of an Englishman. The law is no less careful in protecting men's civil rights and properties; and I hope I may add, that there is no Nation where the Law is more uprightly and impartially adminiftered, than in ours. For thefe bleffings we are indebted to the wife and prudent form of our Conftitution: and that fecurity (which naturally refults from well regulated laws) has been a fpur to industry, and has occafioned our commerce to be extended beyond the example of former ages. And whoever will take the trouble of making the enquiry, will find, that in every manufacturing county in the Kingdom, the demand for their manufactures is greater than they are able to fupply. Such is the flourishing ftate of the Kingdom, and fuch the happy fruits of Liberty and Peace.

B 2

"One

"One fhould fuppofe there was not a man in the Kingdom who did not feel this, and who did not feel it with a grateful heart. And yet there are men of dark and gloomy hearts (men who have themselves neither fortune nor character to lofe), who would wish to overturn the venerable fabrick of our Conftitution (which has been the work and pride of Ages, which has been revered at home, and been the envy of furrounding Nations), and to give in return a ftate of univerfal Anarchy and Confufion.

"There have been publications in which the Author difclaims all ideas of Subordination, as contrary to the natural rights and equality of mankind, and recommends the example of a neighbouring Nation as a model for our imita

tion.

"Alas! Humanity is called upon to pity the deplorable fituation of that country; but it is a very ill chofen example to hold forth to a Nation in the most flourishing state of happiness; and it is a pretty extraordinary request, that we would (with our eyes open) plunge ourfelves into the fame abyfs of mifery.

"One might naturally have expected, that doctrines fo monftrous and nonfenfical, would have been treated with the contempt they deferved, and would have funk into oblivion.

"But when one finds that tenets fo wild and extravagant are taken up by formed Societies of men, who meet for the exprefs purpofe of diffeminating fuch doctrines, that they fhould hold regular correfpondence with other fimilar Societies at home (as well as in a neighbouring Nation), it is time for every foberminded man, and every well-wifher to the fafety and profperity of the Country (as much as in him lies), to endeavour to crush fuch unconstitutional and pernicious doctrines.

"Gentlemen, His Majefty (who is always anxious for and watchful over the fafety and profperity of his country, did fome time ago iffue his Royal Proclamation, which well. deferves the attention of every good Subject; and I fear the circumftances which gave rife to the Proclamation are not yet fo totally at an end, as to make it unfeasonable for me to recal it to your recollection. Gentlemen, His Majefty in that Proclamation ftates, That, &c. (Here the Judge recited the principal Heads of the Proclamaition).

Gentlemen, I cannot help expreffing the happine's I feel, that his Majefty's Proclamation has been received by his Subjects with all due marks of refpect and attention; and there are fcarce any parts of the Kingdom that have not

(in their Addrefies to His Majefty) expreffed their hatred and abhorrence of fuch pernicious doctrines, and fhewn that they are not to be duped out of their happiness by the fhallow artifices of fuch men, who (having nothing to lofe) would wish to enrich themselves by the deftruction of all Government, and the fubftituting anarchy and confufion in the place of it.

"Gentlemen, The Officers of the Crown have taken all due pains to bring fuch offenders to Juftice as have come to their knowledge, and I have no doubt but fuch offenders will meet with due punishment for their Crimes. But as the evil has not yet ceafed, and thefe fowers of fedition are still abroad, we ought not to content ourselves with merely wishing well to the profperity of the Kingdom, but every honeft man and wel-wifher to his country ought to ftand forth, and fhew as much zeal and activity in fupporting the Caufe of Order and good Government, as thele wicked Emiffaries do in endeavouring to fubvert it.

"Gentlemen, I truft i am addreffing myfelf to a Grand Jury, compofed of men, who have fenfe and underftanding enough to know how to fet a due value on the blefings they enjoy. And therefore I earneftly recommend it to fuch of you as are in a private ftation, to endeavour by your exmale to difcountenance all fuch unconflitutional tenets; and to fuch of you as are invefted with the office of Magiftracy, that you would endeavour to bring all fuch offenders to juftice, who openly avow, and by printed publications endeavour to juftify, fuch feditious and unconftitutional doctrines as I have above alluded to, and are noticed in his Majefty's Proclamation.

