Images de page
PDF
ePub

for our miraculous prefervation, and, fully confident of his gracious fupport, I found my mind more at eafe than for fome time paft."

They accordingly proceeded thro' that immenfe ocean, difcovering fome new islands, and landing for a fhort fpace upon the coaft of N. Holland,

without receiving any material addition to their ftock of provifions, living on the 25th part of a pound of bread and an ounce of pork a-day, and fometimes a tea fpoonful of rum each man, till on the 14th of July they landed at Coupang in the island of Timor.

Brutus's Letter to H. R. H. the P. of W**** †.

IN abfolute monarchies, all communication of fentiment between the Sovereign and the people is cut off by the terrors of defpotifm. Perfonal familiarity, indeed, the Prince may allow to a few favoured individuals, more fafely than in freer governments, because the distance of political fituation prevents all danger of that want of reverence and refpect which is fatal to dignity. In monarchies more limited, the Sovereign and his family rely on the confidence and affection of the people; a fealty of a more generous and valuable kind, which the higher rank deferves by its virtues, and the lower yields from a reafon able and independent conviction of them. Flattery it is in the power of flaves to beftow, but fame is the gift only of freemen.

When I advance these truths to a, Prince of the Houfe of Brunswick, I can not be in danger of his difpleafure; and I know too well the pecu. liar condefcenfion of him whom I now take the liberty of addreffing to doubt his acceptance of that honeft tribute which I offer him, of approbation mixed with counfel, of attachment to his perfon and his family, joined to a with and a hope that his conduct may always deferve it. With a peculiar complacency of difpofition, you have thrown afide the distance of rank and the referve of loyalty; you have o pened not only the actions of your

public, but the habits of your private life, to the view of the people; and difdaining to impofe on them by the weight of your name or the parade of your dignity, have conciliated their affections by the charms of your ap pearance and the graces of your man

ner.

If there has been fometimes a fmall degree of error or excefs in this affability and condefcenfion, we are difpofed rather to regret than to cenfure it: we regret the accident of its mifapplication, but we are not inclined to blame the exercife of it in you. The funfhine that gives to the breeze its health and to the fields their verdure, breeds at the fame time the ufelefs weed and noxious exhalation : We complain of the weed and the exhalation, but he must be a peevish mifanthrope indeed who quarrels with the funshine.

Sober reafoners, however, may perhaps difpute the justice of my file; they will tell us of the difference be tween the feeming imperfections of the natural, and the real imperfections of the moral world, and point out the latter as fubjects of correction and amendment, which it is the province of wisdom to difcover and of goodnefs to remove. In the inftance alluded to, your talents are equal to the difcovery, and your prudence as well as virtue, they truft, will prompt the correction. There are perfons on whom your favour and friendship are

↑ From the Edinburgh Herald.

bestowed,

bestowed, whom, even amidst the adulation with which it is the misfortune of princes to be deceived, you will easily discover to be unworthy of that favour and friendship. You have mixed enough with the world to be able to judge of men; and, in this country, the channel of public opinion is fufficiently open to the higheft perfonages, even without the advantage of your acceffibility to obtain it. The people have too much reverence for your name to apply their common traditionary adages to the effects of fociety upon character; but tho' the communication may not hurt you, it affects the public, doubly affects it, if the unworthy are brought forward in to place and diftinction, and the deferving excluded from stations which they ought to have filled.

66

We know, Sir, at the fame time, and make allowance for that fociety which naturally faftens itself on a young man's freer hours; and do not cxpect that, amidst amusement or feftivity, there should always be an unexceptionable felection of his companions or his guests. There is a diftinction which will readily be made between that circle with which men of high rank and important ftations unbend their leifure, and that with which they trust their ferious moments, Nobody, faid the Frenchman, is a hero to his valet de chambre;" and he who fhould attempt it would be very little of a hero to any one elfe. But the valet de chambre who dreffes, or the idle companion who amuses a great man, are mere appen. dages of his private dreffing room or parlour, with whom, if they keep in their proper place, the public has nothing to do, and after whom it will never inquire. But if they counfel him in important affairs, if they lead him in momentous or delicate fituations, he must be accountable for his mifplaced and prepofterous attach ment, and the public which it injures will be entitled to complain of its ef

fects. Nothing has been more fatal to princes than this predilection for weak or unworthy men; and the hiftory of mankind is one continued leffon of the danger to greatness in being made the dupe of its private attachments, when they are not reftrained by prudence nor regulated by virtue.

