• He had the honour of fitting in fix parlaments, of being chairman in twentyfive committees, and of making three ⚫ hundred and fifty fpeeches. He attended conftantly twice a week at the levees of twelve different minitters of state; and writ for and against them one thou ⚫ fand papers. He composed fifty new projects for the better government of the church and ftate. He left behind

him memoirs of his own life, in five volumes in folio.

Reader, if thou should it be moved to drop a tear for the lofs of fo CONSIDER. ABLE A PERSON, it will be a SINGU LAR favour to the deceased; for nobody elfe concerns himfelf about it, or remembers that fuch a man was ever 'born.'

I Went with my friend the other day

to a great hall, where all the courts of law were fitting together. Behold,' faid he, the temple of juffice, the fanc· tuary of privilege and right, which our ⚫ mightiest monarchs have not been able to violate with impunity. Behold the • lowest of our commons contending here with the highest of our nobles, unawed by their dignity or power. See thofe ve⚫nerable fages on the bench, whofe ears are deaf to folicitation, and their hands untainted with corruption. See alfothofe twelve men, whom we call the jury; the great bulwark of our property and freedom. But then caft your eyes on ⚫ thofe men in black that swarm on every fide: thefe are the priests of the temple, who, like most other priests, have turned their miniftry into a trade; they have perplexed, confounded, and encumbered law, in order to make them⚫ felves more neceffary, and to drain the purfes of the people.'-'I have heard,' faid I, that the laws of England are wifely framed and impartially adminifiered. The old Gothic pile we are now in,' replied my friend, will give you a juft idea of their ftructure: the

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foundations of it are deep and very lafting; it has stood many ages, and with good repairs may ftand many more; but the architecture is loaded with a multiplicity of idle and ufeleis parts: when you examine it critically, · many faults and imperfections will appear; yet upon the whole it has a mighty awful air, and frikes you 'with reverence. Then as to the adminiftration of our laws, the differ· ence between us and other countries is little more than this, that there they fell justice in the grofs, and here we fell it by retail. In Perfia the cadi paffes fentence for a round fum of money: in England the judge indeed takes nothing, but the attorney, the advocate, every officer and retainer on the court, raises treble that fum upon the client. The condition of justice is like that of many women of quality; they themselves are above being bought, but every fervant about them must be feed, or there is no getting at them. The dinterefted Ipirit of the lady is of no advantage to the fuiter; he is undone by the rapine of •ber dependants.'

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generally found, that in other coun tries, where they are not fo ftrictly tied down, the judge's confcience is apt to ⚫ depend too much on the king's, and the rule of equity is a very uncertain meafure, which paffion, prejudice, or intereft, can easily change.

Thefe latter times have, indeed, a good deal departed from the ancient methods of judicature in matters of property, by encouraging applications to the Chancery, which is a court of equity, where he who prefides in it judges alone, without any jury, and with a much greater latitude than other courts; but whether more evil than good does not attend on this practice, may well be queftioned. Thus much is certain, that caufes are not Shortened by it, though one might have expected that advantage from it at lealt. I have been told,' faid I, that whatever time they may take in paffing through that court, they have often a further journey to make before they come to a final decifion.'-' It is true,' replied he, they may be carried from thence by an appeal to the House of Lords, who judge in the laft refort. And if the constitution had not lodged there a judicature superior to that of the chancellor, so much of the 6 property of the fubject would entirely · depend upon his opinion, that the par

⚫liament would have reason to put in again their claim to a right which they demanded in the reign of Edward III. ⚫ of nominating this officer themselves,

When an appeal,' faid I, is made to the lords, by what rules do they judge? If by no other than thofe of natural equity, I can then understand, that every lord who has common fente may be fuppofed to be capable of fuch a judicature: but if they proceed by the rules of the courts below, and according to principles, ufages, and determinations eftablished there, that is a fcience of which few are capable; • and in that sense they cannot be judges born. Two or three, at most, of their body, would then have competent knowledge for the performing a duty, which the conftitution of England expects from all. And when fo few are to judge, their being too much divided in affection or intereft, at fome junctures of time; at others, their being too much united; might, I fhould think, have very bad confequences. But what if the chancellor himself fhould ever be the only lord in the houfe enough poffeffed of that knowledge to lead the left, where would be then the use of appealing from his decrees?'

To this my friend anfwered nothing: and I thought that his filence wanted no explanation.

A French gentleman was honing the

other day, in a company where I was, of the academies founded by the late king for the fupport and reward of arts and fciences.

You have a pleasant way,' faid he, here in England, of encouraging a • man of wit. When he is dead, you build him a fine tomb, and lay him among your kings; but while he is alive, he is as ill received at court, as ◄ if he came with a petition against the miniftry. Would not the money you have laid out upon the monuments of two or three of your poets, have been better bestowed in giving them bread when they were living, and wanted it? This might have been formerly the cafe,' replied the Englishman; but it is not fo now. A man of true genius is at prefent fo much favoured by the publick, which is the best of all

more.

