months, it becomes indifpenfably necessary to speak of the advisers as well as the actors of the various fcenes. I know the full extent of my duty to the King, of attachment to the Conftitution, and love to my Country. I mean never to lose fight of any of these confiderations in the task I have undertaken; and I now once for all affure the individuals whom I fhall have occafion to mention in the following fheets, that I intend no personal adulation nor cenfure; but merely to use the common right of every Englishman, to discuss and examine public acts, public writings, and public fpeeches.

It is a political aphorifm, that to a reflecting people there can be no other partiality for any particular ministers, than a conviction of their earnestness and ability to follow up and fupport the genuine principles and fpirit of the Conftitution. The The people of England are an indulgent and a patient judge. Prodigal of their confidence, they are tardily roufed at the abuse of it. In their generofity, they feldom give to the score of malice what the most indulgent candour can refer to error of judgment. But there is a moment of misfortune and fuffering, in which fimplicity itself cannot be mifled. Recovered from the fhock of a quick tranfition from profperity and eafe to dismay and wretchednefs, they inquire upon reflection, as Memmius did of old, "But who are these men that have placed themfelves at the helm t?" I have a firm reliance upon the cool and deliberate verdict of Englishmen; and when matter of fact is plainly told, the decifion of their judgment will, I am confident, receive effect.

Such is the alteration of the public mind fince I wrote my late work, that, if I had it now in hand,

+ At qui funt ii qui rempublicam occupavere? Homines feeleratiffimi, immani avaritia, nocentiffimi, iidemque fuperbiffimi.Sal. de Bel. Jug.

I should

I should doubt of the fafety of publishing those paffages in it, which I (perhaps weakly) then judged to be the most emphatically conftitutional of the whole. I fhould probably have dropped my present purfuit: but it is fometimes wife to borrow inftruction from our opponent: fas eft & ab hofte doceri. I shall therefore avail myself of Mr. Burke's justification for hazarding the attempt †. "It is an un

dertaking of fome degree of delicacy to examine "into the caufe of public disorders. If a man hap

pens not to fucceed in fuch an inquiry, he will "be thought weak and vifionary: if he touches the "true grievance, there is danger that he may come "near to perfons of weight and confequence, who "will rather be exafperated at the discovery of their "errors, than thankful for the occafion of correct

ing them. If he fhould be obliged to blame the. "favourites of the people, he will be confidered as "the tool of power; if he cenfures thofe in power, "he will be looked upon as an inftrument of fac❝tion. But in all exertions of duty fomething is to be hazarded. In cafes of tumult and dif

order, our law has invefted every man, in fome "fort, with the authority of a magiftrate. When "the affairs of the nation are distracted, private "people are by the fpirit of that law justified in

ftepping a little out of their ordinary sphere."They enjoy a privilege of fomewhat more dignity "and effect, than that of idle lamentation over the "calamities of their country. They may look into "them narrowly; they may reafon upon them li"berally; and if they fhould be fo fortunate as to "difcover the true fource of the mifchief, and to

fuggeft any probable method of removing it, tho' "they may difplease the rulers of the day, they are certainly of service to the cause of Government."

66

+ Vid. Mr. Burke's Thoughts on the Caufes of the Difcontents in the Year 1770, pages 1 and 2.

It is a common affertion, that the truth of history is only the portion of a fucceeding, and therefore of a difinterested generation. Such history may be a faithful portrait of form, feature, and character; it may keep memory alive; it may ftimulate ambition; but it cannot regulate, correct, nor improve the conduct or principles of the actors in fcenes long fince closed. In regions of defpotism, where flattery or fervility are the prefervatives of exiftence, truth may not be found in the mouth of the overawed annalist; but in the free Constitution of Great Britain, I trust truth may yet be spoken, truth may yet be published, truth may yet be operative.