The annals of our own country are not filent on that fubject. You, Sir, I believe, have heard them quoted in excufe, if not in compliment, of some youthful levities for which the goodhumour of Englishmen is glad to find an apology. Eaftcheap has been cited for the credit of Parliament-street, and Gadhill drawn into precedent for the honour of Newmarket. But if there is any fcholiaft on Shakespeare who has the entree to your library, let him not forget the expreflion of "unyoked idleness" which the youthful Henry indulged with his affociates. There was an extravagance in the pranks of Falstaffe and Poins that might impeach the dignity, but didnot taint the character of their illuftrious companion. The excurfive fallies of the Prince were made into the regions of abfurdity, foreign to that place which his birth entitled him to hold, or those duties which it called on him to perform; his follies hung upon him like a masquing drefs which the mummery of the hour put on, and the ferious occupations of his own perfon and character laid afide. Your companions, Sir, if not all of a higher rank than Harry Monmouth's, had in general deeper and more important defigns. They did not, amid the jovialty of wine or the gaiety of pleasure, doff the cares of life, or mock the toils of ambition. Theirs was not always the honeft, joyous vacancy of thoughtless mirth; like the Athenian heroes, beneath the roses of the feaft they hid the arms of their ambition; but they did not, like the Athenian heroes, use them against the enemies of their country.

One particular juncture there was,

which might have afforded an apology for men of lefs forefight than them, to think of ufing the connection which youth and inexperience had formed to purposes of intereft and advancement; when the diadem hovered over the head of their patron, and when indeed, but for fome error in their political measures, its power and authority might have been his. That juncture was attended with circumftances of fo extraordinary a kind as to form an era in the political history of the kingdom. When difeafe and infirmity invaded the throne, the diftrefs of the Sovereign was felt as a private calamity, which interefted the feelings of every individual, without relation to his political rights, or the political interefts of the community; not only the loyalty of fubjects, but the affection, the fympathy of men were excited by this calamity. In this calamity they looked to you, Sir, with feelings of a fimilar kind, ready to acknowledge the public merits of the Prince, or the private virtues of the fon. In diftrefs, men's hearts are eafily won: if you failed to win them, it must have been owing to fome imprudence in that furrounding circle, through the medium of whofe character the characters of princes are always feen. It could not be owing to any fault in your own difpofition, gracious at all times, and then peculiarly called on to exercife the beft qualities of your nature-kindnefs, compaffion, filial attention, and filial reverence. The thoughtless and unprincipled diffipation of fome of that circle might have, at fuch a period, been fuppofed to watch the bed of fickaefs with malignant expectation, to fcoff at the diftrefs of thofe around it, and to make matter for wretched and fcurril jefts of the most severe of all human afflictions. In a public view, they might have been fuppofed to have catched, with a blind and rapacious eagerness, this opportunity of gratifying their avarice or ambition; VOL. XII. No. 67.

G

in the triumph of fudden elevation, to have forgot decency; and, in the infolence of anticipated power, to have defpifed moderation. Bankrupt alike in fortune and in character, fome of them might have been imagined capable of every extremity to which defperate circumftances and determined profligacy might excite; and having nothing to lofe, and nothing to feel with the country, to have been equally unreftrained by prudence and by fentiment.

Your fentiments, Sir, and your deportment, we knew by our own. Struck with the folemn melancholy of the national diftrefs, you felt it doubled in your own individual affliction. At the age when feeling is acute, when intereft and ambition have hardly learned the value of their objects, you thought lefs of the public dignity to which this calamitous event might call you, than of the private forrow by which it was to be accompanied. Of political opinions, you adopted the moft temperate; of political measures, you propofed the leaft violent: you did not wish to add to the depreflion of the public by the fear of fudden change, or the dread of civil diffenfion. You knew that the influence and power which a different conduct might obtain were as unfafe to a prudent, as difagreeable to a good mind; that in the oppofite fcale were placed every thing that wifdom or virtue in a Prince could defire; all the confidence, the love, the glory, which a generous people could offer to his acceptance.

To the joy of the nation, as to your's, Sir, this calamity" overpaffed us like a fummer cloud," and our fears were loft before we could well afcertain them. The country was freed from a fituation of uncertainty and of danger that fhook its credit and its quiet, and you were left, we hope, (and we know you hope) many years longer to the exercise of those engaging and amiable qualities that

are

are hardly allowed to expand under the weight and preffure of state affairs. In your prefent fituation, Sir, you have many opportunities, which we are perfuaded you will improve, of rendering effential fervice to your country. Your favour and example can encourage genuine patriotifm, can promote public honour and public virtue; without the refponfibility of official power, your patronage can call merit into action, and prompt the reward of its exertions. Keep but the purity of your influence unfullied, preferve its dignity unimpaired, and you can, weave the civic crown for the ftatefman, and his laurel wreath for the foldier.

