312 Cruelties in France and Geneva on Account of Religion. ty of Geneva an honour it did not de ferve. They performed Caffandra on my ftage at Ferney agreeable to your talte. The grave and auftere mini-, iters did not dare to appear there, but, they fent their daughters. I faw both A men and women melt into tears; and indeed never was piece fo well per, formed. Afterwards a fupper for 200 fpectators, and a grand ball. This is the manner I have my revenge, as often as I can, of these good people. 3 At Tholoufe they lately hanged one of their preachers: this rendered them a little more gentle. But one of their brethren is juft now broke upon the wheel, being falfely accused of having hanged his fon out of fpite to our holy religion; to which, as fuppofed, the good father fufpected his fon had a fecret inclination.. с ny fuch hardynefs either of the English or others, that fo few perfons, to naked of all provifions and supplies *, fhould undertake fuch an adventure upon a counter-party fo well and abundantly fitted and provided in all points as the Dutch then were. The companies trade to the EaftIndies now began every where to decline. The treaty of 1619 already mentioned, that was intended by K. James to add ftrength and vigour to it, by the unjuft and arbitrary proceedings of the Dutch,proved almost its utter ruin. B By a laufe in the above act, the council of defence were to provide a requifite number of fhips of force of both nations, that were to be employed for the common profit and the common fecurity; but thefe, the Dutch, affuming the fupreme direction, as being poffeffed of the fupreme power, ever turned to their own intereft, for while the joint forces were employed to give the enemy work in one part, the Dutch contrived a private expedition of their own to another, by which the English were always fure to be at half the expence of fubduing the enemy, while the Dutch took care to reap the whole advantage of plundering him. Wearied out, at length, with thefe injuries and severities, the English company abandoned the fpice iflands, one after another, till at length the Dutch engroffed the whole trade to them¡ felves. [To be continued.] Letter from M. Voltaire to M, d'Alem bert, complaining of the Cruelties exer- D Thouloufe, more foolish yet, more fa natic than Geneva, deemed the hanged youth a martyr. They never thought of examining if he had hanged himfelf, according to the pious cuftom of the fage children of Albion: They buried him, however, pompouЛly: The parliament was prefent at the ceremo ny bare-footed. The new faint was invoked: After which, the court, for criminal affairs, by a plurality of voices, eight against fix, fentenced the fa- ! ther to be broke on the wheel. This judgement was fo much the more cahim. He was a good citizen, and a tholic, as there was no proof against prolific father, having had five chil-' dren, including him that was hanged. He bemoaned, in his dying hours, his executed fon; and, under each stroke of the wheel, protefted his own innocence: He cited the parliament to the tribunal of God! E F St Cafle de Ferney, June 29, 1762. My very dear, and very great Philosopher, 10 you have finished the reading of that impertinent little libel, of that impertinent little rogue of a prieft, who has been fo often at my country houfe, and been there made fo much of. The journal of the Encyclopedia, the beft of his works, iswhat preferves that crackling, fritter'ing morfel from starving. Thus you fee, my dear friend, that the Prefbyterians are not a bit better than the Jefuits; and that thefe do not deserve to beg their bread more than the Jafenifts. G All the heretic Cantons, ail Chriftian hearts cry out aloud against this execution! All pronounce us a na tion as barbarous as we are frivolous; that knows how to torture and cut capers-but have forgot how to fight; tholomew to a comic opera; and are that can go from a maflacre of St Barbecome the horror and contempt of all Europe. What an age do we live in! It is the dregs of all ages. What minifters what generals! what nobility what nation! We are immer. fed in debauchery and in infamy; Court and city are all one: Citizens, courtiers, priefts, women, - all are proffitutes. It is a gulph of meanness and preititution! I am forry for it; for we were formed to be agreeable ftage H You have done to the little dirty ci *At the feizure of the English factory, the military ftores there found, were three fwords, two muskets, and half a pound of powder, Account of Periodical Papers. fage-dancers, fitted to divert; but we are now become the poltroon prof. titutes, the fcum of the world. I promife you, my friend, not to go to Geneva, because only fmall fools and petty tyrants dwell there ;-nor to Thoulouse, because they have none but knaves, fools, and fanatics ;-nor to Paris, because, very soon, none but whores, rogues, and beggars will live there.. 