the caufe as common, and, fufpending the general hoftility, united to chaftife them.

The whole conduct of this defpicable faction is diftinguished by plebeian groffness, and favage indecency. To mifreprefent the actions and the principles of their enemies is common to all parties; but the infolence of invective, and brutality of reproach, which have lately prevailed, are peculiar to this.

An infallible characteristick of meannefs is cruelty. This is the only faction that has fhouted at the condemnation of a criminal, and that, when his innocence procured his pardon, has clamoured for his blood.

All other parties, however enraged at each other, have agreed to treat the throne with decency; but these low-born railers have attacked not only the au thority, but the character of their fovereign, and have endeavoured, surely without effect, to alienate the affections of the people from the only king, who, for almost a century, has much appeared to defire, or much endeavoured to deferve them. They have infulted him with rudeness and with menaces, which were never excited by the gloomy fullennefs of William, even when half the nation denied him their allegiance; nor by the dangerous bigotry of James, unlels when he was finally driven from his palace; and with which fcarcely the open hoftilities of rebellion ventured to vilify the unhappy Charles, even in the remarks on the cabinet of Naseby.

It is furely not unreasonable to hope that the nation will confult its dignity, if not its fafety, and difdain to be protected or enflaved by the declaimers or the plotters of a city-tavern. Had Rome fallen by

the

the Catilinarian confpiracy, the might have confoled her fate by the greatness of her destroyers; but what would have alleviated the difgrace of England, had her government been changed by Tiler or by Ket?

One part of the nation has never before contended with the other, but for fome weighty and apparent interest. If the means were violent, the end was great. The civil war was fought for what each army called and believed the best religion, and the best government. The struggle in the reign of Anne, was to exclude or restore an exile king. We are now difputing, with almost equal animofity, whether Middlefex shall be represented or not by a criminal from a jail.

The only comfort left in fuch degeneracy is that a lower ftate can be no longer poffible.

In this contemptuous cenfure, I mean not to include every fingle man. In all lead, fays the chemist, there is filver; and in all copper there is gold. But mingled maffes are justly denominated by the greater quantity, and when the precious particles are not worth extraction, a faction and a pig must be melted down together to the forms and offices that chance allots them.

Fiunt urceoli, pulves, fartago, patella.

A few weeks will now show whether the government can be shaken by empty noife, and whether the faction which depends upon its influence, has not deceived alike the Publick and itself. That it should have continued till now, is fufficiently fhameful. None can indeed wonder that it has been fupported by the fectaries, the natural fomenters of fedition, and con

federates

federates of the rabble, of whose religion little now remains but hatred of establishments, and who are angry to find feparation now only tolerated, which was once rewarded; but every honest man muft lament, that it has been regarded with frigid neutrality by the tories, who, being long accustomed to fignalize their principles by oppofition to the court, do not yet confider that they have at last a king who knows not the name of party, and who wishes to be the common father of all his people.

As a man inebriated only by vapours, foon recovers in the open air; a nation discontented to madness, without any adequate cause, will return to its wits and its allegiance when a little pause has cooled it to reflection. Nothing, therefore, is neceffary, at this alarming crifis, but to confider the alarm as falfe. To make conceffions, is to encourage encroachment. Let the court despise the faction, and the disappointed people will foon deride it.

I

T THOUGHTS

ON THE

LATE TRANSACTIONS

RESPECTING

FALKLAND's ISLANDS.

[1771,]

TO proportion the eagerness of contest to its importance feems too hard à tafk for human wifdom. The pride of wit has kept ages bufy in the difcuffion of useless queftions, and the pride of power has destroyed armies to gain or to keep unprofitable poffeffions.

Not many years have paffed fince the cruelties of war were filling the world with terror and with forrow ; rage was at last appeased, or strength exhausted, and to the haraffed nations peace was reftored, with its pleasures and its benefits. Of this ftate all felt the happiness, and all implored the continuance; but what continuance of happiness can be expected, when the whole fyftem of European empire can be in danger of a new concuffion, by a contention for a few fpots of earth, which, in the deserts of the ocean, had almoft escaped human notice, and which, if they had not happened to make a fea-mark, had perhaps never had a name?

Fortune

Fortune often delights to dignify what nature has neglected, and that renown which cannot be claimed by intrinfick excellence or greatnefs, is fometimes derived from unexpected accidents. The Rubicon was ennobled by the paffage of Cafar, and the time is now come when Falkland's Islands demand their hiftorian.

But the writer to whom this employment fhall be affigned, will have few opportunities of defcriptive fplendor, or narrative elegance. Of other countries it is told how often they have changed their government; these islands have hitherto changed only their name. Of heroes to conquer, or legiflators to civilize, here has been no appearance; nothing has happened to them, but that they have been sometimes feen by wandering navigators, who paffed by them in search

of better habitations.

When the Spaniards, who, under the conduct of Columbus, difcovered America, had taken poffeffion of its moft wealthy regions; they furprised and terrified Europe by a sudden and unexampled influx of riches. They were made at once infupportably infolent, and might perhaps have become irresistibly powerful, had not their mountainous treasures been scattered in the air with the ignorant profufion of unaccustomed opulence.

The greater part of the European potentates faw this ftream of riches flowing into Spain without attempting to dip their own hands in the golden fountain. France had no naval fkill or power; Portugal was extending her dominions in the eaft over regions formed in the gaiety of nature; the Hanfeatick league, VOL. VIII.

H

being