with feveral particulars relative to its confequences in the adminiftration. In the ninth and laft letter Mr. Rouffeau enters into a refutation of the fallacious arguments, and injurious reflections thrown out against him, in a work entitled Letters written from the Country: expofing the defign of the Author, and delineating the general character and fituation of the prefent citizens of Geneva; whom he endeavours to animate with a spirit to infift upon their ancient rights and privileges, against the encroaching and oppreffive difpofition of the Magiftracy. But, having extended this article to a confiderable length, we must here take leave of this very fpirited and ingenious Writer; hoping we never fhall have occafion to perufe any more of his difagreeable remonftrances. For, after all, we cannot help thinking, notwithstanding the justice of his complaints against his oppreffors, that there is fome juftice alfo in the cenfures which he tells us his friends have paffed on his own indifcretion. Add to this, that the bitterness of thefe complaints is fomewhat extraordinary, as coming from a man of fuch pretended fortitude and intrepidity. As well may the foldier, who ruthes - into battle, complain of the mutilation or the lofs of limbs, as a Writer, who attacks the prejudices of the multitude and the prerogatives of the Great, murmur at perfecution. Mr. Rouffeau is proud enough of boafting, that he wanted not an Azylum in almost every country in Europe: but some people chufe rather to make a merit of their fufferings than to avoid them. It is no wonder, therefore, as every man is in a great degree the architect of his own fortune, that it is generally determined by the ruling paffion by which he is actuated. Memoires touchant le Gouvernement d'Angleterre, &c. Memoirs relative to the Government of England; containing a concife hiftory of the moft confiderable revolutions that have happened in the English Government from the time of William the Conqueror to the last great revolution. Amfterdam 1764. Imported by Vaillant. W 12mo. E are informed in the dedication of thefe memoirs, addreffed to his majefty, that they were originally compofed, by the command, and for the ufe of his royal Grandfather king George I; who, it is obferved, feriously regretted his being fo little acquainted with the conftitution of his king Kk 3 doms, doms, on his acceffion to the throne; fo that he foon found himself, by the intrigues of defigning courtiers, rather the head of a party, than King over the whole people. In tracing the feveral revolutions from that early period of the English hiftory, the Author of these memoirs endeavours to fhew in what manner the Royal prerogative, which was placed upon an abfolute footing by William the First, was by degrees rendered more moderate, and reduced within its present limits. At the fame time he traces very particularly the origin and progrefs of the authority of the Houfe of Commons, and the feveral fteps by which it rofe to its present state of credit and power pointing out the attempts of feveral English Monarchs (efpecially thofe of the House of Stewart) to prevent the increase of parliamentary authority, and to restore the royal prerogative to its ancient dignity. In the fecond part of these memoirs, he confiders the fiate of the English government at the acceffion of William the Third: affigning the feveral reafons, which, in his opinion, prevented the people from enjoying that fhare of happiness er tranquillity with which they flattered themfelves under his reign, and the fucceeding one of Queen Anne. To this end he enters into the party intrigues of the Whigs and Tories; endeavouring to prove the truth of that trite affertion, that the views of both were conftantly the fame; viz. to elbow each other out of place, and to get themselves in. The Author next hazards a few cautious reflections on the conduct of George the Firft, both before and after his coming to the throne; with which thefe memoirs conclude. Of the Author's manner of writing and thinking on thefe fubjects, we fhall give our Readers the following fpecimen, relative to the fervility of the English peers, in paying their court to the German attendants of George I. "With regard to most of those perfonages that accompanied the king to England, they were much cenfured for giving themfelves unbecoming airs of fuperiority and infolence to the English; and for abufing their intereft with his majefty, in getting titles and employments conferred on any body that paid them money; an infamous traffic that juftly excited the murmurs of the nation. In my opinion, however, the Germans were in fome degree to be excufed, by that mean fervility with which the English courtiers of the first rank behaved to them, both in public and private. It was certainly enough to turn the brains of a few petty people, who had made but a mean figure in their own country, to fee themselves tranfported to a fuperb and magnificent court, where every body was folicitous to get into their good graces, by by prefents and affiduities. Is it to be wondered at that a Valet-de-chambre, or even a perfon in a more confiderable ftation, fhould forget himself in such a situation? Or that a little female refugee fhould imagine herself to be Somebody, when she saw a train of lords and dukes at her Ruelle, continually flattering her, both on her own perfonal merit, and on the favour in which her husband stood with the king?" But the picture this Writer draws, is fo difgraceful and mortifying to an Englishman, that we shall particularize it no farther. Dictionnaire Philofophique, portatif. A Philofophical Dictionary, for the pocket. 