The Charge of the Hon. Mr. Justice Afhurft, to the Grand Fury in the Court of King's Bench.-Appendix to the Bishop of Landaff's Sermon.—Reflections on the prefent Crifis.

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The Charge of the Hon. Mr. Juftice Afhurst, to the Grand Fury in the Court of King's Bench. Delivered Hilary Term 1793.

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Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,

T would be a very fuperfluous labour were I to take up your time, in explaining to you the general outlines of your duty, refpecting the office you are now engaged in ; which, from the frequent return of this fervice, you are moft of you fufficiently acquainted with. But I cannot omit this opportunity of congratulating you, that within these last two months, things wear a very different aspect, with respect to the internal tranquillity of this kingdom, from what they did antecedent to that period.

Gentlemen, the people of England, in general, have fully answered the opinion I always entertained of their understanding, their loyalty, their firmness, and the good

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nefs of their hearts; which wanted nothing but to be called forth into exertion.

The zeal and fpirit which has been fhewn by the difę ferent focieties in this metropolis, has warmed and pervaded the most diftant parts of this kingdom; and the feveral useful publications which have been difperfed abroad, have enlightened the deluded minds of the lower claffes of the people, which had been deceived and practifed upon by the diabolical artifices of crafty and defigning men; they begin now to fee the folly and impracticability of those idle and delufive notions, which had been held forth to them, of a general equality in all men; a thing which could not exift in a state of civil government, in which the only rational idea of equality is that which refults from an equal protection of the laws, extending itself alike to the highest and the loweft fubject of the kingdom, and which, we are all fenfible, obtains here in its utmost extent.

Gentlemen, the fpirit of loyalty, and the love of their country, has now been raised in almoft every breast, (except in thofe rancorous hearts that have fold themselves to all mischief) and there wants nothing but perfeverance te produce a general unanimity amongst us. When that object is attained, and I think we may now fay, it is very nearly attained, we have nothing to fear from foreign foes. They know that they have no other dependance but that of creating divifions amongst ourselves; that hope, I trust, is now frustrated; and whether we can or cannot avert the evil of a foreign war, let us at least endeavour to preferve the bleffings of peace at home; the way to infure which is, by firmly retaining our loyalty to our king, our reverence for the laws, and for our wife and excellent constitution.

Gentlemen, I do not wonder that artful, defigning, and infidious men, fhould with to represent the Societies I have before alluded to (calculated for the m.oft laudable purposes) as unconftitutional and illegal: but one cannot help ex prefling fome furprise, that thofe men, who have now, for the first time, made that difcovery, fhould not have found out, at an earlier period, the illegality of other Societies, which were formed all over the kingdom (in correfpondence with each other) for the exprefs purpose of mifleading, and poifoning the minds of the lower claffes of the people, with fentiments fubverfive of the fundamental principles of the Conftitution, and indeed of all order and Government; and yet one does not find that these men have ever reprehended fuch Societies, as unconftitutional or illegal. Gentlemen, I fhall make no further comment on this incongruity of behaviour

haviour, but fhall leave it to the judicious public to draw their own conclufions.

In the mean time let not those valuable Members of Society, who have united in the support of our excellent Conftitution, be afraid of unmerited calumny; we are told by the greatest of all authorities, that the tree is best known by its fruits. If this be true, it must follow as a neceffary confequence, that thefe Societies, which are calculated for the exprefs purposes of fuppreffing fedition, for inculcating loyalty, and keeping up and fupporting a due obfervance of the laws (and which have been found to be attended with that effect) can not, in the nature of things, be illegal or unconstitutional.

It is, and ought to be the firft end and principle of law to enforce and fupport good order and Government, and to curb and reftrain all fuch practices, as may tend to ftir up ftrife and fedition; it is the duty of every good fubject, to affift the Civil Magiftrate in promoting this defirable end; and certainly there never was a time when this affiftance was more emphatically neceffary, than when the most dangerous plans and confederacies were on foot, for the fubverfion of all Government. Although the favourers of anarchy have affected to laugh at the groundless apprehenfions of those whose business it was to watch over the fafety of the country; it has fince appeared, by the cleareft evidence, that thofe apprehenfions were but too well founded. It was on this occafion, and for thefe purposes, that thefe conftitutional Societies were set on foot; and they have never, that I have heard of, deviated from the ends of their Institution. the contrary, they have in my opinion fhewn themselves the friends of order and Government, and at the fame time the friends of liberty in all its branches; for nothing is more true than that they are the best friends to liberty, who use their endeavours to reftrain it within the bounds of law, and to reprefs all licentiousness; and they, on the other hand, are its most dangerous foes, who, under the fpecious mafque of liberty, prostitute it to purposes ill correfponding with the name; as fuch prostitution may tend to leffen in mens' minds that love and veneration, which ought to refide in the breaft of every good man, for the facred name of liberty when rightly underflood, and properly made ufe of.

