A

mode, and which custom exacts.' It matters little (for instance) whether a prince gives himself up to the more grofs luxury of the weft, or to the more refined luxury of the east; whether he become the flave of a domeftick harlot, or of a foreign queen ; in fhort, whether he forget himself in the arms of one whore, or of twenty; and whether he imitate Anthony, or a king of Achin, who is reported to have paffed his whole time in a feraglio, eating, drinking, chewing betel, playing with women, B and talking of cock-fighting.

To draw to a conclufion: This decency, this grace, this propriety of manners to character, is fo effential to princes in particular, that whenever it is neglected, their virtues lofe a great degree of luftre, and their defects acquire much aggravation. Nay more, by neglecting this decency and this grace, and for want of a fufficient regard to appearances, even their virtues may betray them into failings, their failings into vices, and their vices into habits, unworthy of princes, and unworthy of men.

The conftitutions of governments, and the different tempers and characters of people, may be thought juftly to deserve some confideration, in determining the behaviour of princes in private life as well as in publick; and to put a difference (for inftance) between the decorum of a king of France, and that of a king of GreatBritain:

C

D

E

F

Lewis the fourteenth was king in an abfolute monarchy, and reigned over a people whofe genius makes it fitter perhaps to impofe on them by admiration and awe, than to gain and hold them by affection. Accordingly he kept great ftate; was haughty, was referved; and all he faid or did appeared to be forethought and plann'd. His regard to appearances G were fuch, that when his mistress was the wife of another man, and he had children by her every year, he endeavoured to cover her conftant refidence at court by a place the filled

about the queen: He dined and fupped and cohabited with the latter in every apparent respect as if he had no mistress at all. Thus he raised a great reputation: He was revered by his fubjects, and admired by his neighbours; and this was 'due principally to the art with which he managed appearances, fo as to fet off his virtues, to disguise his failings and his vices, and by his example and authority to keep a veil drawn over the futility and debauch of his court.

His fucceffor, not to the throne, but to the fovereign power, was a mere rake, with fome wit, and no morals; nay, with fo little regard to them, that he made them a fubjec of ridicule in difcourfe, and appeared in his whole conduct more profligate, if that could be, than he was in principle. The difference between these characters foon appeared in abominable effects; fuch as (cruelty apart) might recal the memory of Nero, or in the other fex, that of Meffalina, and fuch as I leave the chroniclers of scandal to relate..

Our Elizabeth was queen in a limited monarchy, and reigned over a people at all times more eafily led than driven; and at that time capable of being attached to their prince and their country, by a more generous principle than any of thofe which prevail in our days, by efedion. There was a strong prerogative then in being, and the crown was in poffeffion of greater legal power. Popularity was however then (as it is now, and as it must be always in mixed government) the fole true foundation of that fufficient authority and influence, which other conftitutions give the prince gratis, and independently of the people, but which a king of this nation must acquire. The wife queen faw it, and fhe faw too how much popularity depends on thofe appearances that depend on the decorum, the decency, the grace, and the propriety of behaviour of which we are fpeaking. A warm

con

A

concern for the intereft and honour
of the nation, a tenderness for her
people, and a confidence in their af-
fections, were appearances that run
thro' her whole publick conduct,
and gave life and colour to it. She
did great things, and the knew how
to fet them off according to their full
value, by her manner of doing them.
In her private behaviour the fhewed
great affability, fhe defcended even
to familiarity, but her familiarity
was fuch as could not be imputed
to her weakness, and was therefore B
moft juftly afcribed to her goodness.
Tho' a woman, fhe hid all that was
womanish about her; and if a few
equivocal marks of coquetry appear-
ed on fome occafions, they paffed
like flashes of lightning, vanifhed as
foon as they were difcerned, and im- C
printed no blot on her character. She
had private friendships, he had fa-
vourites: But the never fuffered her
friends to forget fhe was their queen,
and when her favourites did, the
made them feel that he was fo.

