Queftions to the People of Great Britain. Think a No. IX. A Caution against the Levellers.-The Rights of Man.-Hints to the People of England: *No. IX. Village Politics.-Extract from Mr. Playfair's Reflections on the actual Force and Refources of France in January 1793. No. X. The Englishman's Political Catechifm.-A Few Plain Questions and a little Honeft Advice to the Working People of Great Britain. No. XI. The Thirty-Eight Hours Agony of M. Jourgniac Saint Méard. Addrefs of the Burghers of Frankfort to General Cuftine.-The Farewell Addrefs of the French Emigrants to the Inhabitants of Dover, on their Embark- No. XII. The Character and Reign of Louis XVI. with a One Penny-worth of Truth.-Ten Minutes Caution. ---And a Country Curate's Advice, &c. LONDON: Printed and Sold by J. SEWELL, at the European Magazine Warehoufe, Cowper's Court, Cornhill; J. DEBRETT, Piccadilly; and HOOKAM and CARPENTER, Bond-Street. PRICE, ONE PENNY. ONE PENNY-WORTH OF TRUTH FROM THOMAS BULL, TO HIS BROTHER JOHN. DEAR BROTHER, THE HERE has always been fuch a good understanding between us, that you and I can speak our minds freely to one another. Our father, you know, always maintained the character of a blunt, honeft, fenfible man; and our mother was as good a fort of woman as ever lived. They gave us the best teaching they could afford, and the neighbours have never counted us fools. But fome people are taking great pains to make us fo, and rogues into the bargain. They have tried their skill upon me, and fo they will upon you; but I write you this letter to give you warning, that you may to yourself. For it seems, John, you and I are now to learn every thing from those conceited monkeys the French. Nobody knows any thing now but they, and fome Englishmen at home, who hate this country as bad as the French do. With talking about Right and Equality, and Conftitution and Organization, and fuch like, they made my head turn round ; but I fee now pretty well what they mean. look They begin with telling us all Mankind are equal; but A that's that's a lie, John; for the Children are not equal to the Mother, nor the Mother to the Father; unless where there is Petticoat Government; and fuch Families never go on well? the Children are often spoiled, and the Hufband brought to a gaol. But I fay People are not equal. The Clerk is not equal to the Parfon; the Footman is not equal to the 'Squire ; the thief at the Bar is not equal to the Judge upon the Bench. If it were as they fay, then the Clerk might get up into the Pulpit; the Footman might fit at the top of the table; the Thief might take his place upon the Bench and try the Judge; and the Coachman might get into the coach and fet his Mafter upon the box; who, not knowing how to drive, 'tis ten to one but he overturns him. Pretty work we should have with their Equality! But let us have patience, and go on with them. You and I were taught at God governs the World, and that nobody has any power in it but fuch as he gives them: there is no Power but of God; and our Saviour allowed it even in Pontius Pilate, the Roman Judge. But you are to believe now out of the French Bible, that all Power is of the People, that is, of you and I, Thomas and John Bull. But if the People in any great national queftion of difficulty, which is very poffible, thould be divided into two halves, who are the People then John? They that lay hold of a fword first, and get to be ftrongeft, will always call themselves the People, and the reft must go to be hanged or lofe their heads. If you and I fhould quarrel about our Rights, and there were no Law above us, then there's People Thomas against People John, and we must settle it by a Civil War; for when there's no Law,* there's nothing left but the fword or the halter to fettle all dif ferences: so I muft cut your throat or you must cut mine. This is what always comes of the Power of the People, as it is now in France; where all queftions have been carried by cutting off heads and hanging people upon lamp-irons; and then, you know, they that are hanged can give no vote, and they that are left are all of a mind. But, however, they are as far off from being fettled now as they were four years ago; one of their new Kings (Marat) faid, they must have two hundred and eighty thousand more heads off before they should be right. and. Now for their wife Notions about Government. As all Power is in the People, they fay there can be no lawful Government but what the People make. When all Power is taken from those who are now entitled to it by Law, and put into the hands of the Mob armed with pikes and daggers, that's a Conflitution, John. Then out of this, the faid Mob raises what they call Organs and Functions, and makes a Government; but but they have been at it in France for four years, and though they have worked very hard some time, they have hardly got to the beginning yet. And now have you not feen enough to fee what a fine contrivance this is for plundering every Gentleman of his