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A parallel between ALEXANDER and a Highwayman. [Advent. No. 47.]

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AN, though as a rational being he has thought fit to ftile himself the lord of the creation, is yet frequently the voluntary flave of prejudice and cuftom; the moft general opinions are often abfurd, and the prevailing principles of action ridiculous.

It may, however, be allowed, that if in these inftances reafon always appeared to be overborne by the importunity of appetite; if the future was facrificed to the prefent, and hope renounced only for poffeffion; there would not be much caufe for wonder: but that man should draw abfurd conclufions, contrary to his -immediate intereft; that he should even at the rifque of life, gratify thofe vices in fome, which in others he punishes with a gibbet or a wheel, is in the highest degree aftonishing; and is fuch an inftance of the weakness of our reason, and the fallibility of our judgment, as fhould incline us to accept with gratitude of that guidance which is from ABOVE.

But if it is ftrange, that one man has been immortalized as a God, and another put to death as a felon, for actions which have the fame motive and the fame tendency, merely because they were circumftantially different; it is yet more ftrange, that this difference has always been fuch as increases the abfurdity; and that the action which expofes a man to infamy and death, wants only greater aggravation of guilt, and more extenfive and pernicious effects, to render him the object of veneration and applause.

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ཤ BAGSHOT, the robber, having loft the booty of a week among his affociates, at hazard, loaded his piftols, mounted his horse, and took the Kentish road, with a refolution not to return till he had recruited his purse. Within a few miles of London, juft as he heard a village-clock ftrike nine, he met two gentlemen in a post-chaife which he stopped. One of the gentlemen immediately prefented a pistol, and at the

fame time a fervant rode up armed with a blunderbufs. The robber, perceiving that he fhould be vigorously oppofed, turned off from the chaife and difcharged a pitol at the fervant, who inftantly fell dead from his horse. The gentlemen had now leaped from the chaife: but the foremost receiving a blow on his head with the flock of the piftol that had been juft fired, reeled back a few paces; the other having fired at the murderer without fuccefs, attempted to dismount him and fucceeded; but while they were grappling with each other, the villain drew a knife, and stabbed his antagonist to the heart. He then, with the calm intrepidity of a hero who is familiar with danger, proceeded to rifle the pockets of the dead; and the furvivor having recovered from the blow, and being imperiously commanded to deliver, was now obliged to comply. When the victor had thus obtained the pecuniary reward of his prowefs, he determined to lofe no part of his glory which as conqueror was now in his power: turning, therefore, to the unhappy gentleman, whom he had plundered, he condefcended to infult him with the applause of confcious fuperiority; he told him that he had never robbed any perfons who behaved better; and as a tribute due to the merit of the dead, and a token of his esteem for the living, he generously threw him back a fhilling to prevent his being ftopped at the turnpike.

He now remounted his horfe, and fet off towards London but at the turnpike, a coach that was paying the toll obstructed his way; and by the light of the flambeau that was behind it, he discovered that his coat was much ftained with blood: this difcovery threw him into fuch confufion, that he attempted to ruh by; he was however prevented; and his appearance giving great reafon to fufpect his motive, he was feized and detained.

In the coach were two ladies, and a little boy about five years old. The ladies were greatly alarmed, when they heard that a perfon was taken who was fuppofed to have juft committed a robbery and a murder: they afked many questions with great eagernefs, but their

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enquiries were little regarded, till a gentleman rode up, who feeing their diftrefs, offered his affiftance. The elder of the two ladies acquainted him, that her hufband SIR HARRY FREEMAN was upon the road in his return from Gravesend, where he had been to receive an only fon upon his arrival from India, after an abfence of near fix years; that herself and her daughter-in-law were come out to meet them, but were terrified with the apprehenfion that they might have been stopped by the man who had just been taken into cuftody. Their attention was now fuddenly called to the other fide of the coach by the child, who cried out in a tranfport of joy, "There is my grand papa." This was indeed the furvivor of the three who had been attacked by BAGSHOT: he was mounted on his fervant's horfe, and rode flowly by the fide of the chaife in which he had juft placed the body of his fon, whofe countenance was disfigured with blood, and whofe features were ftill impreffed with the agonies of death. Who can exprefs the grief, horror, and defpair, with which a father exhibited this fpectacle to a mother and a wife, who expected a fon and a husband, with all the tenderness and ardour of conjugal and parental affection; who had long regretted his abfence, who had anticipated the joy of his return, and were impatient to put into his arms a pledge of his love which he had never seen.

