4

PLE OUGHT to be held worth much regard? Right sorry I am to observe, that this doubt is the growth of latter times; of times, too, which boast their love of freedom; but ought, surely, to blush, when they look back on the generous sentiments of ancient days, which days we stigmatize with the name of slavish.

"Thus runs the writ of summons to the parliament of the 23d of Edward the First: ....The King, to the venerable father in Christ R. Archbishop of Canterbury, greeting: As the most just law, established by the provident wisdom of princes, doth appoint, that what concerns ALL, should be approved by ALL; so it evidently applies, that danger common to all, should be obviated by remedies provided by all. Up quod OMNES tangit, ab OMNIBUS approbetur ;... sic et innuit evidenter, ut COMMUNIBUS periculis per remediaprovisa coMMUNITER obvietur. A noble acknowledgement from an English king, which ought never, sure, to be forgotten, or trodden under foot by English subjects.

There are two manifest reasons why, in a degenerate state, and a declining period, the united voice of a people is, in general, the surest test of truth in all essential matters on which their own welfare depends, so far as the ends of political measures are concerned.

"First, Because in such a period, and such a state, the body of a people are natu-rally the least corrupt part of such a people : for all general corruptions, of whatever kind, begin among the leaders, and descend from these to the lower ranks. Take such a state, therefore, in what period of degeneracy you please, the higher ranks will, in the na tural course of things, be farther gone in the ruling evils than the lower; and therefore

THE LESS TO BE RELIED ON.

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Secondly, A still more cogent reason is, that the general body of the people have not such a bias hung upon their judgment by the prevalence of personal and particular interest, as the GREAT, in all things which relate to state matters. It is of no particular and personal consequence to the general body of a people, what men are employed, provided the general welfare be accomplished; because nothing but the general welfare can be an object of desire to the general body. But it is of much particular and personal conse quence to the GREAT, what men are employed, because through their connections and alliances, they must generally find either their friends or enemies in power. Their own private interests, therefore, naturally throw a bias on their judgments, and destroy that impartiality which the general body of an uncorrupt people doth naturally possess. Hence, then, it appears, that the united voice of an uncorrupt PEOPLE is, in

gene

ral, the safest test of POLITICAL GOOD AND EVIL."

Is it not then time to be alarmed for the public good, when great pains are taken to depreciate the people; when the names of Jacobin, democrat, leveller, traitor, and mover of sedition, are artfully thrown, by courtiers and their adherents, on every man who has sense and virtue enough to maintain the cause of liberty; that cause, which established the revolution on the ruins of 'despotism, and placed the present family on the throne, as the guardians of a free constitution? I cannot think such courtiers, however they may fawn, for their own interest, on the person of the monarch, friends, in their hearts, to a limited monarchy. If they could and dared, they would restore a Stuart. But as that is impracticable, they would transfuse the principles of the Stuarts into the bosom of a Brunswick. To expose their selfish meanness, and frustrate their base design, is equally the duty and interest of the king and the people,

SECTION XVI.

The Spirit of Truth, Liberty, and Virtue, public as well as private, chiefly to be found in the middle ranks of the people.

Nemo altero nobilior, nifi cui rectius ingenium et artibus bonis aptius. Qui imagines in atrio exponunt et nomina familiæ fuæ.... NOTI magis quam nobiles funt..... Dicenda hæc fuerunt ad contundendam infolentiam hominum ex fórtunâ pendentium.*

SENECA de Benef.

THE people of this land are usually

divided into nobility, gentry, and commonalty. The nobility and gentry seem to be estimated as officers in an army; the commonalty, or the whole body of the people, as the rank and file.

There might be no original impropriety in these appellations; but that of commonalty has been often used, by aristocratical upstarts, with insolence. The commonalty comprise the grand mass of the nation; form the great fabrick of the political building; while the GENTRY, after all, are but the carving and gilding; or the capitals of the pillars, that add to the support of the roof, but constitute neither the walls nor the foun

* «No man is nobler born than another, unless he is born with better abilities and a more amiable difpofition. They who make fuch a parade with their family pictures and pedigrees, are, properly Speaking, rather to be called NOTED or NOTORIOUS than NOBLE perfans. I thought it right to fay thus much, in order to repel the infolence of men who depend entirely upon chance and accidental circumstances for difinition, and not at all on public services and perfonal merit.

dation. The commonalty, therefore, being the main fabric, are worthy, in the eye of reason, of the highest esteem, and the first degree of a patriot's solicitude. There can be no rational end in our government but the happiness of the whole PEOPLE, King, Lords, and COMMONS.

The commonalty are, beyond all comparison, the most numerous order: and as every individual of them is intitled to comfort and security in a well regulated nation, the whole together must demand the greatest attention of the philosopher, the divine, the philanthropist, of every man of sense, goodness of heart, and liberality. The pomp and parade, the superfluous luxury, the vain distinctions, of the FEW sink to nothing, compared, in the mind of reasonable and humane men, with the happiness of the million.

Give

It is certainly true, that the greatest instances of virtue and excellence of every kind have originated in the middle order. me neither poverty nor riches,' was a prayer founded on a knowledge of human nature, and fully justified by experience. The middle station affords the best opportunities for improvement of mind, is the least exposed to temptation, and the most capable of happiness and virtue.

This opinion has long been received and acknowledged. I could cite, from the ser