313 confidered in their circumstances. War, Luxury, and Extravagance detroy this place. A You know the Jefuits have no longer their colleges, that we are at the eve of banishing them out of the king dom. We begin, though trembling. ly, to fhew our teeth at old Grey Beard of Rome. Send me as foon as you can, your fourth Canto of the Difpenfary. If my Chriftiana appears to you deferving the notice of your glorious piratical gentry, get it tranflated as faithfully as poftible. Adieu ! beftir yourselves, ingrates; praise God for all things; admire Nature; it is the only way I know to live fometimes contentedly. C B For God's fake, and for the fake of that little God Humanity, which still just vegetates, but with little regard, on earth, be pleafed to make as execrable as you can that barbarous and fhocking fanaticism that has condemmed a father for hanging his fon, or that has broke on the wheel an innocent father, by eight rafcally counsel lors and tutors to a king of cards. If I was a minifter of ftate like Rich dieu, I would fend thefe eight affaflins of the Fleur de Lis, attended by all the rabble of Thouloufe, with the parliament in their front and rear, to the Gallies; and there, bare-footed, with torch in hand, they should annually prostitute themselves before the thrine of this innocently executed father, to afk pardon of God, and folemnly implore him, foon or late, to annihilate this curfed and perverse race of Roman Catholicks. Account of Political Papers. Continued from p. 284. HE fine extracts from English hiftofome ry, to prove, that England has fometimes fuffered from fuch minifters as he has fuppofed all favourites to be, in Dhis paper of May 22, (fee p. 269) not, withstanding our limited monarchy, mixed government, and popular freedom. The examples he mentions are thofe of Ethelwolph, whofe favourites were Saithen, bishop of Winchester, and Alfian, bishop of Sherburn; and of Edred, whofe favourite was Dunfan, Abbot of Glafon. As thefe examples may be feen in every hiftory of England, and as it feems wholly unneceffary to prove, that bad men make a bad ufe of power, we fhall make no farther extract from this paper. in E Tell me, prithee, what corps France you defpife the mok. Nota, I just hear from Marfeilles, that a criminal, condemned there for murder, with tears in his eyes, repentance in his looks, and contrition in his heart, has confeffed himself to be the mur iderer of the fon of the Proteftant of Thoulouse, whom the parliament fentenced to the wheel for that crime., F The Monitor of July 10, contains a farther parallel between the prefent time and 1710, when a remarkable change took place in the miniftry of the late Queen Anne; but in this paper the author has forgot or renounced his favourite pofitions about favourites; for he regrets the removal of the Dutchefs of Marlborough, an old more wit, a better stile, or finer ima G and faithful fervant, with whom the gination. Moreover, it is the work of an apoftate Abbe, namely, Laurence; he published, about 18 months fince, a work entitled, The Jefuifticals. He is a poet formed by nature. The other is called Oriental Defpotism, by M. Boulanger. It is a book worthy of a Montefquieu: I know you are acquainted with the editor: The Po.. lice has let lopfe all her furies to discover them, but to no purpose, and I am glad of it, Queen had held a familiar intimacy from their tender years, & who, he fays, had, during all the glorious part of the Queen's reign, maintained fuch an affection and afcendant in the royal beart, as to have the abfolute direction of her Majefty's will and actions both in public Hand private. It inuft follow, therefore, that the favourite of a fovereign is not always a perfon unworthy of favour, and that a fovereign may have a favourite, and yet carry the honour and profperity of his country to their *** Within a month we have had fixty aflaminations, or frightful murders, (GENT. MAG. JULY 1762.) higheit A book lately appears here the moft fingular, and another the most attonithing. The first is an heroic poem, entitled, The broom, or broomstick. Rabelais, Searron, or La Fontaine had not England's fufferings by bad Minifters. 314 highest pitch (fee p. 269.) If the Monitor fhould not be inclined to allow that the Dutchess of Marlborough was worthy of the unlimitted confidence the Queen placed in her, he must admit that the ftate does not neceffarily fuffer even from an unworthy favou- A rite, at least that it will not neceffarily fuffer from a favourite of equal pretenfions with the Dutchefs of Marlbarough... time when, if an infolent mr had dared to have denied that venerable body the privilege of feeing how their own fupplies were laid out, they would have raifed a fpirit that would have made that mr with he had been thrown into the fea with a mill-tone about his neck, before he had prefumed to attempt fo barefaced a violation of that very bafis of liberty, the rights and privileges of the C-s of Great Britain. The PATRIOT, No. III. is intended to prove the Monitor's pofition, that bad favourites will make a bad ufe of power. This writer, who in a former paper had reproved the Auditor for ruthing on through thick and thin to light up a name at mangled afhes, now advifes the Briton to learn the Grammar and idiom of the English language; and having before called the writers he opposes wretches and scoundrels, he declares he will not return low abuse; and therefore concludes his paper only by faying, he deems them a set of mercenary bravoes, who receive wages to fab with their baleful pens the facred reputation of difinterested patriotism. C ments. You may likewife mention, with fome appearance of juftice, his great openness in laying every proceeding before the Hof C-ns; not chufing, like the prefent meek adminiftration, to tell that honourable affembly, that if certain papers were laid before them, they could not understand them : and, Mr Patriot, I myfelf can