"Gentlemen, I fhall not take up any more of your time, but recommend it to you with all difpatch to proceed on the public fervice you are engaged in ; and I doubt not, but that you will difcharge your duty in a manner honourable to yourselves, and fuch as will merit the thanks of your country."

A

WORD IN SEASON

TO THE

TRADERS AND MANUFACTURERS

B

OF

GREAT BRITAIN.

EFORE I enter upon the fubject, the confideration of which has, for fome time, employed all my thoughts, it may be proper to inform you, that my life has been paffed among yourselves, in the midst of a flourishing manufacturing country. My furprize, therefore, that any attempts fhould be made to produce difcontents among the trading, commercial, and manufacturing part of my countrymen, to whom tranquillity and good order are fo effentially requifite, can only yield to the aftonishment I fhall feel if such attempts fhould find the leaft fuccefs among them.

The leifure of my prefent life qualifies me to confider, with attention, the means employed to fow discontents among you, as well as the character and views of the perfons who are fo bufy in employing them; and, for your information, as well as, I hope, for your conviction and advantage, I have undertaken to offer my opinion of them, and their probable mischievous confequences, to your most ferious confideration.

The perfons who compofe the focieties, and who have eftablished them, as they announce the matter, for constitutional reformation, are men, I am not afraid to fay, of weak heads, of bad hearts, or defperate fortunes, The first clafs are certainly the best-who, with good intentions, are perfuaded and deceived by artful and wicked men of fuperior understanding, into a co-operation with them in promoting defigns which were they to fucceed, would give a very deep wound to the happiness of this country.

The fecond clafs-confifts of perfons of confiderable talents, who, under the influence of a factious fpirit, are engaged in attempts to promote public confufion, in order to realize the dreams of their unprincipled ambition. For, be

lieve

fieve me, if these men, or men of the fame pernicious difpofitions, were, by any violent convulfion of public affairs, to get into power, you would find a woeful difference between these upstart rulers and your prefent mild government.

The third clafs-is compofed of the moft abandoned characters: who having diffipated their fortunes in every species of vicious excefs, would rejoice in national disturbance, on the fame principle that thieves and pickpockets rejoice at a fire, as it gives them an opportunity of alleviating their diftreffes by rapine and plunder.

The means which these focieties, and the individuals who take the lead in them, employ to promote their wicked and incendiary purpofes, though directed ultimately to the fame object, vary their courfe to the attainment of it:-fome, with a daring outrage of all decency, with an audacity that seems to tempt the cognizance of the law, hold forth to you a conduct which would involve you in profecution, and end in punishment; while others, in the form of fober reafoning and difpaffionate inquiry, artfully endeavour to undermine and weaken those principles of due fubmiffion to Government which are the great fupport and fecurity of national happiness.-I fhall confider them both in their order.

The first do not hesitate to tell you, that under your prefent Government you have no Conítitution, and that the Revolution at the close of the last century (by which you have hitherto been fo ignorant as to believe, that what you thought an admirable Constitution was restored and confirmed, and from which period you and your ancestors have felt yourselves free and happy) was an artful and tyrannic contrivance to delude the people out of their rights, in order to gratify the ambition of those men who projected and brought it to a conclufion. They will tell you that all Kings must be tyrants; and, therefore, a fcourge to all Free Governments; that your Houfe of Lords is the fervile and abject fupport of regal tyranny, and should therefore be annihilated; and that your Houfe of Commons does not contain an adequate reprefentation of the people; and that, if it did, the members of it are fo corrupt, that it cannot represent you as it ought; and that, fuch being the present state of the Government of this country, the people ought to arife as one man to pull the King from the throne, degrade the nobles from their rank, diffolve the reprefentative body of the nation, and form a Government for theinfelves :-and, to add to the infult they thus offer to your understanding as reasonable beings, they hold forth the Revolution of France as an example for your imitation.

B 4

Extreme