fpreading the most extravagant notions about kings in general, as if they were middle beings, between God and other men; and by comparing the extent and unfearchable myfteries of their porver and prerogative to thofe of the divine Providence. His language and his behaviour were commonly fuited to fuch foolish pretenfions; and thus by affuming a claim to fuch respect and fubmiffion as were not due to him, he loft a great part of what was due to him. In fhort, he begun at the wrong end; for tho' the fhining qualities of the king may cover fome failings and fome vices that do not grow up to ftrong habits in the man, yet must the character of a great and good king be founded in that of a great and good man. Aking who lives out of the fight of his fubjects, or is never feen by them except on his throne, can fcarce be defpifed as a man, tho' he may be hated as a king. But the king who lives more in their fight, and more under their obfervation, may be defpifed D before he is hated, and even without being hated. This happened to king James: A thousand circumflances brought it to pafs, and none more than the indecent weaknesses he had for his minions. He did not endeavour to cure this contempt, and raise his character only by affecting what he had no pretenfions to, as in the former cafe; but he endeavoured likewife moft vainly to do it by affecting what was improper to his character and rank. He did not endeavour, indeed, to difguife his natural pufillanimity and timidity under the mafk of a bully, nor wear a long fword, look fierce, and talk big, whilft he was imposed upon and infulted by all his neighbours, and a bove all by the Spaniards; but he retailed the fcraps of Buchanan, affected to talk much, figured in church-controverfies, and put on all the pedantick appearances of a fcholar, whilft he neglected all thofe of a great and good man, as well as king.

Her fucceffor, James the first, had no virtues to fet off, but he had failings and vices to conceal. He could not conceal the latter; and void of the former, he could not compenfate for them. His failings and his vices therefore ftanding in full view, he paffed for a weak prince and an ill E man; and fell into all the contempt wherein his memory remains to this day. The methods he took to preferve himself from it, ferved but to confirm him in it. No man can keep the decorum of manners in life, who is not free from every kind of affecta- F tion, as it has been faid already: But he who affects what he has no pretenfions to, or what is improper to his character and rank in the world, is guilty of moft confummate folly: He Becomes doubly ungracious, doubly indecent, and quite ridiculous. James G the firft, not having one quality to conciliate the efteem or affection of his people to him, endeavoured to impofe on their underflandings; and to create a respect for himself, by

Les

an meafures on their own knowledge, but all implicitly on the reprefentations made to them by those minifters. Kings of fuperior capacity have refigned themselves in the fame manner to their favourites, male and female, have fuffered thefe to ftand be- A tween them and their most able and faithful counsellors; their judgments have been influenced, and their meaferes directed by infinuations of women, or of men as little fitted as women by nature and education, to be hearkened to in the great affairs B of government. History is full of fuch examples; all melancholy, many tragical! fufficient, if attended to (one would imagine) to deter princes from permitting the companions of their idle hours, or the inftruments of their pleasures, to exceed C the bounds of thofe provinces. Should a minister of ftate pretend to vie with any of thefe, about the forms of a drawing-room, the regulation of a ruelle, the decoration of a ball, or the dress of a fine lady, he would be thought ridiculous, and he would be D truly fo. But then are not any of these impertinent, when they pretend to

meddle in things at leaft as much above them, as thofe that have been mentioned are below the others? And are not princes who fuffer them to do fo, unaccountably weak?

What fhall I fay further on this head? Nothing more is neceffary. Let me wind it up therefore by afforting this great truth, that results from what has been already faid. As he can never fill the character of a PATRIOT KING, tho' his perfonal great and good qualities be in every other refpect equal to it, who lies open to the flattery of courtiers, to the feduction of women, and to the partialities and affections which are eafily contracted by too great indulgence in private life; fo the prince who is defirous to establish this character, must observe such a decorum, and keep fuch a guard on himself, as may prevent even the fulpicion of being liable to fuch influences. For as the reality would ruin, the very fufpicion will leffen him in the opinion of mankind; and the opinion of mankind, which is fame after death, is fuperior strength and power in life.

