toriety of the fact oblige us to say, that these important conditions, without which liberty can never be secure, were almost wholly neglected, immediately after the revolution. The claim of right declares indeed, "that elections ought to be free; "that freedom of speech and de-. "bates ought not to be impeached or questioned out of parliament; are the willing instruments of a wicked prince, they are the ready prompters of a weak one. They may sink into the mass of the people, and disappear in a good and wise reign, or work themselves into power under false colours; but their race will continue as long as ambition and avarice prevail in the world, and there will be bad citizens as long as there are bad men. The good" and that parliaments ought to be ought therefore to be always on "held frequently." But such detheir guard against them, and, what- clarations, however solemnly made, ever disguise they assume, whatever are nothing better than pompous veils they cast over their conduct, trifles, if they stand alone; producthey will never be able to deceive tive of no good, and thus far prothose long, who observe constantly ductive of ill, that they serve to the difference between constitution amuse mankind, in points of the and government, and who have vir- greatest importance, and wherein it tue enough to preserve the cause of concerns them the most nearly, neithe former, how unprofitable soever ther to be deceived, nor so much as it may be at all times, and how un- amused. These were rights, no doubt, popular soever at some. to which the nation had an indisputable claim. But then they ought to have been more than claimed, since they had been so often and so lately invaded. The design of the revolution being to establish the peace, honour, and happiness of the British dominions upon lasting foundations, and to procure a settlement of the religion, and of the liberties and properties of the subjects, upon so sure a foundation, that there might be no danger of the nation's relapsing into the like miseries at any time hereafter; this being, I say, the avowed design of the revolution, and the nation having engaged in it on a confidence that all this would be effectually performed, the design of the revolution was not accomplished, the benefit of it was not secured to us, the just expectations of the nation could not be answered, unless the feeedom of elections, and the frequency, integrity, and independency of parliaments, were sufficiently provided for. THESE ARE THE ESSENTIALS OF BRITISH LIBERTY. Defects in other parts of the constitution can never be fatal, if these are preserved intire. But defects in these will soon destroy the constitution, though every other part of it should be so preserved! How ever it happened, the truth and no And, indeed, they could at all times be claimed, if we look to the perpetuity of free government in Britain. Few men, even in this age, are so shamefully unacquainted with the history of their country, as to be ignorant of the principal events and signal revolutions which have happened since the Norman æra. One continual design against liberty has been carried on by various methods, almost in every reign. In many, the struggles have been violent and bloody. But liberty still triumphed over force, over treachery. over corruption, and even under oppression. The altars of tyranny have been demolished as soon raised; nay, even whilst they were raising; and the priests of that idol have been hewed to pieces; so that I will affirm, without the least apprehension of being refuted, that no people have so good a right as we have to raise in our minds the honest ambition of emulating the as virtue and courage of our forefathers, in the cause of liberty; and to inspire a reasonable fear, heightened by shame, of losing what they preserved and delivered down to us, through so many mixtures of different people, of Britons with Saxons, of both with Danes, of all three with Normans, through so many difficulties, so many dangers, so many revolutions, in the course of so many centuries. It will appear, upon due consideration, that our liberty cannot be taken away by the force or fraud alone of those who govern; it cannot be taken away, unless the people are themselves accomplices; and they who are accomplices cannot be said to suffer by one or the other. Some nations have received the yoke of servitude with little or no struggle; but, if ever it is imposed upon us, we must not only hold out our necks to receive it; we must help to put it on. Now, to be passive in such a case is shameful; but to be active is supreme and unexampled infamy. In order to become slaves, we of this nation must be, beforehand, what other people have been rendered by a long course of servitude; we must become the most corrupt, the most profligate, the most senseless, the most servile nation of wretches, that ever disgraced humanity; for a force sufficient to ravish liberty from us, such as a great standing army is in time of peace, cannot be continued, unless we continue it; nor can the means, necessary to steal liberty from us, be long enough employed with effect, unless we give a sanction to their iniquity, and call good evil, and evil good. If liberty then be that delicious and wholesome fruit on which the British nation hath fed for so many ages, and to which we owe our riches, our strength, and all the advantages we boast of; the British constitution is the tree that bears this fruit, and will continue to bear it, as long as we are careful to fence it in, and trench it round, against the beasts of the field, and the insects of the earth. To speak without a figure, our constitution is a system of government, suited to the genius of our nation, and even to our situation. The experience of many hundred years has shewn, that by preserving this constitution inviolate, or by drawing it back to the principles on which it was originally founded, whenever it shall be made to swerve from them, we may secure to ourselves, and to our latest_posterity, the possession of that