dom, beyond that share which it ought to have

in Europe.

WHILST in England, there is a dronish, le thargic disease, that has crept upon the fouls of men in power, as if they had all drank, opium, or that the natural consequence of working much in the raising money, had produced a paralytic ftate in their faculties, as it does on the limbs of those who are engaged in digging it in the mines.adt et roi to su wuthorg a d

LCERTAIN it is, that no nation has at pre fent lefs reafon to be content with itself, than England deficient in the knowledge of the nature of man, and confequently in the art of govern, ing, refting all its powers and efforts on the influence of money, till it has almost exhausted that refource, not confidering that gold is inanimate matter, and tho' when put in mo, tion it has great effect, yet that the spirit which directs it, only imparts the advantage which ought to be expected from it.::

IT may bribe the people of this nation to be at ease, with respect to what shall befall them;

it

it may purchase individuals of another to coincide in their schemes; but this is a temporary expedient which only prolongs ruin, comes a Machault in France, whofe hands are yet undefiled with plundering his country, and his heart unstained with venal or felfifh ideas, and the influ ence of English gold is as ineffectual as rain to diffolve adamant.

THE probity and perfpicuity of that man is a greater cause of fear to this nation, than all the French fleets and armies; what cannot be effected by the union of those powers joined with refolution, and what is not to be apprehended from the fhort-fightedness of a nation, which leaves itself undefended against its only natural enemy, its colonies unprotected from the fame people, its commerce unencouraged, arts and fciences unprotected, one univerfal anarchy through neglect of police and religion, with corruption and perjury reigning over all the hearts of the lower clafs of people? fuch is the prefent ftate of this once illustrious ifle.

J.

IT

It gives me pain when I behold this, and astonishment at the inattention which the natives pay to their perilous fituation; I own I love them for their ancient virtues, and wish fome favourable hour may reinftate them in their formes luftre, alas! I fear. I am,

Your most obedient.

LET

LETTER XLIII.

To the Reverend Father FRANCESCO BERTINI at Rome.

Dear Sir,

HIS kingdom feems to me to be a living

THI

leffon of what we read in the hiftories of ancient Rome; we fee here what we find written in our hiftorians; and the constitutions refembling one another in some respects, the analogy is more striking, than it can be in countries whose form of government differs more from the republican, than this does from the Roman. I have frequently imagined, that in governments which differ in their establishments, there should not only be laws peculiar to each, relating to property; but fome even which should restrain the accumulation of wealth beyond a certain degree will the republican and mixt bear exceffive riches, tho' perhaps they may be indulged to any excess in a monarchic or abfolute state?

WHAT I would be underftood to fay, is this, that a defpotic ftate can bear to poffefs more riches without hurting its welfare, than a repub

lic or mixt government; it appears to me, this has the glimmering of truth, pray tell me what you think, when you have heard my opi

nion.

LET us then fuppofe, and as it really is ori ginally conftituted in this kingdom, that the king has his powers limited in fome instances, and the people in others; that the executive is lodged in the hands of the first, and the legislative in the hands of the latter, and that the people have a right of choofing great part of this legislative body, for their reprefentatives in the affembly of their nation.

THIS latter makes the republican part of the English conftitution, all which should be chofen by their compatriots, from that natural afcendency which good sense and virtue have over the minds of men; these are, in a nation where nature has not been totally defaced, the qualities which create that original authority which one man has over the minds and difpofitions of many; this fuperiority they would have continued to exert, had not the introduction of too much wealth into private hands, destroyed their effect; it has