Before I enter upon the narrative of events which have distinguished the period of my intended hiftory, I feel it my duty to notice the rife, progress, and effects of certain opinions, fentiments, or prejudices, which appear to have paved the road for the whole train of evils which now afflict our fuffering

country.

The year 1789 was remarkable for the moft aftonifhing of all revolutions, that of France. The general impreffion of horror, under which it is now viewed by all ranks of people, creates an impoffibility to speak of it with that temperate precifion which the circumstances of its first year's existence might have warranted. It will be foreign from my purpose to enter into its origin or progrefs. Suffice it to fay, that whether the nature or the abuses of the ancient Government contributed more to the revolution, it was principally planned, and has been uniformly supported and carried on by men of the most consummate abandonment, profligacy and impiety. It was, however, rather fingular, that Mr. Burke, who in his public and private capacity had been the avowed and fteady friend of the Revolution of America, fhould ftand forth as the firft and moft implacable enemy to that of France. His Reflections

C

flections on the Revolution of France, though written with more than his ufual brilliancy and eloquence, brought forth Paine's Rights of Man as an anfwer, and kindled that political flame of controverfy which has been productive of the evils we all now forely lament, and of which no mortal hath yet foreseen the end.

From Mr. Burke's character and rank in life, from the influence of his opinions upon his fellowfubjects, it does not feem unreafonable to have expected from him fentiments at least consistent with the most manifeft and general leading points of our Constitution. To account for any deviation in his books from this obvious tract of duty I fhall not attempt. If the plea of ignorance can ferve him, he may reft his defence upon it, and I fhall content myfelf with having endeavoured to expofe and counteract the effects of his delusive eloquence upon a very great part of this nation; to the effects of which I attribute the whole feries of misfortunes which we now bewail.

In the enchantments of rich imagery Mr. Burke bewilders his loyal reader, and under the warmeft profeffions of his own attachment to Government he beguiles the unguarded and nnfufpecting into principles the most deftructive of the British Conftitution. Thomas Paine on the other hand, taking every advantage of Mr. Burke's denial of the first principles of civil government, fecured the confidence of the multitude by perfuading them into the eafy belief of the true origin of civil power; he had the addrefs to make profelytes of them to undeniable truths, in order to feduce them into the most mifchievous of errors.

As Mr. Burke's Reflections upon the Revolution. of France appeared in the year 1790, it will be but candid, in making any obfervations upon them, to confine (if poffible) our ideas to the previous circumstances

cumstances of that revolution which could alone have given ground for what he has advanced upon it. Few perfons, I believe, at this hour think or feel upon that fingular event as they may have thought or felt at the period of Mr. Burke's first publication. Without any pretenfions to a more prophetic or intuitive endowment than my neighbours, I profefs from the firft revolutionary fymp. tom in France to have been decidedly of opinion, that it would end in confufion, deftruction, and horror. I ftill profefs what I then admitted, that the nature of the French Government was intrinfically bad, that the abuses of it were become intolerable, and that the political and moral fyftem of the whole kingdom called loudly for a general reform. Such circumflances muft fupply the fteady, peaceful, and inactive, as well as the fpeculative, turbulent, and feditious, with ftrong arguments, just motives, and plaufible reafons;-weapons, in the hands of the profligate and impious fatally destructive, as in the hands of the virtuous they would have enfured peace and bleffings to the country in the cause of which they were employed. Thefe fentiments I publicly declared within fome months after the publication of Mr. Burke's Reflections: * "That the general abandonment of all revealed re"ligion by the highest ranks and armies of France, "had, more than any other caufe, been productive "of the prefent revolution; that it had been "planned, carried on, and fupported by the mot "avowed atheists and deifts of that kingdom; and "had been uniformly difrelished and oppofed by all "thofe who were actuated by any impulfe of reli"gion or morality. The fuppreffion of every reli"gious inftitution, the degradation of the clergy, " and the fanctification of the afhes of Rouffeau and

*Cafe ftated by the author, page 15, published 1791.

" Voltaire,