1765. EALOUS as we have ever been for the liberty of the prefs, and the free exercife of private judgment; yet we presume none of our Readers will impute to us the fuppofition, that Government can in no cafe interfere with propriety, to fupprefs the circulation of books, palpably tending to the fubverfion of the fundamental principles of fociety. In countries where Religion is made almoft the fole vehicle to morals, and men are chiefly urged to the practice of social duties by the dictates of Revelation; to throw contempt upon the authority of the latter, is indirectly to fap the foundation of the morals of the people and this is the fame, whether that revelation be true or falfe. If a Turk, for inftance, be induced to dif charge any moral duty, or to abftain from any vice, because of an injunction delivered to Mahomet when in the third heaven; fhould we not strike at the root of his moral principles, by turning into ridicule, or pointing out the falfehood, of his prophet's pretended journey? If, in taking away an abfurd motive to virtue, a rational one were fubftituted immediately in its place, fome reason might be given for difcrediting the former; but the misfortune is, that our new philofophical reformers act, for the most part, directly contrary to the theological zealots of old. The primitive divines were generally abfolute and dogmatical; seeking to elbow out one fyftem by introducing another. Our modern Sophifts are, on the other hand, all fcepticks; whose extreme modesty preventing their forming systems themselves, they are folely employed in demolishing those of others. Can they think it will be time enough to inculcate the true principles of morality, when they have entirely eradicated the falfe? It may then probably be too late; at leaft it may become those, who have the care of a nation's morals, to interfere a little in the proceedings of fuch precipitate reformers. Kk 4 This This cafe, it may be faid, has been formally committed into the hands of the Clergy; but, if the staff be taken out of their hands, or the cafe be found too defperate for their intervention, it is poffible that other affiftance may be requifite. Such, at leaf, are the only juftifiable motives on which we conceive the civil government can with propriety interfere to fupprefs, or prevent the circulation of printed books. The next confideration is, in what manner, confiftent with the privileges of a free people, government is in this cafe, to' interfere? Doubtless by putting the laws in execution; or by making new laws if thofe in being are found infufficient. Nothing can be more dangerous to the conftitution, than for the miniftry or magiftracy, to take upon them to fupply the defects of the legiflature. If the King, Lords, and Commons of England were to make a law, forbidding people to write about the most indifferent topic in nature, it would become every good fubject to obey that law, provided the prohibition were diftinét and exprefs. But it is not the bufinefs of the administrators of the laws, to meddle with the application of general injunctions to particular facts, before the actual commiffion of thofe facts. It is, in England, the bufinefs of a jury, felected from among the people, to determine, after a fact is committed, whether the fuppofed criminal hath broken the law or not. And we do not know any juft means the magiftracy have, to prevent the breach of the laws, but the putting them ftrictly into execution, by a fevere exaction of the penalties from thofe who break them †. A Conftable for inftance might be ever fo well convinced of the intention of a man to commit a high-way robbery, but his own private opinion would hardly bear him out in feizing fuch perfon and making him a prifoner, in order to prevent the commiffion of the fact intended. It will indeed admit of a difpute, whether men have not a natural right at their own peril, to break through all injunctions that are merely political? It is against the law of nature itself, indeed, for a man to rob or murder; fo that he hath no right to commit fach flagitious crimes, even though he confents to fuffer death for it. But in matters merely civil and political, we do not fee why a man may not break the law if he chufes to pay the penalty. What should hinder a poacher, for infance, from killing game, if he is difpofed to amule himself a while in the county jail? A Robin-hood Cafuift from writing againft the Trinity, if he chufes to lie a month in Newgate, to be twice pilloried, and to beat hemp for a twelvemonth in Bridewell? Nay, what should even hinder a Jacobite from fpeaking treafon, if he has. a mind to be hanged for it As As ignorance of the law, indeed, is no legal excufe for the breach of it, it would be kind in the adminiftrators of juftice to make the reftrictions of our laws more generally known than they are. And thus if, on the importation of any feandalous book from abroad, the Bench of Bishops, or a committee of the Clergy by them appointed, fhould write an exhortation to the Bookfellers of this kingdom, fetting forth the dangerous confequences that might attend a tranflation of it into the vulgar tongue; and if at the fame time, another notice were fent from the police, fetting forth wherein fuch a tranflation would be derogatory to the laws of the kingdom, and advising tranflators and Bookfellers of their own danger in undertaking it ;-all this would be no more than we might expect from the watchful guardians over our religion and morals. But if, instead of this, the book fhould be publickly advertised, a new edition of the original be made in this metropolis, and be bought up with avidity; while only one or two prelates fhould be found pious enough to intereft themfelves in preventing its circulation; and that not by a paftoral exhortation from themselves, but by an officious information to a Minifter of State; and if, inftead of a proper advice from the police, a threat of feizing papers, and of profecutions, fhould come from a King's meflenger, this laft method, we fay, would give room for fufpecting at least that both the magiftracy and the clergy neglected their own departments, to interfere with that of each other. Nay, we fear, there would be fome room for men greatly tenacious of their liberty, to fufpect an inclination in the adminiftrators of our laws to difpenfe with the cost and trouble of getting them enacted; and of adopting a ftat pro lege voluntas in all cafes where they might think it neceffary. It is true that, to threaten a profecution is not to threaten punishment; but it is well known, that profecutions, coming from a certain quarter, prove a fevere punishment, even on those who are acquitted by their country as innocent. Add to this, that fuch threats from those who have a perfon at command that can put them in practice, ex officio, carry with them a fhrewd intimation that they take upon themselves to judge both of the nature of the crime, and of the intent and meaning of the laws that forbid it. It is feldom, however, that our minifters are the moft able lawyers; fo that it is evident they act rather from what they would have to be law, than what really is fo. It is from this propenfity, in the executive part of government, to difpense with the legislative part, that we fee with extreme reluctance any occa fion given to countenance it: thinking it extremely rafa and imprudent in individuals to take fuch fteps as may appear to justify an adminiftration in the exercife of fuch dangerous prerogatives. Philofophers, or thofe who pretend to be fo, have 3 ftill |