And, let me add, that the honours which are paid to a deceafed man of wit have fomething in them generous and difinterested than penfions bestowed on flavish terms, and at the price of continual panegyrick.

"We have a very great poet now alive, who may boat of one glory to which no member of the French academy can pretend; viz. that he never flattered any man in power; but has bestowed immortal pra:fes upon those whom, for fear of offending men in power, if they had lived in France under the fame circumstances, no poet there would have dared to praife."

LETTER

TH

HERE is a Chriftian de&tor, who at my firit arrival here took the trouble to visit me very often, with no other view, as I could find, but merely to make a Chriftian of me; in which defign he has been fingle hitherto, fuch a zeal being very much out of fashion.

But, what is molt extraordinary, I was told the other day, that his prefer ment in the church had been lately stopped at the inftance of the mufti of this city, on a fuppofition of his being turned Mahometan, and that all the proof brought against him, was the commerce he formerly had with me.

When I heard this, I waited on the mufti, and offered to testify that the doctor was a Chriftian, as far as I could judge by all I law of him, during the

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time of our acquaintance: but he refused to admit my teftimony in this cafe, becaufe, as he faid, I was myself a misteliever; and infifted on the doctor's fuppofed apoftacy, as an undoubted fact, which focked him beyond measure.

If he is a Mufulman,' faid I, he must be circumcifed: there is a visible mark of orthodoxy in our religion; but I fhould be glad to know what is • the visible mark of yours. If it be meekness, or charity, or juftice, or temperance, or piety, all thefe are most confpicucus in the doctors but I find that none of thefe can prove him to be a Chriftian. What, therefore, is the characteristick of his accusers? And how do they prove themfelves to • be Chrifiians* ?°

HE principles and practice of toleration prevail very strongly in this country: I myself have felt the effects of it very much to my advantage. The better fort of people are no more of fended at the difference of my faith from theirs, than at the difference of my drefs: the mob, indeed, feem furprized at me for both, and cannot comprehend how it is poffible to make fuch mistakes, but they rather contemn than hate me for them; and I have yet been affronted by nobody but a drunken prießt, who denounced damnation against me, for refufing to pledge him, to the profperity of the Church of England, in a liquor torbidden by our law.

This has not always been the temper

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of the English, They have formerly waged war again Mahometans, only because they were fo; they have kindled fires against hereticks, though what was herefy in one age has been orthodoxy in another; nay, they have involved their country in all the miferies of civil difcord, upon points of no greater moment than whether a table ought to be placed in the middle of the church, or at one end of it.

I must own to thee, Mirza, there is nothing I abbor fo much as perfecution: it seems to me no less ridiculous in it's principles, than dreadful in it's effects. One would think, that the great diverfity of opinions among mankind fhould incline men a little to fufpect that their

own

own may poffibly be wrong, efpecially in difputes not very effential; but to purfue all others with rage and violence, instead of pity or perfuafion, is fuch a ftrain of pride and folly as can scarce be accounted for from enthusiasm itself. I have read in a Spanish author of a certain madman who rambled about Spain with fword and lance; and whomfoever he met with in his way, he required to acknowledge and believe, that his miftrefs Dulcinea del Tobofo was the handfomeft woman in the world. It was in vain for the other to reply, that he had no knowledge at all of Dulcinea, or had a particular fancy to another woman; the madman made no allowances for ignorance or prejudice, but inftantly Knocked him down, and never left beat Ing him till he promifed to maintain the perfections of the faid lady above all her rivals. Such has been the conduct of many priests and priest-rid princes in propagating their fpiritual inclinations each had his feveral Dulcinea, and refolved that every body should admire her as much as himself; but as this was not easily brought about, the controverfy was determined by force of arms: nay, though it happened that all admired the fame, they would even quarrel about ahe fashion of her cloaths, and most

bloody battles have been fought to de-.

cide which colour became her beft.

Alas, Mirza! how abfurd is all this! The beauty of true religion is fufficiently fhewn by it's proper luftre; it needs no knight errant to combat for it; nor is any thing fo contrary to the nature of affection as constraint. Whoever is compelled to profefs a 'faith without conviction, though it was but indifferent to him before, muft grow to think it odious; as men who are forced to marry where they do not approve, foon change diflike into averfion. I will end this subject with putting thee in mind of a ceremony which is celebrated once a year by the common people of Perfia, in honour of our prophet Ali. There are two bulls brought forth before the crowd, the ftrongest of which is called Ali, and the weaker Omar. They are made to fight; and as Ali is very sure to get the better, the fpectators go away highly fatisfied with this happy decifion of the difpute between us and the heretical Turks.

Juft in this light I regard all religious. wars. Whether the combatants are two bulls or two bishops, the cafe is exactly the fame, and the determination just as abfurd.