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Gentlemen, I have been led to digrefs beyond the limit of my original intention, which was only to recommend it to you, to perfevere in the fame line of conduct, which has been found fo much to contribute to the public fervice: but

perhaps my having done fo, may not be altogether unfeafonable, as it may tend to prevent mens' minds from being mifled by fpecious names, and to induce them to judge of mens' intentions by their actions, which will always be found to be the fureft criterion.

Gentlemen, I fhall not take up any more of your time, which may be more ufefully employed in the fervice you are engaged in, and which I doubt not but you will difcharge with fidelity and dispatch.

Appendix to the Bishop of Llandaff's Sermon, preached in Charlotte-ftreet Chapel, April 1785.

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HE Sermon which is now, for the first time, publifhed, was written many years ago; it may, perhaps, on that account be more worthy of the attention of those for whose benefit it is defigned. If it fhall have any effect in calming the perturbation which has been lately excited, and which still fubfifts in the minds of the lower claffes of the community, I fhall not be ashamed of having given to the world a compofition in every other light uninteresting. I will take this opportunity of adding, with the fame intention, a few reflections on the prefent circumftances of our own, and of a neighbouring country.

With regard to France-I have no hesitation in declaring, that the object which the French feemed to have in view at the commencement of their revolution, had my hearty approbation. The object was to free themselves and their pofterity from arbitrary power. I hope there is not a man in Great Britain fo little fenfible of the bleffings of that free Conftitution under which he has the happiness to live: fo entirely dead to the interests of general humanity, as not to with that a Conftitution fimilar to our own might be established, not only in France, but in every defpotic ftate in Europe: not only in Europe, but in every quarter of the globe.

It is one thing to approve of an end, another to approve of the means by which an end is accomplished. I did not approve of the means by which the first revolution was effected in France.-I thought that it would have been a wifer measure to have abridged the oppreffive privileges, and to have leffened the enormous number of the nobility, than to have abolished the order.-I thought that the state

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ought not in juftice to have feized any part of the property of the church, till it had reverted, as it were, to the community, by the death of its immediate poffeffors.I thought that the king was not only treated with unmerited indignity; but that too little authority was left him, to enable him, as the chief executive magiftrate, to be useful to the ftate.-These were fome of my reasons for not approving the means by which the first revolution in France was brought about. As to other evils which took place on the occafion, I confidered them certainly as evils of importance; but at the same time as evils infeparable from a state of civil commotion, and which I conceived would be more than compenfated by the establishment of a limited monarchy.

The French have abandoned the conftitution they had at first established, and have changed it for another. No one can reprobate with more truth than I do both the means, and the end of this change.-The end has been the establishment of a republic-Now, a republic is a form of government, which, of all others, I moft diflike-and I diflike it for this reafon; because of all forms of governtment, scarcely excepting the most defpotic, I think a republic the mott oppreffive to the bulk of the people: they are deceived in it with the fhew of liberty; but they live in it, under the most odious of all tyrannies, the tyranny of their equals. With respect to the means by which this new republic has been erected in France, they have been fanguinary, favage, more than brutal. They not merely fill the heart of every individual with commiferation for the unfortunate fufferers; but they exhibit to the eye of contemplation, an humiliating picture of human nature, when its paffions are not regulated by religion, or controlled by law. I fly with terror and abhorrence even from the altar of Liberty, when I see it stained with the blood of the aged, of the innocent, of the defenceless sex, of the minifters of religion, and of the faithful adherents of a fallen monarch.-My heart finks within me when I fee it streaming with the blood of the monarch himself.-Merciful God, ftrike fpeedily, we beseech thee, with deep contrition, and fincere remorfe, the obdurate hearts of the relentless perpetrators and projectors of thefe horrid deeds, left they should fuddenly fink into eternal and extreme perdition, loaded with an unutterable weight of unrepented, and, except through the blood of Him whofe religion they reject, inexpiable fin.

The monarch, you will tell me, was guilty of perfidy and perjury. I know not that he was guilty of either; but admitting that he has been guilty of both,-who, alas! of the

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