Property, his Houfe, his Land, his Goods, and his Money, under a pretence that every thing belongs to the Nation? And it holds as well, or better, against Churches than against private Houles. They tell you farther, that no Man has a Right to any thing but what he earns himself: fo if you and I, John and Thomas Bull, work ever fo hard, and leave what we have to bring up our Children in the World, they will have no Right to it, because they did no、 earn it themselves. This notion cuts off all Right of Inheritance, which is the most facred upon earth, and without which it would not be worth while either to work or live; for the Nation may meet, make a new Governmeat, and take it all away at a ftroke. I'll tell you a story: Some while ago a Highwayman met with his death upon the road for demanding a Gentleman's money: "That fellow," faid a Wag, " was a good Patriot; who, "fuppofing the Gentleman might have more money in "his pocket than he had earned, difcovered that it was "the property of the Nation; fo, making himself the Nation, "he only demanded his own property. But the Gentleman being rather too quick for him, thot the Nation through the "head, and fpoiled the new principles of Government." This was bad luck; that man might have lived to have given us a continuation of Thomas Paine. And now, John, I'll tell thee plainly, this new notion of Government from the mob, is the foolishest, as well as the most rafcally, that ever entered into the world: and the very People that have raised themselves to Power and plunder by it, will be fools enough to deny it. They will be telling us prefently how God has fought for the French against the Pruffians and, Austrians; while they don't believe there's a God in the world. Let us hear next what they have to say about Kings. We are shortly to have no more of them, neither below nor above ; Tom Paine having been heard to declare, that when he had made revolutions against the Kings upon Earth, he would try his hand at a Revolution in Heaven! You fee, John, who they are that talk against Kings: they never fail to talk against God Almighty; and in fuch words as the Devils of Hell dare not itter! When they pretend to argue with us, they tell us all Kings are bad; that God never made a King; and that all Kings are very expenfive. But, that all Kings are bad cannot be true; because God himself is one of them; he calls himself A 2 King 1 King of Kings; which not only fhews us he is a King, but that he has other Kings under him: he is never called King of Republics. The Scripture calls Kings, the Lord's Anointed; but who ever heard of an anointed Republic? There are now, Brother John, many thousands of Frenchmen, who have taken to themselves that Power which belonged to their King; where fhall we get oil enough to anoint them all? And what would they be when we had done? They would not be the Lord's Anointed; they would be the Mob's Anointed; and there is little doubt but that, proud as they are at prefent, fomebody will 'noint them well at laft. That God never made a King, is a great lye; when we hear him telling us in his own words-Yet have I fet my King upon my holy Hill of Sion! Did not our Saviour fay he was King of the Jews? and was not he crucified for faying fo? The Jews who crucified him have never had a King of their own from that day to this: not because they diflike a King, but because they are not good enough to have one. They are the only nation upon earth that ever were or ever will be in a ftate of Equality; and it has been a great and mighty work of God to make them fo. No power can make men equals, but that which makes men Kings. And what shall we get by it? We should be juft where the Jews are; a proverb to all Nations; a monument of the Divine wrath; and a disgrace to the world. That Kings are very expenfive things may be true, Brother John; but if Kings keep us from fuch miferies as the want of a King has produced in France, they deserve to be well maintained, let them be who they will. When there is no King, then every man does that which is right in his own eyes; and mind, John, not in the eyes of any body elfe; and you may fee in your Bible, how people were given up to fodomy and murder, and how fixty-five thousand of them presently fell in battle because there was nobody at that time fet over them. Look about you, like a man of sense, and you will foon fee that bad Subjects coft more money than good Kings. Our National Debt, for which we are now paying fuch heavy taxes, was doubled by the troubles in America. Yet those people who fomented and brought thofe burdens upon us, are they that rail most at the expensiveness of our Government, and use it as a handle for overturning it; just like the Devil, who drives men into fin, and then gets them damned for it if he can: and then he is pleased, because he delights to be the author of Mifery; that is his Greatnefs; and fome people have no notion of any other: fo they maffacre poor Priests; rob and plunder their Country |