liberty which we have long enjoyed. What would we have more? What other liberty than this do we seek? And if we seek no other, is not this marked out in such characters as he that runs may read? As our constitution therefore ought to be, what it seldom is, the rule of government; so let us make the conformity, or repugnancy of things to this constitution, the rule by which we accept them as favourable, or reject them as dangerous to liberty. They who talk of liberty in Britain, on any other principles than those of the British constitution, talk imperti nently at best, and much charity is requisite to believe no worse of them. But they who distinguish between practicable and impractica ble liberty, in order to insinuate that the true scheme of our constitution is of the impracticable kind, are open and avowed enemies to it, and of consequence to British liberty, which cannot be supported on any other bottom. They affect 'a great regard to liberty in general, but they dislike so much the system of liberty established in Britain, that they are incessant in their endeavours to puzzle the plainest thing in the world, and to refine and distinguish away the life and strength of our constitution in favour of the little, present momentary turns,which they are retained to serve. What be more fatal to the constitution than now would be the consequence, if all these endeavours should succeed? We should find burselves without any form of government. By removing all the limitations and controuls, which liberty hath prescribed to those that govern, the whole frame of our constitution would be disjoin ed. Entire dissolution of manners, confusion, anarchy, or perhaps absolute monarchy, would follow; for it is possible, nay probable, that in such a state as this, and amidst such a rout of lawless savages, men would chuse this government, absurd as it is, rather than have no government at all. Notwithstanding all endeavours to puzzle our constitution in favour of prerogative and corrupt dependency, by which, if by any means, it must be crushed and demolished, the main principles are simple, and obvious, and fixed, as well as any truths can be fixed in the minds of men, by the most determinate ideas. The state of our constitution then affords an easy and unerring rule, by which to judge of the state of our liberty. The improvement or decay of one denotes the improvement or decay of the other; and the strength or weakness of one, the safety or danger of the other. We cannot lose our liberty, unless we lose our constitution; nor lose our constitution, unless we are accomplices to the violations of it; for this constitution is better fitted than any, ancient or modern, ever was, not only to preserve liberty, but to provide for its own duration, and to become immortal, if any thing human could be so. To-destroy British liberty with an army of Britons is not a measure so sure of success, as some people may believe. To corrupt the parliament is a slower, but might prove a more effectual method; and two or three hundred mercenaries in the two houses, if they could be listed there, would VOD. VI. ten times as many thousands in red and blue out of them! Parliaments are the true guardians of liberty. For this principally they were insti tuted; and this is the principal article of that great and noble trust, which the collective body of the people of Britain reposes in the representative. But then no slavery can be so effectually brought and fixed upon us, as parliamentary slavery. By the corruption of parliament, and the absolute influence of a King, or his minister, on the two houses, we return into that state, to deliver us or secure us from which parliaments were instituted; and are really governed by the arbitrary will of one man. Our whole constitution it at once dissolved. Many securities to liberty are provided; but the inte grity, which depends on the freedom and the independency of parliament, is the key-stone, that keeps whole together. If this be shaken, our constitution totters. If it be quite removed, our constitution falls into ruin. That noble fabric, the pride of Britain, the envy of her neighbours, raised by the labour of so many centuries, repaired at the expence of so many millions, and cemented by such a profusion of blood; that noble fabric, I say, which was able to resist the united efforts of so many races of giants, may be demolished by a race of pigmies. The integrity of parliament is a kind of palladium, a tutelary goddess, who protects our state. When she is once removed, we may become the prey of any enemies. No Agamemnon, no Achilles, will be wanted to take our city. Thersites himself will be sufficient for such a conquest. the There is no man, who thinks at all, can fail to see the several fatal consequences, which necessarily flow from this one source. We are told that this influence is necessary to strengthen the Kands of those whe At the close of an election at Lewes, the Duke of Newcastle (prime minister in the reign of George II.) was so delighted with the conduct of a casting voter, that he almost fell upon his neck and kissed him. My dear friend, I love you dearly! You're the greatest man in the world! I long to serve you! what can I do for you? May it please your Grace, an exciseman of this town is very old. I would beg leave to succeed him as soon as he shall die.' Ay, that you shall with all my heart. I wish, for your sake, he were dead and buried now! As soon as he is, set out to me, my dear friend! be it night or day, insist upon seeing me sleeping or waking. If I am not at Claremont, come to Lincoln's-Inn Fields; if I am not at Lincoln's-Inn Fields, come to court; if I am not at court, never rest till you find me; not the sanctum sanctorum, or any place, shall be kept sacred from such a dear, worthy, good soul as you are. Nay, I'll give orders for you to be admitted, though the King and I were talking secrets together in the cabinet.' The voter swallowed every thing with ecstacy; and, scraping down to the very ground, retired to wait in