I will not attempt to defcribe that diftrefs, which tears would not have fuffered me to behold: let it fuffice, that fuch was its effect upon those who were prefent, that the murderer was not without difficulty conducted alive to the prifon; and I am confident that few who read this ftory, would have heard with regret that he was torn to pieces by the way.

But before they congratulate themfelves upon`a fenfe, which always diftinguishes right and wrong by fpontaneous approbation and cenfure; let them tell me with what sentiments they read of a youthful monarch, who at the head of an army in which every man became a hero by his example, paffed over mountains and defarts, in fearch of new territories to in

vade, and new potentates to conquer; who routed armies which could fcarce be numbered, and took cities which were deemed impregnable. Do they not follow him in the path of laughter with horrid complacency? and when they fee him deluge the peaceful felds of induftrious fimplicity with blood, and leave them defolate to the widow and the orphan of the poffeffor, do they not grow frantic in his praise, and concur to deify the mortal who could conquer only for glory, and return the kingdoms that he won ?

To these questions, I am confident the greater part of mankind muft answer in the affirmative; and yet nothing can be more abfurd than their different apprehenfions of the HERO and the THIEF.

The conduct of BAGSHOT and ALEXANDER had in general the fame motives, and the fame tendency; they both fought a private gratification at the expence of others; and every circumftance in which they differ, is greatly in favour of BAGSHOT.

BAGSHOT, when he had loft his laft fhilling, had loft the power of gratifying every appetite whether criminal or innocent; and the recovery of this power, was the object of his expedition.

ALEXANDER, when he fet out to conquer the world, poffeffed all that BAGSHOт hoped to acquire, and more; all his appetites and paffions were gratified, as far as the gratification of them was poffible; and as the force of temptation is always fuppofed proportionably to extenuate guilt, ALEXANDER's guilt was evidently greater than BAGSHOT's, because it cannot be pretended that his temptation was equal.

But though ALEXANDER could not equally increase the means of his own happiness, yet he produced much more dreadful and extensive evil to fociety in the attempt. BAGSHOT killed two men; and I have related the murder and its confequences, with fuch particulars as usually rouze that fenfibility, which often lies torpid during narratives of general calamity. ALEXANDER, perhaps, deftroyed a million: and whoever reflects, that each individual of this number Lad fome tender attachments which were broken by D 2

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his death; fome parent or wife, with whom he mingled tears in the parting embrace, and who longed with fond folicitude for his return; or, perhaps, fome infant whom his labour was to feed, and his vigilance protect; will fee, that ALEXANDER was more the peft of fociety than BAGSHOT, and more deferved a gibbet in the proportion of a million to one.

ANDER.

It may, perhaps, be thought abfurd, to enquire into the virtues of BAGSHOT's character, and yet virtue has never been thought incompatible with that of ALEXALEXANDER, we are told, gave proof of his greatness of mind, by his contempt of danger; but as BAGSHOT's danger was equally voluntary and imminent, there ought to be no doubt but that his mind was equally great.. ALEXANDER, indeed, gave back the kingdoms that he won; but after the conqueft of a kingdom, what remained for ALEXANDER to give? To a prince, whofe country he had invaded with unprovoked hoftility, and from whom he had violently wrefted the bleffings of peace, he gave a dominion over the widows and orphans of those he had flain, the tinfel of dependent greatness, and the badge, of royal fubjection. And does not BAGSHOT deferve equal honour, for throwing back a fhilling to the man, whofe perfon he had infulted, and whofe fon he had ftabbed to the heart? ALEXANDER did not ravish or maffacre the women whom he found in the tent of Darius; neither did honest BAGSHOT kill the gentleman whom he had plundered, when he was no longer able to refift.

If BAGSHOT, then, is juftly dragged to prifon, amidst the tumult of rage, menaces, and execrations; let ALEXANDER, whom the lords of reafon have extolled for ages, be no longer thought worthy of a triumph.

As the acquifition of honour is frequently a motive to the rifque of life, it is of great importance to confer it only upon virtue; and as honour is conferred by the public voice, it is of equal moment to strip thofe vices of their disguife which have been mistaken for virtue. The wretches who compofe the army of a tyrant, are affociated by folly in the service of rapine

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