HERE is nothing more aftonish

particulars relating to the fate of matriimony, as it is managed in Europe: our practice of it is fo totally different, that we can hardly think it poffible for men to do or fuffer fuch things as happen here every day.

The following ftory, which was given me for a true one, will fet this in a very full light: I wish thou mayeft find it as entertaining as I am fure thou wilt find it new.

In the reign of Charles the First, King of England, lived two gentle men, whofe true names I will conceal under the feigned ones of Acafto and Septimius. They were neighbours, their eftates lay together, and they had a friendship for each other, which had grown up from their earliest youth.

Acafto had an only fon, whom we

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will call Polydore; and Septimius an

the boy was but fourteen years old, and the girl but twelve, the parents were fo defirous of contracting an alliance be tween their families, and of uniting the two bordering eftates, that they married them before either was of age to confummate the marriage, or even to un de stand the nature of their contract. As foon as the ceremony was perform ed, they fent the young gentleman abroad, to finish his education.

After four years, which he had spent in France and Italy, he was recalled by the news of his father's death, which made it neceffary for him to return to England.

Emilia, who was now about fixteen, began to think he had been abfent long enough, and received him with a great deal of fatisfaction. She had heard a

fine

fine character of him from thofe who knew him in his travels; and when the faw him, his perfon was fo improved, that the thought herfelf the happiett of women in being his wife.

But his fentiments for her were very different.

There was in his temper a spirit of contradiction, which could not bear to have a wife impofed upon him. He complained, that his father had taken advantage of his tender age, to draw him into an engagement in which his judgment could poffibly have no part. He confeffed that he had no objections to the perfon or character of Emilia; but insisted on a liberty of choice, and declared that he looked upon his marriage to be forced and null. In short, he abfolutely refused to confummate, in fpite of all the endeavours of their friends, and the conjugal affection of the poor young lady, who did her utmost to vanquish his averfion. When the found that all her kindnets was thrown away, the natural pride of her fex made her defire to be feparated from him, and the joined with him in a petition for a divorce. The firit parliament of the year forty was then fitting: the affair was brought before them, and it was believed that a divorce would have easily been obtained at their mutual demand. But the bishops oppofed it with great vio. lence, as a breach of the law of God, which they faid would admit of no divorce, but in cafes of adultery. They were anfwered, that the marriage was not compleat; and that the ceremonious part, which was all that had paffed be. tween them, might as properly be difpenfed with by the legislature, as any other form of law that the young gentleman's averfion was invincible, and inconfiftent with the obligation laid upon him; that therefore it would not well become the fathers of the church to put him under a manifeft temptation of coinmitting adultery; and that nothing could be imagined more unjuft, than to condemn the lady to perpetual virginity, under the notion of a marriage, which, it was plain, was a mere illution. These arguments feemed convincing to all the world except the bishops; but they perfilled in their usual unanimity, and were to powerful by the favour of the court, that they carried their point in the Houle of Lords; and the unfortunate Polydore and Emilia were declared to be one fleso,

though ro union had ever been betwee■ them, either in body or in mind. The husband immediately paid back his wife's portion to her father; and firmly resolv – ed that from that time forwards he would never see her more. His natural obftinacy was irritated by the constraint that was put upon him; and he took a pride to fhew the world that there was no power, ecclesiastical or civil, which could oblige him to act like a married man against his inclination. The poor lady retired to a feat of her father's in the country, and endeavoured, by long abfence from her husband, to forget that he had ever pleased or offended her. Two years afterwards the civil war broke out between the king and parliament. Po lydore was fo enraged against the bishops for obstructing his divorce, that it determined him in the chufing of his party, and made him take up arins against the king. Septimius, the father of Emilia, was as zealous a royalist, to which his hatred of Polydore contributed as much as any thing; for it was hardly poffible that two fuch bitter enemies fhould be of the fame fide. In the courfe of the war, the king being worsted, the estates of many of his party were confifcated; and Septimius having been one of the most active, was also one of those that fuffered most. He was compelled to retire into France with what he could fave out of the wreck of his eftate; and carried with him his daughter, who was quite abandoned by her husband and his family.

In the mean while, the army of the parliament began to form itself into dif ferent factions. Cromwell, at the head of the Independents, acquired by degrees fuch an influence, that the Prefby terians were no longer a match for him. Polydore, who was devoted to that fect, threw up his commiffion in difcontent; and, happily for his reputation, had no fhare in thofe violent proceedings, which ended in the deftruction of the king, and the ancient constitution.

He continued quite unactive for fome years; but at laft, growing weary of a life that agreed fo ill with his vivacity, he determined to go and serve in the Low Countries under the great Prince of Condé, who, in the year 1654, commanded the armies of Spain against his country. Two reafons inclined Polydore to this party; first, the defire he had to learn his trade under a general of fo great reputation; and, fecondly, because

Cromwell