remember the B You may add, to crown his character, a firm and real attachment, to our prefent virtuous, and amiable fovereign, an attachment not founded on the mean principle of felf-intereft, which would first defervedly draw on himfelf the shafts of public cenfure,and then bafely endeavour to fhelter himfelf from the impending form, by expofing the facred name of his prince, and friend, but rifing from a thorough knowledge of thole merits, which claim the love and affection of a truly grateful people, t D The NORTH BRITON, No. V. contains an account of the peculiar fe licity of a prince and people, rescued from the tyrannous flavery of a court minion, exemplified in the deliverance of England by the noble and manly conduct of Edward the third, who, having fome time endured the infolence and mai-administration of Mortimer, who was countenanced by the widow of his father and predeceffor Edward the IId, at length feized him in the prefence of the Queen-mother, and fent him to the Tower, upon which he called a parliament, and told them, "That though not yet arrived at the age prefcribed by law, yet with the confent of his fubjects, he defigned, for the future, holding the reins of government in his own hand:" The Commons confented, and Mortimer was executed at Tyburn. It is not neceffary farther to reprint from this paper extracts from the History of England. E The PATRIOT, No. IV. contains an ironical encomium on the art of lying, in a letter figned M'Sarcafm; an art, which the writer fays, muit give the Briton and the Auditor great advantages over their antagonists, who trult only in plain truth. What, fays he, can your arguments be in favour of Mr Pitt if they are only dictated by that old fashioned quality called truth? You can fay,to be fure,that your beloved m-r was vigilant in the difcharge of his duty; that he always preferred the real welfare of his country to his own private views; and that he rather chofe to fix upon men to manage under him, that he thought had capacity and honefty enough to be fit for the offices which he committed to their care, than those who would ever be ready to facrifice their own confciences, if they had any, at the fhrine G of that person who has it in his power to bribe them with lucrative employ The NORTH BRITON in No. VI, removes the fears of his countrymen that they will be left to ftand alone in the prefent political fray, by obferving, that all the Englifo minifters, nei Hther have left, nor intend to leave us, Is not the virtuous Mr F, fays he, the darling of the people, ftill very high in office, and in one of the molt lucrative employments the govern ment has to beltow? Does he not privately Characters of two eminent Statesmen. privately affift our Chief with the most falutary counfels? Has he not propofed the most bealing measures? We know that he is ready publickly to ftand forth our champion, and that he has moft explicitly offered us, fome time ago, to speak, or not to speak, in the fenate. Can this part of that great man's conduct be deemed equivocal? It has indeed hitherto been thought advifeable for him to remain filent, and for fome few years his lips have been locked in adamantine filence, from a full conviction of the B rectitude of the public measures. His regard to us, however, we have the firongeft reafon to believe, and we are fecure (unlefs indeed a new change happens) of his effectual support of us, against all his own countrymen, with all his powers of eloquence. What then may we not expect from the vi- C olence and imperuofity of fuch a torrent, which, like a ftream from our Highlands, or from the Alps, after having ftopt for fome years, on a fudden burfts forth again-but I hope not to ruin the country. I am fure this Gentleman will never concurin, much lefs advife, any measures but what D fhall appear to be foothing and conciliating. His tendernese for the constitution, and his affection for the House of Commons in particular, have been fully experienced; nor will he ever defire to have the whip in bis bands to taph into obedience the refractory members. The people of England too will be made happy with the idea of power being lodged in his hands; and we, North Britons fhall fee with joy und gratitude his 'un wearied endeavours to perfect the noble plan of liberty delivered down to us from our Scottish ancestors. There is likewife another Gentleman, whom by the most amiable arts, which would do us honour, were they known to the world, we have entirely fecured. This Gentleman has already purned at all obligations, and has broke through whatever would haye engaged every other man, facrificing every focial and friendly tie, to cement the union with us. His zeal has been demonstrated on many late occafions; and in a great affembly if he has failed to perfuade, he has never failed to weary out the adversary, and to fink him into a deadly laffitude, perhaps a lethargy. How moft fervently have all parties concurred in withing him in a certain chair? We have the more obligations to this Gen 315 tleman for taking the feals, because he is not the child of ambition, nor is his great foul tainted with for did avarice. That is only the vice of reptile and groveling minds. Though he has left the naval department, he has not, AI trust, left behind him all attention to that moft important bufinefs. I hope he will think of fome other re gulations to prevent the late almost incredible