THE SENTIMENTAL AND MASONIC MAGAZINE, FOR JANUARY, 1795. CONCISE ACCOUNT OF WHITEHALL, OF WHICH A REPRESENTATION IS GIVEN IN THE ANNEXED PRINT. "HIS beautiful houfe was built by Major HALL fifty-three years THIS was ago, and was called Hall's Barn, on account of a remarkable Barn belonging to it, but was lately changed to White Hall, by Doctor WALSH, who occupied it for thirty-three years. It is now in poffef. fion of Mr. MICHAEL KELLY, who has converted it to an elegant Boarding-houfe; for which it is particularly well adapted, on account of its pleasant fituation, and by its vicinity to the capital, partaking of the advantages both of town and country.-Numbers of the country people ftill call this beautiful fabric by its original name, Hall's Barn; and it preferves this title in the feveral almanacs which give lifts of the rates of carriages to the different places near Dublin. THOS ON GOOD FAITH. "HOSE who fancy that a prince is no farther great than he is crafty, are guilty of a wretched mistake. There is a wide difference between wifdom and knavery,-and though in this corrupt age they are called by the fame name, yet the man of understanding easily diftinguishes them. A king is not obliged to difcover his defigns to his enemies; he should take care to conceal them from them; but then he ought not by vain promises, and under the veil of disguised friendfhip, to tempt them into fnares laid for their deftruction. A great foul, in whatever station, always takes virtue for its guide. A crime is ftill a crime, and nothing can diminish from its enormity. He who lyes offends against heaven, and offends himself: a lye has fomething fo odious, that it is a fhock to the character of a gentleman, whatfoever can be faid to mitigate it. The very nations which the Greeks treated as barbarians, had an abhorrence of lyes and fraud. Herodotus fays, "The Perfians have an infinite contempt for those who falfify their word; and they train their children from five to twentyfive years old, in nothing but to draw the bow, to ride on horseback, and to fpeak truth.” By By inculcating that pernicious doctrine to kings, that they might difpenfe with the performance of their engagements, they prove dangerous examples to their fubjects; and it is this deteftable principle that has been the fource of all the intestine wars that have so long diftracted most of the kingdoms of Europe. SOME ACCOUNT OF A NEW WORK, NOW REPRINTING IN DUBLIN, ENTITLED, An Enquiry into the Duties of Men in the higher and middle Claffes of Society in Great Britain, refulting from their refpective Stations, Pro feffions, and Employments. BY THOMAS GISBORNE, 'M. A. In whenitted & clude the refearches of reaf of N this enquiring age, when the great and important concerns of when the judicious and well-directed efforts of philofophy have demolifhed thofe fences, by which defpotifm was furrounded; it is obvious ..that two parties have arifen, equally immoderate in the ends they propofe, and equally menacing the exiftence of focial order. The one would push the fpirit of innovation, fo laudable and congenial to the human mind, to a ftage, which would level all diftinctions, and replunge fociety into a ftate of Cimmerian darknefs: the other would extend their zeal of refifting innovation to the maintenance of tyranny and ufurpation, in all the various forms which they have affumed, to defraud mankind of their fair claims. A third party has indeed arifen, equally avoiding the extremes of the partizans of rafh and licentious innovation or of abufe, oppofing the corrections of knowledge, enlightened by experience and guided by wisdom; but unhappily for the human race, this party is fmall; and the feeble expoftulations of reafon are drowned, or little heeded, amid those bold appeals, which, rejecting the arbitration of reafon, attack the prejudices, and feize the heart, by conquering the paffes which lead to it, by alarming and kindling the paffions. Even philofophers, who might be prefumed fafe from the infection of these (if we may fo term them) maladies of the mind, lend the polished weapons of argument, wit and erudition, to propagate tenets equally replete with danger, and equally leading to the overthrow of focial happiness and order; and in this number is the learned and laborious author of the work before us. In a fyftem of practical ethica, he has deemed not only proper to introduce thofe excellencies of the British conftitution, which have been fo copious a theme of panegyric; but he also thinks it neceffary to vindicate what has been generally admitted, as a defect in the ftate of popular reprefentation. We fhall transcribe his words. One leading circumftance, however, in the British Conftitution, the ftate of Popular Reprefentation, has been repeatedly ftigmatized as incompatible with the fundamental principles of juftice. It is un doubtedly doubtedly true that a very large majority of the inhabitants of this kingdom, has no elective voice in the appointment of the members of the Houfe of Commons; in other words, moft of the people of Great Britain have no fuffrage in the nomination of the perfons who are to enact the laws, by which non-electors, in common with the rest of the nation, are to be governed. But the limited diffufion of the elective franchise cannot fairly be affirmed to be a breach of justice. The right of voting for a member of Parliament is a public truft; it is as truly a 'civil office as the most confpicuous employment in the ftate; and, humble as it may feem, is a civil office of confiderable importance. All public offices and trufts being conftituted in this kingdom for the general good of the whole; it is juft that they fhould be conferred under fuch political conditions as the general good may demand; and be devolved to thofe perfons alone, who poffefs the political qualifications deemed effential to the proper difcharge of the duties attached to "them. Of thefe conditions and qualifications the nation is the judge; and when it has fixed according to its beft views of public utility, the terms on which each public office fhall be conferred, and the defcription of perfons to whom it fhall be entrusted; no man who is deftitute of the civil qualifications prefcribed, has any plea for complaining of injuftice, in being precluded from filling the poft. It would be as unreasonable in a perfon, thus difqualified, to contend that he is treated with injuftice in not being permitted to be an elector, as it would be to affirm that he is unjustly treated in not being permitted to be king. The king and the elector are alike public officers; and the nation has the fame right to appoint citizens of a particular defeription to chufe members of parliament, as it has to appoint a particular family to occupy the throne.' We fhall now lay before our Readers the plan, of the work, which we fhall do in the Author's own words. To apply moral truths to practical purposes; to point out their bearings on modern opinions and modern manners; and to deduce from them rules of conduct by which the inhabitants of this country in particular, each in his refpective station, may be aided in acquiring the knowledge and encouraged in the performance of their feveral duties, are objects of unequivocal utility. They are the objects which it is my with to attain, as far as I am able, in the prefent work. The plan propofed requires me to enter into a regular and to a - certain degree minute detail of the various duties of the different claffes of fociety, which fall within its limits; to combine in every branch of my enquiry, as far as the nature of the fubjects will admit, the conclufions of reafon with the dictates of religion; and to deduce fuch inferences, and fubjoin fuch remarks, as appear immediately applicable to the circumstances of Englishmen in common life. In the profecution of a plan of this nature, the attention will of course be attracted in the first place by thofe objects which are of the most general importance, and thofe fituations which render the perfons fixed in them particularly confpicuous. And it will afterwards be directed to points which interet either a smaller proportion of the community, or that part of it which is more withdrawn from public abfervation. I pro pofe |