JOURNAL of the PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES in the POLITICAL CLUB, continued from the APPENDIX, 1748, Page 605.

and, I think, he himfelf ftands forth an example of it, as flrong as can any where be met with. I am perfuaded, there is no man more firmly attached than he is to the proteftant fucceffion now happily established in this kingdom, and yet he has been bred up with fuch a regard for the church, and fuch a jealoufy of every thing that may have the leaft appearance of an incroachment upon her rights and privileges, that he would chufe to expofe the proteftant fucceffion to be undermined by wolves in fheeps cloathing, rather than allow the parliament to determine, who thall be deemed

deemed the proper inftructors and leaders of the people within his majefty's dominions.

Sir, If the queftion now before us were, whether ordination by a popifh bishop, or by one who is held

man, who takes holy orders from a nonjuring bishop, is fuch a one as has been bred up in the fame principles with the bishop from whom he chufes to receive holy orders, and confequently, must be prefumed rea

to be a bishop amongst the nonjurors, A dy to inculcate thofe principles as of

were fuch an ordination as might in-
title a man to the character of a
prieft or a deacon in the church; or
if we were to impower any civii ju-
dicatute to determine this question,
I fhould be as zealous againit our
determining fuch a question, or B
granting fuch a power, as any gen-
tleman in this houfe; but neither
of thefe is the cafe with respect
to the claufe now under confidera.
tion. We are only to determine,
that fuch an ordination is not proper
for intitling a man to exercife the C
function of priest or deacon in any
epifcopal meeting in Scotland; and
that it may appear by whom every
man, who intends to exercise that
function in Scotland, has been or-
dained, we have already ordered his
letters of orders to be registered in D
the court books of fome of the civil
judicatures within that kingdom.

Neither of thefe, Sir, can in the
leaft interfere with any right or pri-
vilege belonging to the church. Ic
is a queftion in politicks only, and
with fuch questions, I think, the E
moll zealous churchman cannot pre-
tend, that the church has any thing
to do.. For both thefe political re-
gulations the learned gentleman has
himfelf furnished us with a very
frong argument. The prejudices of
education are of fuch force, that ve- F
ry few men ever get entirely the
better of them; and it has been
found, by experience, that thofe
who have been bred up in Jacobite
principles from their fancy, gene-
rally retain a warm fide that way,
and are too apt to fhew it as often as G
they fafely can, notwithstanding their
having taken the oaths to the prefent
government. This, I fay, has been
found by experience, and it is cer-
tainly to be prefumed, that every

ten as he fafely can, notwithstanding his having taken the oaths to the prefent government; therefore the parliament has wifely thought fit to exclude all fuch men from exercising the office of priest or deacon in Scotland, where the people are naturally, and without any inftruction, but too apt to rebel; and where the vulgar have always been more under the influence of their preachers than in moft other countries.

It is true, Sir, that no man can publickly, in his fermons, inculcate the principles of Jacobitifm: it is equally true, that no man, who has taken the oaths to the government, can, with a good grace, inculcate fuch principles in private converfation; and it is likewife true, that if you exclude fuch men from publickly exercifing their function, they will probably exercife it in a private manner, and will then more zealously inculcate fuch principles, especially in Scotland, where, from feveral late events it is known, that the lower fort of people are not fo ready to discover, or impeach, even for the highest rewards, as in fome other countries. But, Sir, tho' no minifter can publickly, in his fermons, inculcate the principles of Jacobitifm, yet if he be a learned and eloquent preacher, he may, by his fermons, gain a more commanding influence over his hearers than he could ever otherwife attain to, and from thence may, with greater weight, recommend whatever doctrines, either in religion or politicks, he pleases to inculcate in his private converfation or lectures; nor with his having taken the oaths to the vernment much diminish the weight of his recommendation; for the peoB 2 ple

go