defertion of feamen from the royal navy, which his new regulations (fo applauded by Boscawen and our other great fea-officers and fo grateful to all our commanders) were intended to prevent. Thefe are the two illuftrious perfo nages on the part of England, who fup. port our Scottish chief How nobly confpicuous in both is the amiable franknefs and openness of heart of the Englife nation! I only name these two, for the fidelity of others to us is dubious and fufpected. Some have already begun to calumniate our patron, and even talk of retaliating our own arts upon us. The BRITON, No. VI. contains a letter to Lord Bute, in which, the writer obferves, that the writers against him having found his character proof against all their malice, have directed their batteries against his country, by which it is impoffible he fhould be hurt. The writer, then proceeds to remark, that the calamities effential to war have been aggravated during that in which we are now engaged, by the injudicious manner in which it has been carried on. In the profecution of the German war, fays he, fo foreign to our intereft, that all the world, Tooks upon it as an astonishing inftance of F infatuation, Great Britain now expends annually,more than the amount of the whole yearly fupply, which was granted in the reign of Queen Anne, when we fubfidifed almost all the prin ces of Germany, brought above 200,000 men into the field, and maintained a mighty war against Lewis XIV. in the zenith of his power. The mifmanage. ment will appear in ftill more glaring colours, when we confider that near double of the annual fupply then granted, is now added yearly to the national debt; and that the national debt is accumulated to the enormous burden of one hundred and thirty-fix millions. Add to this, the depopulation of the country, the want of hands for agriculture and manufacture, the price of labour fo much enhanced by G the 316 Ill Confequences of the German War. B juftly urge the principles of Humanity against the commencement of any war, as against continuing a war till the ends of war are answered. He feems, however, to think the peace which the late minifter would have made, not eligible; and yet, by a strange inconfiftency, feems to blame him for not concluding it, without even the conceffions he required. The late minister, fays he, left our American colonies unfecured; admitted the enemy to a share of the Newfoundland fishery; refignedour conquefts in Africa and the Weft Indies, in confideration of their evacuating the dominions of our German allies; and, rather than repay about two or three hundred thousand pounds for prizes taken before the declaration of war, from private merchants trading under the faith of treaties; a fum, which was depofited on purpofe to be restored at the peas, chose to pretra& the annual expense of twenty millions, and to expofe his country to the uncertain viciffitudes, and the certain calamities of a dreadful war,'hexampled in the history of former ages. A the continual addition of fresh duties The BRITON, No. VII. containsa fevere cenfure on fome faife; împudent, and infamous infinuations in the North Briton concerning the fate of Mortimer, and a jakication of himfelf against a writer in the Gazet teer, with which the Pablick has no concern. In the fubfequent part of the paper an attempt is made to bá viate two popular objections to peacoa f, That we are bound by treaty with the K-g of P-a to continue the war till he fhall agree to a peace, zdly, That the French will, in another campaign, be reduced fo low, as to accept peace on our own terms. As to the first, he gives it as his opinion, that no nation is bound to keep a treaty longer than it appears to be its intereft to keep it: If fo, he would do well to inform us in fome other paper, what is meant by the words public faith, and how any Gnation can be justly reproached with the want of it. He proceeds, however, upon his principle, and fays, that the only question with regard to the K-g of P-a, is, whether we have more to apprehend from his refentment than we fhall fuffer from his friendship. Should he, fays this writer, seize Hr, as he has already taken poffeffion of Sy, it is the duty, the intereft of the Germanie body to fee justice done to any of its conftituent Among other evil confequences of the war, this writer has thought fit to men. tion our fucceffes; but for this it is not likely he will receive the thanks or approbation of any party either in or E o:it. If our minilters during the courfe of the war had, with this writer, been afraid of the ill confequences of fuccefs, I am afraid we thould have incurred evils of a very different kind, and it is to be hoped, for the fake of our happiness as well as honour, that the prefent adminiftration have no fuch fears, but that the national wealth will be faithfully and vigorously applied, to make new acquifitions by new fucceffes, the purpofe for which alone it is given; for if we are to be preserved by a want of fuccefs, we may be preserved without the effufion of blood and treafare, which is now flowing to procure it. F He regrets, however, that the late minifter did not take New Orleans a few years ago, when it could have made no refiftance, and he hopes we fhall yet attempt it, though it is become a work of more difficulty. He H arges an immediate flop to the war upon principles of humanity, but he hould remember, that he might as |