but so long as the churches and the ecclesiastical revenues were kept from the priests, and they were obliged to endure the neighbourhood of profane heretics, being themselves discontented, they continually endeavoured to retard any cordial reconciliation between the English and the Irish nations.

"There was a gentleman called Roger More, who, though of a narrow fortune, was descended from an ancient Irish family, and was much celebrated among his countrymen for valour and capacity. This man first formed the project of expelling the English, and asserting the independency of his native country. By conversation, by letters, by his emissaries, he represented to his countrymen the motives of a revolt, [not possessing those more powerful instruments of open harangues and popular agitation']. He observed to them that, by the factions of the English, the king's authority in Britain was reduced to so low a condition, that he never could exert himself with any vigour, in maintaining the English dominion in Ireland; that the catholics, assisted by the protestants, had so much diminished the royal prerogative, and the power of the Lord Lieutenant, [that is, his power of putting the laws in execution, though they sufficiently cajole and flatter his person,] as would much facilitate the conducting to its desired effect any conspiracy or combination which might be formed,

"Such were the barbarities by which the Irish signalized their rebellion: an event worthy to be held in perpetual detestation and abhorrence. The generous nature of More was shocked at the recital of such cruelties, but he found, that his authority, which was sufficient to excite the Irish to an insurrection, was too feeble to restrain their inhumanity."

O NAVIS! referent in mare te novi

Fluctus? O quid agis? fortiter occupa

Portum. Nonne vides, ut

Nudum remigio latus,

Et malus celeri saucius Africo,

Antennæque gemant, ac, sinè funibus,

Vix durare carinæ

Possint imperiosius

Aequor?

Tu, nisi ventis

Debes ludibrium, cave.

I do not mean to prophecy: there is much uncertainty in all human anticipations of the future: yet this may not hinder me from giving warning of evils which, after my judgment, are greatly to be feared. And I do mean to denounce the growing covetousness of Britain, as that which, sooner or later, will be the ruin of her present establishment, and of her present happiness. My

* Hume's History of England. Anno 1641. vol. vi. 432-439.

opinion as to this stands not alone. Several authors have indicated the danger, among whom perhaps the most express is Mr. Combe ;* but I may name also Malthus himself; and I cannot refrain from quoting the following admirable passage from Dr. Gillies's Introduction to his translation of Aristotle's Politics; "For many years back," says he, " political writers have acknowledged, with our author (Aristotle), that the real wealth of nations consists in the productive powers of their land and labour. They acknowledge also, with him, that the precious metals, in contradistinction to other useful commodities, have only the peculiar advantage of serving as the fittest instruments of exchange, and the most accurate measures of value; but that the quantity and number in which they ought to be desired or accumulated is, like the quantity and number of all other measures or instruments, naturally limited and fixed by the ends and operations which they are employed to answer or effect. Yet while they reason thus justly respecting gold and silver, the same writers have not sufficient enlargement of mind to generalize the theorem, and to perceive with our author, that property itself is as much an instrument as money, though serving for a far more complicated purpose; and therefore, if it be collected in greater quantities than the purpose

* Const. of Man, Section iii.

requires, the surplus will be at best useless, most commonly pernicious: will inflame desire, foment luxury, provoke rapacity, and produce that long train of disorders, which made our author declare "that the inhabitants of the Fortunate Islands, unless their virtue kept pace with their external prosperity, must inevitably become the most miserable of all mankind." In the fashionable systems of modern politicians, national wealth is considered as synonymous with national prosperity. To the increase of productive industry and the augmentation of public revenue, health, education, and morals, are sacrificed without apology and without remorse: since that trade is universally held to be the best, which produces most money with the least labour. But, according to Aristotle, it is not the quantity or the value of the work produced, that ought to be the main object of the statesman's care, but the effect which the producing of that work naturally operates on the mind and body of the workmen."

Ah! few will hear, fewer will believe. For Britain is lifted up with pride: she saith, "I sit as a queen, I shall see no sorrow." Behold, what is mercantile Britain more than Tyre, that lady of kingdoms whose fleets swept the Mediterranean, circumnavigated Africa, and sailed the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean? Has Britain laboured for the diffusion of the knowledge of the Bible?Tyre also afforded wood and workmen for the

building of the temple of the Lord. But where is Tyre? Is not her desolate isle a rock for the spreading of fishermen's nets? Therefore be warned, O Britain! "for God hath purposed to stain the pride of ALL worldly glory," and "it shall come to pass that the nation and kingdom that will not serve him shall perish." And if the example of Tyre suffice not, thou shalt have one on a grander and more awful scale, which will teach the world, that God needs not the armies of an Alexander to humble the haughtiness of human pride. Repent, then, and give God the glory, lest he blot out thy name too from the number of the nations.

But I know that thou wilt not repent, therefore thus saith the Lord, "Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum, (thou art the stamp of the resemblance,)* full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God: every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes, was prepared (pre-ordained) in thee in the day that thou wast created. THOU ART THE CHERUB THAT COVERETH; AND I

ANOINTED

αποσφραγισμα ὁμοιώσεως. - Septuagint.