teftant doctrine: and thus unhappily arofe in the church of England, that pernicious fyftem of divine indefeafible right of kings, broached indeed by the clergy, but not from those corrupt and temporizing views, to which it has been imputed. The authority of those venerable men, from whom it was derived, gave it a firm and lafting hold on the minds of the clergy; and being thought to receive a countenance from the general terms, in which obedience to the civil magiftrate is ordained in fcripture, it has continued to our days, and may, it is feared, ftill continue to perplex and mislead the judgment of too many amongst us." particularly happy in being able to adduce the high and unbiaffed authority of fo refpectable a prelate, in fupport of my own reafoning.

I am

Not being warped by any party prejudice or principle, I am free to own my astonishment, that so many learned and refpectable perfonages of every profeffion and description fhould fo long have fhut their eyes, or stopped their ears, or steeled their hearts against the truth of first principles. This refpectable prelate has endeavoured to account for it; though he is very far from juftifying it.

"The

«The growth of puritanism, and the republican fpirit, in order to justify its attack on the legal conftitutional rights of the crown, adopted the very fame principles with the jefuited party. And, under thefe circumftances, it is not to be thought ftränge, that a principle, however true, which was disgraced by coming through fuch hands, should be generally condemned and execrated. The crown and mitre had reafon to look upon both these forts of men as their mortal enemies. What wonder then, that they should unite in reprobating the political tenets, on which their common enmity was justified and fupported?"

Dr. Priestley has faid, with much truth, what I hope he will allow me to apply to my readers. "I make no apology for the freedom, with which I have written. The fubject is, in the highest degree, interesting to humanity; it is open to philofophical difcuffion, and I have taken no greater liberties, than becomes a philosopher, a man, and an Englishman. Having no other views, than to promote a thorough knowledge of this im

* Dr. Hurd's Moral and Political Dialogues, vol. ii. P. 303.

+ Preface to Dr. Priestley's Effays on the First Principles of Government, p. xiii.

Neceffity of forming our principles of policy.

portant fubject; not being fenfible of any biafs to mislead me in my inquiries, and confcious of the uprightnefs of my intentions, I freely fubmit my thoughts to the examination of all impartial judges, and the friends of their country and of mankind. They, who know the fervour of generous feelings, will be fenfible, that I have expreffed myself with no more warmth, than the importance of the fubject neceffarily prompted, in a breast not naturally the coldeft; and that to have appeared more indifferent, I could not have been fincere."

I am fenfible, that I have undertaken a very perilous task; periculofa plenum opus alex. From the open and boafted wishes, and the actual attempts of many individuals to alter or fubvert the prefent form of our government, I have found it incumbent upon me to examine and regulate my fubordinate civil duties upon fome fixt principles of immutable policy. I entered upon the task with much earneftnefs, and perfectly unbiaffed by any party; in my progress I have seen and trembled at many rocks, against which whole parties have appeared to me blindly and voluntarily to have run; by varying my course, I flatter myself I have avoided them; and if my discoveries be juft, I know of no confideration,

confideration, that can dispense with my fubmitting to my countrymen a new chart of that coaft, upon which fo many of them have unfortunately perished,

Whatever divifions of parties have exifted in our country for these three laft centuries, whether between the retainers and reformers of the old religion, between the church and the prefbytery, the round heads and the royalifts, the whigs and the tories, the nonjurors and the revolutionists, the original efficient caufes of the several divifions into party have ceased or nearly disappeared in the variety and change of circumftances, which the kingdom has finçe experienced. Such (if any) of these parties as ftill fubfift, feem rather to have received a mere nominal existence by hereditary descent, than to retain any of their conftituent parts or fundamental properties. The nation, in fact, at present appears to me to be divided into two parties only, which have abforbed all the other; the contents with the prefent establishment, and the non-contents. The former far exceed the latter in numbers; and from the nature of the divifion, the majority must be actuated by a more uniform principle, than the minority. For the approbation of the particular conftitution and government, which

the

motives of the malcontents.

the nation has received from their ancestors, retains the majority in one body; whereas, the diflike of the whole, or part of the fame conftitution and government; the preference of any other, than the established religion and Principles and government; the averfion from any church or ftate establishment whatever; the wifhes and expectancies of the indigent and diftreffed to profit by a fyftem of equalization; the allurements of a fcramble to luft, avarice, and ambition; the perfonal envy, jealousy, hatred, infult, injury, difappointment, or loffes of individuals, are amongst the multifarious motives, reasons, and inducements, which bring together a fet of difcordant individuals, who, from the moment, and by the terms of their engagement, facrifice their feveral heterogeneous principles to the common erected standard of difcontent; for in the political, as well as in the physical system, the most oppofite ingredients may, like vinegar and oil, be fo incorporated as to bear the appearance of a perfect coalition. When, therefore, I fhall in future confider or speak of this oppofite party, which I fhall in general call the minority, I fhall drop every idea of the nature of their original component parts, and diftinguish them only from their opponents by that common quality, which confti

tutes