In former times, of which fome curious records are left us, the heir apparent of the Crown has been induced to lend himself to a factious cabal, to become a king of the " fhreds and patches" of Oppofition, who proflituted his name to their own little purpofes, who abufed his confidence, and made a vile ftewardship of his weaknets for their own private advantage. To fuch arts greatnefs muft always be liable; and it is, perhaps, rather a compliment to your good-nature than an impeachment on your understanding, if we venture to caution you a gainst them. In your fituation you cannot know their effects; you cannot fee them as we do, in diftant vinces, and amidst the mafs of the people. You know not what defpicable affociates the Crefy ftandard affembles, over what impurities the plumage of your creft is made to wave; yet popular prejudice will often lay thefe abufes to your charge, though in that encouragement, to which the eafinefs of your nature allows them, you cannot forefee the mifchiefs they produce. The noblest tree of the foreft is not always fhaken by the winds, or feathed by the lightning of heaven; it suffers, ignobly fuf

pro

fers, from the vermin that fhelter at its root.

In a private capacity, your humility will not probably allow you to fuppofe how much is in your power for the manners and the happiness of the community. With the advantages you derive from nature, with the accomplishments you have received from education, you have for fome time been acknowledged

"The glafs of fashion and the mold of form ;"

and there is a fort of dominion annexed to this idea, which, though of a lighter kind, is of greater extent and importance than fome others which men are more folicitous to poffefs. I am no Cynic preacher, and will not fuppofe that, at your time of life, and with your temperament, you are to regulate your, conduct and deportment by the rules of cold-blcoded age and fober wifdom. But there is a decorum in pleasure, a temperance even in diffipation, which, amidst all the extravagance of the moment, marks the feeling of a man of fense and a gentleman; a fomething even about his idleft indulgences which fpeaks the folly to belong to him, and not him to the folly. The words, gentleman and man of fashion, will borrow their meaning, within a certain circle, from you; but there is an intrinfic fenfe of the terms which will ftill be the understanding of the people. Confider, Sir, that, with all the witchery of your manners and addrefs, the fphere of your attraction is limited, the sphere of your fame extenfive. Sacrifice a little to the judgment, or, if your gayer friends will call it fo, the prejudice of thofe whofe judgment is one day to be fo important to you. Remember that no power, even in the most arbitrary governments, was ever equal to his who could wield at will the opinions of his subjects. BRUTUS.

Brutus's

PARTY

Brutus's Letter to the Right Hon. E. B**** †.

RTY - WRITERS have fo accuftomed us to expect abuse in addreffes of this fort, that I am obliged to preface this letter with a declaration, that I am more an admirer of your good qualities than an obferver of your failings. In the diftant retirement of private lite, political opinions are mellowed into fpeculative milduefs, and do not rife in our bofoms with that perfonal acrimony which fets down a man's character merely from his party. Tho' Ifeel with, Ibelieve, a very great majority of my fellow citizens, much refpect and gratitude to men against whom you have been long in oppofition, yet I am neither blind to their imperfections nor to your merits. When their imperfections fhall appear to diminish their usefulness to the public, I will fpeak my opinion with the fame regret with which I have feen your merits rendered ufclefs or hurtful to it. I feel for my country, Sir; and am grieved when, on either fide, virtues or talents are loft to its fervice, or mifapplied to its prejudice. In my fenfe of your merits, Sir, I own I indulge a certain degree of vanity. It is not a vulgar mind they can affect or attach. You have been unfortunate in the exertion of your talents; poffeffing popular virtues and popular abilines, your public conduct and public appearances have but feldom won the fuffrages of the people. There was a refinement in your virtue, an abftraction in your eloquence, which it required fomething of a philofopher and a fcholar to relifh; plain men denied the one, and did not always understand the other. Hence, perhaps, arofe the ridiculous fable of your education at St Omer's, and your being defigned for a member of a religious order fome time ago abolished

G 2

in the greatest part of Europe; a ftory which had lef's foundation than almoft any other in the mythology of the vulgar. You had the genius and the learning, but you wanted the prudence and the addrefs of the Society of Jefus. They contrived to work upon mankind by the dextrous management of ordinary powers: you loft men by the mifinanagement of great and uncommon endowments.

From the time of Swift downwards, the remark of the fuperior fitness of coarfe and ordinary minds to the plain. operations of bufinefs, "has been often repeated. In the Houle of Commons, which you early chofe for the field of your ambition, the fame thing takes place: there is often a point below eloquence at which men must ftand who would with to perfuade or to lead that affembly. That in this bufinefs-kind of speaking you thould not greatly excel; that you thould not always conjoin accuracy of deduction with fertility of invention, nor be as cleat in a statement of figures as glowing in an appeal to the pallions, is what we naturally expect froin the different formation of different minds. There are few, very few men, indeed, the variety of whofe powers can accommodate itfelf to the fenfe of the plain, the calculations of the plodding, the vivacity of the fanciful; whofe language has perfpicuity for the dulleft understanding, and brilliancy for the moft lively imagination: whofe fpeeches have demonftration for the reafoner and logician, and flow for the ears of the vacant and the thoughtless. Thefe are endowments which nature beftows but feldom, though the happens to have gifted with them each of the prefent leaders of the oppofite parties in parliament.

+ From the fame.

But

« PrécédentContinuer »