faith for the death of the exciseman. The former took his leave of this wicked world in the following winter. As soon as ever the duke's friend was apprised of it, he set off for London, and reached Lincoln's 1 Inn Fields by about two o'clock in the morning. The King of Spain had, about this time, been seized by a disorder, which some of the English had been induced to believe, from particular expresses, he could not possibly survive. Amongst these, the noble duke was the most credulous, and probably the most anxious. On the very first moment of receiv ing his intelligence, he had dispatched couriers to Madrid, who were commanded to return with unusual haste, as soon as ever the death of his catholic Majesty should have been announced. Ignorant of the hour in which they might arrive, and impatient of the fate of 'every hour, the duke would not retire to his rest till he had given the strictest orders to his attendants, to send any person to his chamber who should desire admittance. When the voter asked if he was at home, he was answeredby the porter, Yes; his grace has been in bed some time, but we were directed to awaken him as soon as ever you came.?' Ah, God bless him! I know that the duke always told me I should be welcome by night or by day. Pray shew me up.' The happy visitor was scarcely conducted to the door, when he rushed into the room, and, in the transport of his joy, cried out, My lord, he's dead. That's well, my dear friend; I'm glad of it, with all my soul. When did he die? The morning before last, and please your grace. What so lately? Why my worthy good creature, you must have flown. The lightning itself could not travel half so fast as you. Tell me you best of men, how I shall reward you?' All I wish for in this world is, that your grace would please to remember your kind promise, and appoint me to succeed him.' You, you blockhead! You King of Spain! What family pretensions can you have? Let's look at you. By this time the astonished duke threw back the curtains, and recollected the face resentment, of his electioneering friend; but it was seen with rage and disappointment. To have robbed him of his rest might easily have been forgiven; but to have fed him with a groundless supposition that the King of Spain was dead, became a matter of He was, at first, dismissed with all the violence of anger and refusal. At length the victim of his passion became an object of his mirth; and, when he felt the ridicule that marked the incident, he raised the candidate for monarchy into a post, which, from the colour of the present times, may seem almost as honourable - he made him an exciseman. -- STATE OF TOLERATION IN JAMAICA. The following "Order in Council," and "Observations" appear in a Jamaica Gazette. At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, May 23, 1809, by the Right Hon. the Lords of the Committee of Council, appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations. To the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council. May it please your Majesty, Your Majesty having been pleased, by your order in council of the 26th ult. to approve of a report of this committee, submitting that an act passed by the legislature of the island of Jamaica, in the year 1807, intitled, "An Act for the protection, subsisting, cloathing, and for the better order and government of slaves, and for other purposes," should be disallowed, as containing a clause contrary to the principles of toleration prevailing in this kingdom, and as being the more objectionable, as an act to the same effect has been disallowed by your Majesty at a former period, and no provision had been made by the legislature of the island for cler gymen of the established church :-The lords of the committee, adverting to the circumstance of this act, being a second attempt by the legislature of the island of Jamaica to pass a law of this nature, and foreseeing the inconvenience that may arise from a recurrence of this practice, are humbly of opinion, that an additional instruction should be given to the several governors of your Majesty's islands in the West Indies, restraining them from giving their assent to any law or laws concerning religion being passed, until the same shall have been first transmitted to your Majesty's principal secretaries of state, for your Majesty's royal consideration, unless a clause or clauses be inserted in such law or laws, suspending and deferring the execution, thereof, until your Majesty's pleasure shall be known thereon: And the lords of the committee having prepared a draught of such additional instruction, humbly take leave herewith to lay the same before your Majesty, for your royal approbation. Instruction issued in pursuance of the above Report. Additional Instruction to the Governors of his Majesty's Islands in the West Indies. It is our will and pleasure, and we do hereby require and command, that you do not, on any pretence whatever, give your assent to any law or laws to be passed concerning religion, until you shall have first transmitted unto us, through one of our principal secretaries of state, the draught of such bill or bills, and shall have received our royal pleasure thereupon; unless you take care, in the passing of such bill or bills, that a clause or clauses be inserted therein, suspending and deferring the execution thereof, until our will and pleasure shall be known thereupon. OBSERVATIONS OF THE EDITOR OF THE JAMAICA GAZETTE. We cannot help contemplating the above order in council as a most gross interference with our internal colonial regulations, IN FAVOUR OF A SET OF METHODISTICAL RASCALS, who ought to be scouted out of every well regulated community; who are a disgrace to christianity; for the mummery and nonsense of methodism has no more to do with the christian religion than with that. of Mahomet! If the regular clergymen of the church of England have every permission to instruct and to reform, why should swarms of ignorant and designing adventurers, without common sense, education, or decency, be in |